Pope Francis, while speaking at an anti-abortion conference sponsored by the Vatican on Saturday has condemned the act of abortion likening it to hiring a hit man.
“Is it licit to throw away a life to resolve a problem?” he asked. “Is it licit to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?”
His comments come as the abortion debate is again making headlines in the US with state initiatives seeking to restrict the procedure.
It can be recalled that on Friday, Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed a bill that bans abortions after eight weeks without exemptions for incest or rape. The law also stipulates that doctors who carry out the procedure face jail time in the state.
Governors in Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio have signed anti-abortion laws during the last two months. Nonprofit organisations including Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union are challenging them in courts.
Pope Francis added that abortion is never acceptable even when a mother is carrying a fetus with birth defects or one likely to die soon after birth. He said a human being is “never incompatible with life.”
“Taking care of these children helps parents to grieve and not only think of it as a loss, but as a step on a path taken together,” the pontiff said.
