Pope Francis compares abortion to ‘hiring a hitman to solve a problem’ as he slams laws decriminalising terminations
POPE Francis today compared abortion to hiring a hitman as he lashed out at new laws in his home country.
The Pontiff has backed Argentinian women protesting against abortion being decriminalised, telling them it was like "hiring a killer to solve a problem".
The leader of the Catholic Church is cheering on Argentinian women protesting against a new law decriminalising abortion.
Pope Francis, who is originally from Argentina, has written to protesters opposing legal abortions in the country.
He has told the women that "the country is proud of them" and urged them to keep fighting the new law.
It isn't the first time the religious figure had made dramatic evaluations of abortion.
Speaking at an anti-abortion conference sponsored by the Vatican last year, Francis rhetorically asked his audience whether it was lawful to "hire a hitman to resolve a problem" or to "throw life away".
He has previously compared abortion to the Holocaust.
The women, who live in a shanty town in Buenos Aires, wrote to Francis on November 18, telling him that they first organised their protest in 2018 when abortion legislation was being debated in parliament.
The debate was reignited last week when President Alberto Fernandez presented a bill that would make the procedure "legal, safe and free" for women across the country.
The move prompted the women to claim their voices were being ignored amid the national debate and called on Francis to help them.
In a handwritten response, sent on November 22, Francis wrote: "The problem of abortion is not primarily a question of religion, but of human ethics, first and foremost of any religious denomination.
"It is good to ask two questions: Is it fair to eliminate a human life to solve a problem? Is it right to hire a killer to solve a problem?"
Argentina’s president announced earlier this month that he would present a bill to legalise abortion.
Is it fair to eliminate a human life to solve a problem? Is it right to hire a killer to solve a problem?"
Pope Francis
The bill would save lives by preventing women from resorting to unsafe, clandestine procedures, he said.
Advocates of the bill said getting it passed was an urgent public health matter as official figures suggested illegal abortions were the leading cause of maternal deaths in Argentina.
According to estimates from the health ministry, at least 350,000 illegal abortions were performed in Argentina every year.
Women’s rights groups believe the actual number may be much higher.
The bill has been a long time coming - a near-identical bill was defeated last year, but this included extra safeguards for women seeking an abortion.
Francis's native country currently criminalises abortion except in the case of rape or risk to the mother's health.
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President Fernandez had campaigned on promises he would put forward legislation to legalise it, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the fulfilment of his promise until this month.
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Francis has strongly upheld Catholic doctrine forbidding abortion, denouncing it as part of today's "throwaway culture" that doesn't respect the dignity of the unborn, the weak or elderly.
Despite this, the Pontiff has offered a merciful approach to women who have resorted to abortion, allowing mere priests and not just bishops to absolve them if they seek forgiveness.
