Abortion and Catholic thought. The little-known history
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Seems to imply (as I suspected) that the beliefs have changed over the millennia. Much of it seems to stem from the believe that sexual pleasure was itself sinful.
Odd though, that my impression is that opposition to the right to abortion in the US is largely driven by Protestants. Sounds as if your exact position only really goes back as far as 1974.
The abstract:
So, a few things.
A 'from it's first beginnings' applies to the fetus' life, not the church. I've discussed the changes in the church's teaching in several posts earlier in this thread.
The 'Abstract' you posted from Pub Med is a trite bit of spittle. Given it's incomparably short length and lack of attribution, one cannot be surprised that it is in error.
Here is one snippet of Catholic teaching on this subject
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “Thus the fruit of human generation, from the first moment of its existence, that is to say from the moment the zygote has formed, demands the unconditional respect that is morally due to the human being in his bodily and spiritual totality. The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life.” [Cardinal Ratzinger, CDF, Donum Vitae, I, 1. ]
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “The human being must be respected — as a person — from the very first instant of his existence.” [Ibid.]
John Paul II held the same precept as being true (whereas that abstract says he didn't know - wtf!).
The abstract also so utterly miss understands Aquinas that it's comical. I suspect you are smarter than whoever wrote that so read for yourself if you care:
Aquinas is reflecting on Christ's incarnation, as we are formed in His image, it can be no different for us (expect the being God part).
You can look this stuff up using Vatican sources and from other well respected catholic site if you care. Why accept as fact what Pub Med has to say?
This church is run by humans, how they strayed relative to what Aquinas makes clear is very sadly human. Following the developments of 'science', such as it was until modern times, the church ran down some rabbit holes as well. That has been cleared up, beginning in around the 18th century (IIRC) and has reached maturity.
Anyway, people here don't know from what Catholics derive their understanding of abortion. Instead, the common practise seems to be one of assuming we hate women somehow and want to control their bodies. I would propose another modus operandi of hate at work within abortion proponents as the cause for their positions, but that never goes anywhere.
In addition, people like to propose odd scenarios ('you can only do one') hoping catch me in a lie/contradiction I suppose. I'm not going to answer every corner case folks can conceive of, that not my aim in posting here. I certainly do not have the time to answer every accusation an question posed to me. I'm not trying to 'win', I'm just presenting my position. And, as with anyone here, our consciences are formed by the great influences on the development of our intellect. The fact that mine was heavily influenced by that of the Catholic church makes it no more or less valid than what influenced others, visa-a-vi public discourse. As such, I am not trying to force my religion on other people, I'm an only fighting for my viewpoint to prevail. Who here does elsewise (save shane?, damn can't recall his username).