© Andrew Medichini / APPope Francis speaks with prelates at the Vatican on Saturday, May 25, 2019.
During an audience with participants of a Vatican-sponsored anti-abortion conference, Francis said opposition to abortion isn't a religious issue but a human one: "Is it licit to throw away a life to resolve a problem? Is it licit to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?"
Francis denounced decisions to abort based on prenatal testing, saying a human being is "never incompatible with life." The pope has spoken out strongly against abortion, though he has also expressed sympathy for women who have had them and made it easier for them to be forgiven.
Francis' comments come as several laws passed in the U.S. have severely limited or essentially banned the right to an abortion established in Roe v. Wade. A federal judge in Mississippi on Friday blocked a state law that prohibited abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, around six weeks into pregnancy.
Three other states - Georgia, Kentucky and Ohio - have passed their own "fetal heartbeat" bills. Last week, Alabama's Gov. Kay Ivey signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Friday signed a law banning abortions at eight weeks. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who ran on an anti-abortion rights platform, has said he will sign his state's fetal heartbeat bill.
None of those bills are currently in effect. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood on Friday filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama's near-total abortion ban, and the ACLU challenged Ohio's bill last week. Kentucky's fetal heartbeat bill has been blocked by a federal judge.
For a 12-year-old to be raped by her father and become pregnant cannot be condoned. But it happens.
For a white woman, mother of her own children, to be raped by six black men and become pregnant, cannot be condoned. But it happens.
Abortion cannot be condoned. But it happens.
The Catholic Church needs to realize that it exists in a depraved world, and making one-size-fits-all hard-and-fast rules is stupid. Many things happen that cannot be condoned. Sometimes the best solution to a tragic event is something else that also cannot be condoned. Molestation of altar boys by priests cannot be condoned. But that happens too. Should the ordination of priests be banned because of that? It would mean the end of the Church.
Pope Francis means well, no doubt. But he needs to wake up and smell the coffee, and not forbid things which in some cases are the best solution to an unfortunate event which itself cannot be condoned.