PRI The World: Why Texas May Become a Blue State

[Fawke Em]

35. The Catholic Church was fine with abortion

as long as it was performed before quickening or ensoulment:

It was commonly held, even by Christians, that a human being did not come into existence as such immediately on conception, but only some weeks later. This view was strongly expressed by Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109), who said that "no human intellect accepts the view that an infant has the rational soul from the moment of conception."[14] In that view, early abortion was not homicide, the killing of a human being. A few decades after the death of Anselm, this became part of Catholic canon law in the Decretum Gratiani, which stated that "he is not a murderer who brings about abortion before the soul is in the body."[14] While not classified as homicide, early abortion was considered gravely wrong: Thomas Aquinas, who accepted Aristotle's theory that a human soul was infused only after 40 days for a male fetus, 60 days for a female, saw abortion of an unsouled fetus as a sin against marriage.[14] He wrote: "This sin, although grave and to be reckoned among misdeeds and against nature...is something less than homicide... nor is such to be judged irregular[15] unless one procures the abortion of an already formed fetus."[16]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_abortion