# What date did anti-abortion become a major Christian/Catholic issue?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-date-did-anti-abortion-become-a-major-christian-catholic-issue/464500>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 21, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-date-did-anti-abortion-become-a-major-christian-catholic-issue/464500 "2008-09-21T00:13:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-date-did-anti-abortion-become-a-major-christian-catholic-issue/464500/41 "2008-09-21T18:59:36Z")

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It might also be noted that the Roman Catholic Church currently considers capital punishment to be exactly as serious an issue (in fact, the same issue) as abortion. So if there existed any decree against politicians who are permissive of abortion, the same decree would also apply against politicians who are permissive of the death penalty.

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**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-date-did-anti-abortion-become-a-major-christian-catholic-issue/464500/42 "2008-09-21T19:11:20Z")

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Thanks **tomndebb**. I guess a dispensation from a bishop is enough for a cleric to run for office.

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-date-did-anti-abortion-become-a-major-christian-catholic-issue/464500/43 "2008-09-22T15:03:07Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> It might also be noted that the Roman Catholic Church currently considers capital punishment to be exactly as serious an issue (in fact, the same issue) as abortion.

It doesn’t, actually. A person who procures an abortion receives a latae sententiae excommunication. An executioner doesn’t.

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**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-date-did-anti-abortion-become-a-major-christian-catholic-issue/464500/44 "2008-09-22T15:25:45Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> It might also be noted that the Roman Catholic Church currently considers capital punishment to be exactly as serious an issue (in fact, the same issue) as abortion. So if there existed any decree against politicians who are permissive of abortion, the same decree would also apply against politicians who are permissive of the death penalty.

It might be so noted, if your statement were not absolutely incorrect and unfounded.

RCC Catechism:

> [@](#):
>
> 2267 The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.  
> "If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.  
> "Today, in fact, given the means at the State’s disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender ‘today … are very rare, if not practically non-existent.’ [68]

There is no such leeway on the abortion issue.

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