Tipsheet

NARAL Confused That the Head of the Catholic Church Doesn't Support Abortion

Never change, NARAL.

Yesterday, Pope Francis released an encyclical letter, Laudato Si' ("Be Praised"), which among other things, discussed environmental issues and climate change. It also included a stinging rebuke to environmentalists who think that abortion is a way to help prevent climate change.

Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away”.

This confused the folks over at NARAL, who in 2013 released a very premature thank-you note to the Supreme Pontiff after he encouraged priests to discuss more than just social issues with their congregations.

Apparently, the thought that the head of the Catholic Church would be against abortion is meriting of a "huh?" by NARAL. Spoiler alert: the Church has condemned abortion since the first century A.D. That isn't about to change any time soon.