Contrary to a very widespread view, the church does not teach that ensoulment happens at conception, and it (therefore) does not base its teaching that direct abortion is immoral on ensoulment at conception. See, for example, Evangelium Vitae (1995), in which Saint John Paul noted that the church condemns abortion notwithstanding debates about “the precise moment of the infusion of the spiritual soul.” The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued similar pronouncements in 1974 and 1987, separating the question whether human lives at the earliest developmental stages have souls (about which the church does not yet have an authoritative teaching) from the question whether it is permissible to act with the purpose of destroying their lives (no).
Those documents noted that the church’s rejection of abortion had been consistent during the last two millennia, contrary to another misconception. Neither incomplete and erroneous understandings of biology nor disputes about ensoulment kept it from condemning abortions, without regard to their timing, as mortal sins. It did, however, maintain lower canonical penalties if the abortion were committed before a fetus was considered to be “animated,” around 40 days after conception.
[Add this to a litany — pun intended! — of other errors in reporting on Catholic doctrine, practice, and history. — Ed]
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