Catholics for Choice

Sin is selfishly taking for yourself something that God does not freely give you. Sin can also be the rejection of something God has given you. You can reject your baptismal gift of sanctifying grace by choosing hell over heaven. You can reject the gift of God’s mercy in the forgiveness of your sins by refusing to repent of them. You can also reject God’s gift of life by using artificial birth control and abortion.

God shared with man a gift that he did not share with any other creature including the angels. When man and woman come together to form a one-flesh union called a child, God infuses into that child a soul that he has known since the beginning of creation. Life does not start at conception. Life manifests itself in time at conception.

The use of artificial birth control is sinful because you are taking the fruits of a sacred act for yourself while denying the potential gifts of that act. Abortion rejects the gift of life that God has given and destroys that which has been created. Abortion is murder for it kills a human being that was created in the image and likeness of God. It kills a human being in the first stages of development. Abortion is the worst kind of murder because it not only kills an innocent life it sacrifices that life to the idol gods of beauty, convenance, irresponsibility, and selfishness.

Catholics cannot support abortion in any way, shape, or fashion. This is a nonnegotiable. Paragraph 2271 and 2271 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church States –

“Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.” – CCC2271

“Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae, by the very commission of the offense, and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.” – CCC2272

And yet over half of those calling themselves Catholic support abortion and believe it should be legal to get one. There is a group that calls themselves Catholics for Choice that supports abortion and a woman’s right to get one. They view abortion as nothing more than reproductive healthcare and not the murder of a child. On their website they state –

“Everyone deserves equal access to the full range of reproductive healthcare services, including safe and legal abortion. The majority of Catholics believe that abortion should be legal. When navigating Catholic teachings on abortion, your conscience is the ultimate authority.”

They further state –

“Moreover, Catholic teachings on abortion have changed over time, indicating that true Catholicism is based on a deep respect for each individual conscience when making moral decisions.”

Regardless of the claims, the Church’s opposition to abortion is not a modern thing. The Didache, also known as The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations, is thought to be the earliest writing we have and is an instruction of the Twelve Apostles. It explicitly condemned abortion. True Catholicism is not based on a deep respect for each individual conscience. It is based solely on the teachings of Christ and how God has made those teachings clearer through time through his Church. Your conscience is never the ultimate authority. Church teaching is. A well-formed conscience is one that knows and understands Church teaching and bases personal decisions upon that teaching. Anytime a person disagrees with Church teaching they actually disagree with Jesus himself.

Catholics for Choice attempts to remove the authority Jesus gave to his Church to guide us in these matters and give that to each individual depending on their own conscience. That is moral relativism. We, as Catholics, must believe all of the teachings of the Church in regards to faith and morals and that includes the teachings on abortion. Abortion is not a matter of personal choice and is a grave sin anywhere and everywhere it happens. It is such a grave sin that it warrants instant excommunication from the Church if someone gets and abortion or directly supports someone who gets an abortion.

Anyone who believes abortion should be legal is not a Catholic no matter what they call themselves. The truth in the matter is that they have separated themselves from the Church by their disagreement with Jesus. Disagreeing with Jesus puts one on the swift road to hell.