🚀 go-pugleaf

from the BASES OF THE SOCIAL CONCEPT OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
http://www.3saints.com/ustav_mp_russ_english.html




XII. 2. Since the ancient time the Church has viewed deliberate abortion
as a grave sin. The canons equate abortion with murder. This assessment
is based on the conviction that the conception of a human being is a
gift of God. Therefore, from the moment of conception any encroachment
on the life of a future human being is criminal.
The Psalmist describes the development of the foetus in a mother's womb
as God's creative action: �thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast
covered me in my mother's womb� My substance was not hid from thee, them
I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest part of the
earth. Thine eyes did see my substance� (Ps. 139:13, 15-16). Job
testifies to the same in the words addressed to God: �thine hands have
made me and fashioned me together round about� Hast thou not poured me
out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin
and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted
me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved by spirit� Thou
brought me forth out of the womb� (Job 10:8-12, 18). �I formed thee in
the belly� and before thou comest out of the womb I sanctified thee�,
says the Lord to the Prophet Jeremiah. �Thou shalt not procure abortion,
nor commit infanticide� � this order is placed among the most important
commandments of God in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, one of the
oldest Christian manuscripts. �A woman who brought on abortion is a
murderer and will give an account to God�, wrote Athenagoras, an
apologist of the 2nd century. �One who will be man is already man�,
argued Tertullian at the turn of the 3d century. �She who purposely
destroys the foetus, shall suffer the punishment of murder� Those who
give drugs for procuring abortion, and those who receive poisons to kill
the foetus, are subjected to the same penalty as murder�, read the 2nd
and 8th rules of St. Basil the Great, included in the Book of Statutes
of the Orthodox Church and confirmed by Canon 91 of the Sixth Ecumenical
Council. At the same time, St. Basil clarifies: �And we pay no attention
to the subtle distinction as to whether the foetus was formed or
unformed�. St. John Chrysostom described those who perform abortion as
�being worse than murderers�.
The Church sees the widely spread and justified abortion in contemporary
society as a threat to the future of humanity and a clear sign of its
moral degradation. It is incompatible to be faithful to the biblical and
patristic teaching that human life is sacred and precious from its
origin and to recognise woman's �free choice� in disposing of the fate
of the foetus. In addition, abortion present a serious threat to the
physical and spiritual health of a mother. The Church has always
considered it her duty to protect the most vulnerable and dependent
human beings, namely, unborn children. Under no circumstances the
Orthodox Church can bless abortion. Without rejecting the women who had
an abortion, the Church calls upon them to repent and to overcome the
destructive consequences of the sin through prayer and penance followed
by participation in the salvific Sacraments. In case of a direct threat
to the life of a mother if her pregnancy continues, especially if she
has other children, it is recommended to be lenient in the pastoral
practice. The woman who interrupted pregnancy in this situation shall
not be excluded from the Eucharistic communion with the Church provided
that she has fulfilled the canon of Penance assigned by the priest who
takes her confession. The struggle with abortion, to which women
sometimes have to resort because of abject poverty and helplessness,
demands that the Church and society work out effective measures to
protect motherhood and to create conditions for the adoption of the
children whose mothers cannot raise them on their own for some reason.
Responsibility for the sin of the murder of the unborn child should be
borne, along with the mother, by the father if he gave his consent to
the abortion. If a wife had an abortion without the consent of her
husband, it may be grounds for divorce (see X. 3). Sin also lies with
the doctor who performed the abortion. The Church calls upon the state
to recognise the right of medics to refuse to procure abortion for the
reasons of conscience. The situation cannot be considered normal where
the legal responsibility of a doctor for the death of a mother is made
incomparably higher than the responsibility for the destruction of the
foetus � the situation that provokes medics and through them patients,
too, to do abortions. The doctor should be utterly responsible in
establishing a diagnosis that can prompt a woman to interrupt her
pregnancy. In doing so, a believing medic should carefully correlate the
clinic indications with the dictates of his Christian conscience.

XII. 3. Among the problems which need a religious and moral assessment
is that of contraception. Some contraceptives have an abortive effect,
interrupting artificially the life of the embryo on the very first
stages of his life. Therefore, the same judgements are applicable to the
use of them as to abortion. But other means, which do not involve
interrupting an already conceived life, cannot be equated with abortion
in the least. In defining their attitude to the non-abortive
contraceptives, Christian spouses should remember that human
reproduction is one of the principal purposes of the divinely
established marital union (see, X. 4). The deliberate refusal of
childbirth on egoistic grounds devalues marriage and is a definite sin.