ABORTION AND CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
(Pamphlet Version)
Rev. Thomas D.
Williams, L.C.
When the 2004 Compendium of the Social
Doctrine of the Church first fell into my hands some months before its
promulgation, one pleasant surprise was the text’s specific treatment and
forthright condemnation of abortion in the context of human rights. The
disconcerting fact is that, more commonly, the topic of abortion is seen as
falling outside the discipline of Catholic Social Doctrine as it is taught in
most seminaries and universities.
In part, this silence stems from the relatively
recent advent of abortion as a large-scale ethical problem. The number of
abortions has risen alarmingly in the past four decades. Therefore the first
mention of abortion in a social encyclical appears only in 1971, in Pope Paul
VI’s Octogesima Adveniens. Here Paul mentions abortion in the context of
Malthusian solutions to the unemployment problem (no. 18).
It was Pope John Paul II who effectively turned
the tide, forcefully introducing abortion into the realm of Catholic social
teaching. In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae he addressed the issue
at great length, placing it in the context of social justice.
Why Abortion Deserves
Special Attention in Catholic Social Teaching
Pope John Paul saw that abortion is an emblematic
and singular socio-ethical problem, deserving central attention in Catholic
social thought. To illustrate the uniqueness of abortion as a matter of social
justice, here are six characteristics distinguishing it from related social
phenomena:
1. Abortion deals specifically with the
destruction of innocent life. This differentiates discussion of abortion
from other related topics. This is why then- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in June
2004 wrote: “There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics
about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to
abortion and euthanasia.” Though all life is precious, moral theology has always
differentiated the destruction of “innocent life” as particularly heinous and
always and everywhere worthy of condemnation.
2. Another factor distinguishing abortion as a
social phenomenon is the sheer magnitude of the problem: an estimated 46
million abortions performed worldwide each year, a figure that alone makes
abortion a social problem of staggering proportions. The volume of abortions
underscores the social nature of the problem, and makes abortion one of the most
serious social justice issues of all time.
3. A third factor separating abortion from other
justice issues is its legal status. Unlike other instances of massive killing of
human life, like terrorism or serial killing, which stand clearly outside the
law in advanced nations, abortion enjoys legal sanction. Pope John Paul
wrote of the novelty of such “scientifically and systematically programmed
threats” (Evangelium Vitae, no. 17).
4. A fourth distinguishing aspect of abortion is
its arbitrary division of human beings into those worthy of life and those
unworthy. Abortion deals not with the random killing of unrelated individuals,
but with the circumscription of an entire class of human beings (the
unborn) as non-persons, excluded from the basic rights and protections accorded
to all other human beings.
If human dignity depends on anything other than
simple membership in the human race—be it intelligence, athletic ability, social
status, race, age, or health—we immediately find ourselves having to distinguish
between persons who count and those who don’t.
5. Abortion even distinguishes itself from
related questions of medical ethics, such as euthanasia and assisted suicide, by
the absence of any possibility of informed consent. The status of the
unborn as voiceless and most vulnerable adds a further dimension to discussions
of the morality and gravity of abortion. Here the bioethical category of
“autonomy” cannot be applied, since unborn children have no way of speaking for
themselves.
6. Finally, abortion differs from other major social ills such as unemployment
and divorce because of its relative invisibility. Abortion takes place
behind closed doors, and is hushed in public. As in the case of slavery, ending
the social injustice of abortion relies mainly on the courage and willingness of
persons and institutions not directly involved in abortion to speak out.
Catholic Social Thought’s
Specific Contribution to the Abortion Question
Catholic social thought offers two distinctive
elements to the abortion debate. First, it lays a bridge between moral theology
and public discourse. Catholic Social Teaching often employs a natural-law
vocabulary directed to all persons of good will, and frames its arguments using
accessible concepts and constructions that can be brought to bear on moral
discourse in a non-confessional environment.
Second, perhaps more than any institution in the
world, the Church in its social teaching has developed a series of principles
to address the complex moral questions in the social order. As new
situations have arisen from the rapidly changing socio-political landscape, the
Church has shown admirable elasticity in accommodating new states of affairs
while ever defending the essential dignity of the person and the family. Just as
a mother or father dedicates a disproportionate amount of time and energy to a
child who is sick, without for that reason loving their other children any less,
Christians are called to focus their efforts preferentially toward the most
needy and defenseless among us. Applying this principle to contemporary
society, the social injustice that most cries out to Christian conscience, for
the reasons we saw earlier, is the deliberate and massive attack on the most
vulnerable members of society, the unborn.
In its venerable tradition of standing up for
society’s most defenseless members, the Catholic Church is uniquely qualified to
speak out authoritatively on the abortion issue. This, as John Paul the Great so
clearly taught, is the number one priority for Catholic social thought
today—which must inevitably be expressed not only as social thought, but
as social action.
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Father
Thomas D. Williams L.C. is Dean of Theology and professor of Catholic
Social Doctrine at Rome’s Regina Apostolorum University and author of, most
recently, Spiritual Progress: Becoming the Christian You Want to Be (New
York: Hachette, 2007).
The
full-length version of this article is posted at
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/programs/rlp.williams.pdf
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