As various societies around the world began legalizing abortive procedures or liberalizing government stances on abortion, the Roman Catholic Church’s leaders felt the need to respond to these changes by clarifying the Church’s position on procured
Pope Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, marked his contribution to the abortion debate by removing the distinction between an “animated” and “unanimated” fetus from
Pope Pius XII was born Eugenio Maria Giuseppi Giovanni Pacelli on 2 March 1876 in Rome, Italy, to Virginia and Filippo Pacelli. Known for his oft-disputed role in the
Known for dropping a long-held distinction in the
Born on 24 March 1890 in Marlborough, Massachusetts, to Ann and Frank Rock, John Charles Rock was both a devout Catholic and one of the leading investigators involved in the development of the first
Pope Gregory XIV, born Nicolo Sfondrati, reversed the bull of Pope Sixtus V, Effraenatum, under which an abortion at any time of
Pope John Paul II’s views on abortion and embryology have been very influential to the Roman Catholic Church. He strictly forbade
Widely known as a key contributor to the Roman Catholic Church’s body of doctrine, St. Thomas Aquinas also published an opinion on the moral status of embryos and fetuses that seems contradictory to the
“Casti Connubii,” a papal encyclical given by Pope Pius XI on 31 December 1930, served primarily as a reaffirmation and expansion of the issues discussed in Arcanum, an encyclical written by
