The Catholic Church believes that abortion is bad in every way, shape and form and under any circumstances! They believe that every unborn child is worthy of having a right to life. Even as a tiny embryo, it is beginning the human life and they believe that life is Gods gift. Even the apostles, the very first followers of Jesus, wrote in the Didache, the book that the apostles wrote, ‘you shall not kill by abortion the fruit of the womb.’
There is one circumstance that the Catholic Church would find abortion acceptable. This circumstance is where the mother of the child is threatened and endangered. In this case, a procedure would be held to save the mothers life, even if the unborn child was killed. This is called the ‘double effect’ because there are two effects to this. One being the mother’s life is saved if the procedure goes well; also the unborn child is killed. But the important thing to remember is that the killing of the unborn child is a side affect and not the main aim of the operation.
Not all Christians have the same view about abortion. There are some other Christian denominations that think differently but also the same sort of aim. There are the Baptists. They believe that human life is sacred. They believe that yes, life is a god given gift, but, they do believe that in some circumstances that in relationships were there is bad parenting and upbringing; they believe that maybe abortion is the lesser of the two evils. They do believe also that human life begins very early on in conception. But they also believe that the mothers welfare is sometimes more important that those of the unborn child. This is because the mother has already built relationships with others and that the suffering or death of the mother would be more hurtful than those of the suffering or death of the poetus. They also want the law to be changed about the age of an abortion lowered from 24 weeks.
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The affects that Catholic beliefs about abortion would have on the personal life of a Catholic are that there could be difficulties in relationships whereby a divorce could have happened or that they could join a pro-life organisation which would mean that there could be other means of going about abortion.
The affects that the beliefs of a catholic may invoke on the organisations that they join are that if they joined SPUC (Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child) is that they are non religious and Pro-life. This means that even though they aren’t catholic; they still give all of the choices to the needing mother. The way that Catholics put their beliefs into practice in the work that they do for such an organisation is that they can tell others about the different options and encourage them to make the right decision. They can also give money because they know that the money they give will go towards all of the different types of choice that women have around abortion.
Catholic beliefs about abortion affect the lives of Catholics in many ways. Abortion is wrong in any catholic belief whether strong or feeble. It isn’t much different to killing your child when they are outside of the womb to Catholics.
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Some arguments that some Christians use to explain why they believe that abortion should be allowed for rape and serious handicap but not for anything else are that it would be unfair because it would either never know the dad or if they did they would most likely hate them. Another reason is that it would have been created in a very violent manner and to know that you were brutally forced to be born is not a very good thing to hear. On the mothers’ side of the rape, she would be scarred for life with the horrible memory of the rape and could be reminded every time she looks at her child. In the case of serious handicap, the child could be in serious pain and it would be unfair to keep it in the suffering and torment of extreme pain. Again for the parents it would be a daunting and hard thing to face everyday to see their child in pain 24/7.
Some arguments that the Catholic Church uses to explain why they believe that abortion should not be allowed under any circumstances, even in the case of rape and serious handicap are that every child has a chance of life! Also nobody knows what they are thinking exactly so people could think that they were in extreme pain when they could just be really happy! Every child was made in the image and likeness of God! Every child is loved and cherished by God so as the bible says, we should love one another as we would like to be treated! As for rape, it isn’t the child’s fault that their mother was brutally forced to conceive them! Again, every child is loved and cherished no matter what they have been through, or haven’t in some cases. There are always other options such as, fostering and adoption.
I believe that the true Christian view that the Catholic Church should have is that abortion should not be allowed under any circumstances, even in the case of rape and serious handicap because all of the arguments that have been given over the years about the banning of abortion completely outweigh those of the arguments for abortion. The fact that every human life is sacred is the main one and if a catholic does not believe this then they are not a true catholic. As explained earlier, there are other options such as fostering and adoption. These could be the option that those wanting an abortion could choose. Because aborting a human life so early on is completely unacceptable! What has the child done wrong so far? If a child has a disability then they have a disability. To be honest, im sure we’d all love our parents the same (if not more) if they had a disability!
Overall I believe abortion is wrong and cruel and should be banned completely unless in the case of the principle of the double effect. There are ways around the problem of not wanting to have a baby. Yes these sometimes can be hard but it is a lot better than killing an unborn child that has done nothing wrong.
