Roman Catholicism and abortion access

[Lordquinton]

http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_hist.htm

St. Augustine (354-430 CE) reversed centuries of Christian teaching in Western Europe, by returning to the Aristotelian Pagan concept of "delayed ensoulment." He wrote 7 that a human soul cannot live in an unformed body. Thus, early in pregnancy, an abortion is not murder because no soul is destroyed (or, more accurately, only a vegetable or animal soul is terminated). He wrote extensively on sexual matters, teaching that the original sin of Adam and Eve are passed to each successive generation through the pleasure generated during sexual intercourse. This passed into the church's canon law. Only abortion of a more fully developed "fetus animatus" (animated fetus) was punished as murder.
.....
Leo XIII (1878-1903):

●He issued a decree in 1884 that prohibited craniotomies. This is an unusual form of abortion used late in pregnancy and is occasionally needed to save the life of the pregnant woman.

●He issued a second decree in 1886 that prohibited all procedures that directly killed the fetus, even if done to save the woman's life. The tolerant approach to abortion which had prevailed in the Roman Catholic Church for previous centuries ended. The church required excommunication for abortions at any stage of pregnancy. This position has continued to the present time and forms a main component of the Church's "Culture of Life." Unfortunately, it can result in the avoidable death of both the fetus and the pregnant woman, as almost happened during 2009 at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ.

[trotsky]

1. "even if done to save the woman's life"

As noted, even if it means you lose BOTH the woman and the fetus you were "trying" to protect. Assholes.

[Lordquinton]

2. does not acting to save someones life

Make you just as guilty?

[trotsky]

3. Not when you have the LORD on your side.

And they had other ways of knowing that they did.