The morality of abortion is not up for vote. Abortion is an intrinsically evil act. Moreover, the Roman Catholic Church consistently has condemned abortion — the direct and purposeful taking of the life of the innocent unborn child. In principle, we believe that all human life is sacred from conception until natural death, and the taking of innocent human life, whether born or unborn, is morally wrong. The church teaches, “Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: No one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being” (“Donum Vitae,” 5).
Roots in the Old Testament
Our respect for the sacredness of life in the womb originates in our Jewish roots. The Jews of the Old Testament were surrounded by cultures where infanticide, infant sacrifice and abortion were not uncommon, and in some cases prevalent. For the Jewish people of those times and orthodox Jews to this day, God is the author of all human life, and His creative power produces the child in the mother’s womb and brings it step-by-step to birth. The Old Testament provides clear evidence to this belief: Moses proclaimed, “When you hearken to the voice of the Lord, your God, all these blessings will come upon you and overwhelm you: May you be blessed in the city, and blessed in the country. Blessed be the fruit of your womb” (Dt 28:2-6). The angel told the mother of Sampson, “As for the son you will conceive and bear, no razor shall touch his head, for this boy is to be consecrated to God from the womb” (Jgs 13:5). Job stated, “Did not He who made me in the womb make him? Did not the same One fashion us before our birth?” (Jb 31:15). In Psalm 139:13, we pray, “Truly You have formed my inmost being; You knit me in my mother’s womb.”
The Old Testament also testifies how God had specially marked individuals from the very first moment of their lives: “Beloved of his people, dear to his Maker, dedicated from his mother’s womb, consecrated to the Lord as a prophet, was Samuel, the judge and priest” (Sir 46:13). The prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “Hear me, Oh coastlands, listen, oh distant peoples. The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb He gave me my name. … For now the Lord has spoken who formed me as His servant from the womb, that Jacob may be brought back to Him and Israel gathered to Him, and I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God is now my strength” (Is 49:1-5). Likewise, the prophet Jeremiah recalled, “The word of the Lord came to me thus: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you” (Jer 1:4-5).
Early Christians defended life
The Greco-Roman world at the time of Our Lord and in which Christianity grew permitted abortion and infanticide. In Roman law, the two acts were really not distinguished because an infant did not have legal status until accepted by the paterfamilias, the head of the family; until accepted, the infant was a non-person who could be destroyed. In some parts of the Roman Empire, contraception, abortion and infanticide were so prevalent that reproduction rates were below the zero-growth level.
Nevertheless, the Christians upheld the sanctity of the life of the unborn child, not only because of the Old Testament revelation as cited but also because of the mystery of the Incarnation. The Christians believed that Mary had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through her, Jesus Christ — second person of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father, and true God — became also true man. No faithful Christian would ever deny that Jesus was a true person whose life was sacred from the first moment of His conception. Moreover, we also believe that our Blessed Mother, from the moment of her immaculate conception, was conceived without the stain of original sin, a dogma that also attests to her personhood from the very first moment of life.
The story of the visitation underscores the sanctity of life in the womb and the personhood of the unborn child: “Thereupon Mary set out, proceeding in haste into the hill country to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out in a loud voice: ‘Blest are you among women and blest is the fruit of your womb. But who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby leapt in my womb for joy. Blest is she who trusted that the Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled’” (Lk 1:39-45). Would anyone dare deny that St. John the Baptist and Our Lord Himself were not persons worthy of life?
Given the revelation of the Old and New Testaments, with special emphasis on the mystery of the Incarnation, the Roman Catholic Church has consistently condemned the practice of abortion. Several examples of teaching that span the first 300 years of our church include the following: The Didache (The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles) (c. A.D. 80) asserted, “You shall not procure abortion. You shall not destroy the newborn child.” The Epistle of Barnabas (A.D. 138) also condemned abortion. Athenagoras (A.D. 177) in his A Plea on Behalf of Christians (a defense against paganism) emphasized that Christians consider as murderers those women who take medicines to procure an abortion; he condemns the killer of children, including those still living in their mother’s womb, “where they are already the object of the care of divine providence.” Tertullian, (A.D. 197) in his Apologeticum, likewise asserted, “To prevent birth is anticipated murder; it makes little difference whether one destroys a life already born or does away with it in its nascent stage. The one who will be man is already one.” In the year 300, the Council of Elvira, a local church council in Spain, passed specific legislation condemning abortion (Canon 63).
After the legalization of Christianity in A.D. 313, the condemnation against abortion remained. For instance, St. Basil in a letter to Bishop Amphilochius (A.D. 374) clearly pronounced the church’s teaching: “A woman who has deliberately destroyed a fetus must pay the penalty for murder”; and “Those also who give drugs causing abortions are murderers themselves, as well as those who receive the poison (that) kills the fetus.”
While many other examples could be offered, the key point is that the Roman Catholic Church from the beginning has consistently upheld the sanctity of the life of the unborn child and condemned the act of direct abortion. To oppose this teaching contradicts the revelation of Sacred Scripture and Christian tradition. As we celebrate the Year of Faith marking the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, we must remember the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World (“Gaudium et Spes”) declared, “Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: Abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes” (No. 51). Since the council, this teaching has been repeated numerous times by the Holy Fathers, especially in response to the legalization of abortion.
With all of the unpleasantness surrounding this past fall’s election, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput courageously provided the following insights at an interview Oct. 20, 2012: “Church teaching requires absolute adherence on the part of Catholic voters, who must stand united. (Abortion) really is a big issue today, and I think what it requires is a loyalty to the church prior to their political party. We’re Catholics before we’re Democrats. We’re Catholics before we’re Republicans. We’re even Catholics before we’re Americans, because we know that God has a demand on us prior to any government demand on us. And this has been the story of the martyrs through the centuries. That doesn’t mean we’re not being good citizens because being good citizens means giving God His rights prior to the government making its claim upon us.”
As we mark the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, so lauded by the misguided, Catholics must be the voice of not only the 55.5 million innocent children who have been murdered but also the injured mothers who suffer silently. Catholics must uphold the truth, because only truth conquers evil and reconciles sinners with God. As Pope Benedict has said repeatedly, we must be the present day martyrs, witnesses of the truth.