Pope Francis refuses to call an unborn baby a 'person'
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has refused to call an unborn baby a person, stating that whilst “there is a living human being” inside the mother’s womb, he would nevertheless not refer to the “human being” as “a person, because this is debated.”
The 85-year-old Pontiff made the comments in an exclusive interview granted to dissident Jesuit-run America Magazine. Speaking to five reporters from America, the Pope fielded a number of questions, including those on abortion and the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Gloria Purvis, host of the America-backed Gloria Purvis Podcast, asked the Pope how abortion “still seems to plague the church in the sense that it separates us.”
“Should the bishops prioritize abortion in relation to other social justice issues?,” Purvis questioned, referring to the U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops recent statement that abortion remained the “preeminent” issue for the 2024 elections.
In response, Francis stated that he would mention aspects “which I’ve said before.” Replying to Purvis, Francis declared that “in any book of embryology it is said that shortly before one month after conception the organs and the DNA are already delineated in the tiny fetus, before the mother even becomes aware. Therefore, there is a living human being.”
The Pope expressly shied away from referring to the unborn baby as a person, however, arguing that such a statement “is debated.” He said:
I do not say a person, because this is debated, but a living human being.
Continuing, he repeated his previous description of abortion as hiring a “hit man,” while also appearing to undermine the gravity of the sin of abortion, by referring to the need for addressing the “pastoral dimension” of every case.
And I raise two questions: Is it right to get rid of a human being to resolve a problem? Second question: Is it right to hire a “hit man” to resolve a problem? The problem arises when this reality of killing a human being is transformed into a political question, or when a pastor of the church uses political categories.
Each time a problem loses the pastoral dimension (pastoralidad), that problem becomes a political problem and becomes more political than pastoral. I mean, let no one hijack this truth, which is universal. It does not belong to one party or another. It is universal. When I see a problem like this one, which is a crime, become strongly, intensely political, there is a failure of pastoral care in approaching this problem. Whether in this question of abortion, or in other problems, one cannot lose sight of the pastoral dimension: A bishop is a pastor, a diocese is the holy people of God with their pastor. We cannot deal with [abortion] as if it is only a civil matter.
Francis’ words and Catholic teaching on the unborn
The argument that an unborn baby is a human being, but not a person, is widely used by the pro-abortion movement to defend the promulgation of abortion.
However, such a position – as espoused by the Pope – runs directly contrary to Catholic teaching on abortion and the sanctity of human life. The Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) wrote against such a view in its 1974 document, “Declaration on Procured Abortion.”
The CDF clearly identified an unborn baby as a “person,” noting that for all persons, there is “a certain number of rights which society is not in a position to grant since these rights precede society.”
The first among these rights is the right to life, wrote the CDF: “The first right of the human person is his life.”
Furthermore, the CDF taught that there could not be any distinction based on different stages of life, since a “person” has a “right to life” which is “no less to be respected in the small infant just born than in the mature person.”
The CDF also rejected the argument that an unborn baby is not a person, demonstrating that to express such a doubt was not in the realm of correct reasoning: “From a moral point of view this is certain: even if a doubt existed concerning whether the fruit of conception is already a human person, it is objectively a grave sin to dare to risk murder.”
“Respect for human life is not just a Christian obligation,” added the CDF. “Human reason is sufficient to impose it on the basis of the analysis of what a human person is and should be.”
Such teaching, defending the unborn baby’s personhood, is also maintained in the USCCB’s document briefly compiling the Church’s teaching regarding abortion. That fact sheet, drawing on the CDF’s 1974 document, clearly equates “every human life” with a “human person.”
The USCCB states:
Given the scientific fact that a human life begins at conception, the only moral norm needed to understand the Church’s opposition to abortion is the principle that each and every human life has inherent dignity, and thus must be treated with the respect due to a human person. This is the foundation for the Church’s social doctrine, including its teachings on war, the use of capital punishment, euthanasia, health care, poverty and immigration.
Conversely, to claim that some live human beings do not deserve respect or should not be treated as “persons” (based on changeable factors such as age, condition, location, or lack of mental or physical abilities) is to deny the very idea of inherent human rights. Such a claim undermines respect for the lives of many vulnerable people before and after birth.