Interviewed yesterday as he flew back from Mexico on how to combat the Zika epidemic, Pope Francis declared that “abortion is not a minor evil, it is a crime”, whereas “avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil”. He added that “Don’t confuse the evil of avoiding pregnancy by itself, with abortion. Abortion is not a theological problem. It is a human problem. It is a medical problem. You kill one person to save another. It is an evil in and of itself but it is not a religious evil, no, it’s a human evil”.
On Tuesday, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican representative at the United Nations, was interviewed at the UN Head Office. He reminded people in a press release of the “Holy See’s deep concern by the recent call by some government officials as well as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, for the liberalisation of abortion and access to contraceptives throughout the region”.
AFP (18/02/2016)