Abortion is a much debated and controversial topic. What is the teaching of the Catholic church on the matter?

Definition

Abortion is the ejection of an immature and non-viable foetus from the womb of a woman. When this happens naturally there can be no grounds for any sort of moral judgement. Where the abortion is 'procured' that is, done directly or caused to happen, then, the Catholic Church says that, a grave moral wrong is committed.

History

From the earliest times the Church has condemned abortion. One of the earliest statements condemning abortion is recorded in a document called the Didache, written in the 2nd century A.D. According to it: "You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish".

The teaching has been repeated through the centuries and as early as the 4th century the Church made abortion a crime with its own proper penalties. In the 16th century, Popes Sixtus V and Gregory XIV said that causing or having an abortion means that the guilty person is automatically excommunicated (cut off from the Church). This position is clearly stated again in the Church's own collection of laws (the Code of Canon Law, 1983): "A person who actually procures an abortion incurs automatic excommunication" (Canon 1398).

Why?

The Church says that human life begins when the woman's egg is fertilized by a male sperm. From that moment a unique life begins, altogether different from the life of the mother and of the father. The features which distinguish it from it’s parents - the colour of the eyes, the shape of the face, etc. - are all laid down in the "genetic code" that comes into existence then. Each new life that begins at this point is not a potential human being but a human being with potential. No one can point to the twelfth day or the fourth week or any other time and say, "This is when I began being me." The process of life begins at conception while birth is only the end point of the life within the womb of the mother.
 
The right to life

The Catholic Church takes a stand against all practices that degrade human rights and dignity. It’s opposition to abortion comes from a recognition of the basic rights of all individuals. These individuals include the unborn, who have their own due importance. They also have rights which cannot be taken away from them. One such right is the right to life.  

The 'Catechism of the Catholic Church' (1992) states that the embryo must be treated from conception as a person (n. 2274) and it stresses that the inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation.

The Catechism quotes from the document 'Donum Vitae' ('The gift of life') from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the office that deals with matters of faith and morals). That document says: "The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by the society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the persons by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life ... from the moment of conception until death."

In other words, a person does not have a right to life because someone gives him/her that right. The person has the right to live because he/she is a human being, and a human being from the moment of conception. As no-one can give him/her that right, no-one can take it away also. 

The same argument applies in the case of euthanasia. Nobody has the right to take away the gift of life from an old or sick person, even if that person appears to have given consent or expressed a desire to be put to death. The Church says that "ordinary" means of preserving life should be used in the case of irreversibly or terminally ill people, but "extraordinary" means are not demanded. This is especially true when treatment may be difficult or painful and have no lasting effect.

In other words, if a person is clearly soon going to die, medical care may be withdrawn and that person be allowed to die naturally. In all cases, treatment for pain relief should be given, since this is considered as "ordinary". Food and water are not medical treatment and withdrawing them from a terminally ill person is wrong and actually causes death.

Recent formal teaching of the Pope

In 1995, Pope John Paul II wrote an encyclical letter (a teaching letter to the whole Catholic Church) called 'Evangelium Vitae' (Latin for 'The Gospel of Life'). In that he deals with three major 'life' issues, abortion, euthanasia and the destruction of human embryos in medical research. He also touches briefly on issues like suicide and the death penalty. The letter repeats very clearly the Catholic Church's position on abortion.  

The basic principle stated is: "I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral" (EV n. 57). This principle applies to all the aforesaid cases. The principle admits that accidental and even indirect killing is not always wrong, and that legitimate self-defense can sometimes cause death.

The Pope calls abortion murder, saying that we need now more than ever to have the courage to look things in the eye and call things by their proper name. He acknowledges the tragedy that abortion can often be for the mother, and the emotional suffering it might cause her. The decision is often not made for selfish reasons, but to protect things like her own health or the living standards of the rest of the family. Sometimes there is a fear that the conditions into which the child is to be born are so bad that it is better that the child is not born. Nevertheless, these reasons and others like them, however serious and tragic, can never justify the deliberate killing of an innocent human being (EV n. 58).