Papal spokesman clarifies statement on 'therapeutic' abortion
April 24, 2009
Prompted by a query from the LifeSite News service, Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, has issued a clarification of a statement that he released during Pope Benedict's March visit to Africa. In that earlier statement Father Lombardi said that the Holy Father did not condemn "therapeutic" abortion when he decried the idea that "termination of life is a matter of reproductive health." The papal spokesman told LifeSite News: "To avoid further confusion, like that which had occurred a few days earlier on condoms, the next day I explained that the Pope in his speech had referred to the issue of abortion as a method of birth control in the form of maternal and reproductive health." Pro-life leaders were dismayed by Father Lombardi's statement because it could be interpreted as suggested that abortion can be justified in some "therapeutic" circumstances-- a concern that has been heightened by the recent controversy in Brazil over the abortion performed for a 9-year-old girl pregnant with twins.
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