In this part of the essay I will be stating the catholic and biblical views on abortion.

The Catholic Church teaches that life begins at conception and they believe that abortion is always wrong to kill an unborn child. They believe that it is sacred human life and has the same respect as any other human being. If a woman is raped and pregnancy is a result the Catholic Church would still not support an abortion, they say the child should not have to pay the price for someone else’s crime. If the worst comes from the birth then the church encourages the woman to put the child up for adoption than to abort it. However there are few exceptions to an abortion such as an ectopic pregnancy or if the mother develops cancer. These cases kill the mother if not treated but kill the baby if untreated; Catholics call this the doctrine of double effect, this means that the aim of removing the fallopian tube is to save the mother’s life and not to kill the foetus, this is the same with chemotherapy, it is given to save the mother not kill the foetus, therefore the death of the foetus is unintended.

The second century document, The Didache, says ‘You shall not kill by abortion the fruit of the womb’.

However protestant religions have exactly the same views as Catholics, that all abortion is wrong because from the moment of conception the foetuses life is sacred. They say abortion is the same as murder even if the child has not been born yet.

On the other hand some Christians believe that abortion is discouraged not banned. They believe that in certain cases abortion is morally justifiable, also the Church of England view is that abortion is not generally acceptable but that each case is special, for instance when there is a risk to the woman’s life or when a woman has been raped.