Father Mark Mason points directly to scripture in punctuating the right to life, particularly the life of the unborn.
It's there in Luke’s gospel, of course, where Luke recounts how Elizabeth’s baby, who would become known as John the Baptist, leapt in her womb at the sound of the greeting from Mary, who is carrying the Messiah, Jesus.
“We must always have dignity and respect for life,” said Father Mason, pastor at Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Enid. “If we truly believe the word of God is divine – if scripture is indeed the divine word of God – we must take it to heart and practice it.
“Not only that, but Saint John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb before the (New) Arc of the Covenant, who is Mary, so our sense of sacredness of life within the womb is deeply rooted in the scripture. Underlining the Church’s opposition to abortion is the principle that every human life has inherent dignity, and thus must be treated with respect.”
Few topics of discussion in society stand as polarizing as abortion.
The Catholic Church has steadily condemned abortion – the purposeful taking of life of an unborn child. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "since the first century, the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is ‘gravely contrary to the moral law.’"
An ongoing theme in today’s culture is the battle between “pro-choice” and “pro-life,” terms used by the two sides of the abortion debate: those who support access to abortion (pro-choice) and those who seek to dissolve it (pro-life). The term “pro-life” began to be used by opponents of legal abortion in the early 1970s, born from the related term “right to life.” The term “pro-choice” was coined in response by abortion rights advocates shortly thereafter.
The Catholic Church has consistently referenced biblical passages and readings when teaching to respect human life from conception.
“The great prophets tell us we are knitted in our mother’s womb, and God has intended purpose for each of us,” said Father Mason. “When we celebrate the birth of Saint John the Baptist and reflect on the readings and the responsorial psalm, we recognize each human being is wonderfully set in the mind of God even before we are created.”
In principle, Catholics tend to believe that all life is sacred from conception until natural death, and the taking of innocent human life, whether born or unborn, is morally wrong. Many, however, weaponize science as an ally for defending “pro-choice” orthodoxy.
“Everyone wants to use science to prove a thing is true. In all actuality, science is merely a tool to help us understand God’s truth,” said Dr. Sarah B. Matousek, a board-certified Oklahoma physician. “Truth is objective, created by God. Truth does not depend on how a scientist interprets data points or on his observations.
“People have become so distant from God they have forgotten this. As a result, they have incorrectly replaced the Author of Truth with the instrument used to understand it. Life certainly begins at conception. This is the truth. Science can help us understand this.”
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 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’ 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.”
Modern science has not changed the Church's consistent teaching against abortion. If anything, science has underscored how important and reasonable it is to value life, by confirming that the life of each individual of the human species begins with the earliest embryo.
“It is obvious to any honest observer that when things go right a newborn baby has life,” Matousek said. “That doesn’t mean things cannot go wrong, but the usual nature is for newborns to be alive. Now we have to ask ourselves about different stages in the development of that baby. What about 36 weeks gestation? Or 20 weeks? Or even eight weeks? Better yet, what about at conception? An honest observer will tell you that from the moment of conception onwards that baby is alive.
“Why? Because at conception, two cells – that alone cannot grow and develop into a person – form a new cell that will grow and develop into a new person. Some may say this new cell isn’t alive because it cannot live on its own outside the womb. That is flawed reasoning because we are trying to impose our thought process and understanding onto God’s work.
“God didn’t create the embryo to live outside the womb. God, in his infinite wisdom, chose to create the embryo to grow and develop inside the mother’s womb. We see this mirrored across all God’s creation with other living creatures. There is a unity of parents, then life is created, and that life must grow and develop before it is ready to stand alone from its parents.”
Just as American adults overall are divided along religious and political lines regarding their attitudes about abortion, so are American Catholic adults.
According to a recent poll conducted by Pew Research Center, approximately three-fourths of U.S. Catholics (76%) say abortion should be illegal in some cases but legal in others. Just one-in-10 say abortion should be illegal in all cases, with no exceptions, while a similar share (13%) take the position that abortion should be legal in all cases, without exceptions.
“Today, many Catholics’ views are not that much different from the culture at-large,” said Father Rick Stansberry, rector at The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and president of Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School in Oklahoma City.
“Many Catholics, even ones that go to church all the time, don’t even consider the Ten Commandments or the Church teachings when making everyday decisions. It seems like some younger people are searching for more concrete answers. Not everything is black and white as you know, but not everything is a shade of gray.
“There is indeed an apparent lack of respect for the Church and many other institutions. Every action has a consequence, and the million dollar question is this: how do we go about bridging the gap with our young people in following the Church’s teachings without completely alienating them?”
According to the Pew Research Center, 7-in-10 Catholics say abortion should be legal if the pregnant woman’s life or health is threatened (69%), and two-thirds say it should be legal if the pregnancy is the result of rape (66%).
At the same time, roughly two-thirds of Catholics say how long a woman has been pregnant should be a factor in determining abortion’s legality (63%), with larger shares opposing abortions in the late stages of a pregnancy than in the early stages.
Most U.S. Catholics who attend Mass regularly oppose legal abortion, while most other Catholics say it should be legal in most or all cases.
“There is actually an easy test to determine when life begins,” said Matousek. “As creatures created by God, we have inherent in our nature a fundamental understanding of truth and the natural law. Ask women who have experienced a miscarriage how they felt. If they are being honest, they will tell you they experienced a sense of loss and sadness.
“Even a woman who loses a child at the earliest stage of pregnancy will tell you this. Now ask women who have had their appendix removed how they felt. You will not get the same answers. Why? Women innately know that their missing appendix is just a group of cells. What is lost during a miscarriage is more than a group of cells. It is a person, and that is why she feels loss and sadness.”
Among Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week, about two-thirds (68%) say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and about half or fewer support exceptions that would make abortion legal in the case of rape (43%) or threats to the life or health of the mother (49%), according to a 2022 Pew Research Center study.
Grief attached to abortion can be crippling, for the potential mothers and fathers, for family members and friends and others, and even extending to those who carry out the procedures.
According to a series on LiveAction.org a former abortionist claims he committed nearly 1,200 abortions via saline — a now mostly-defunct procedure in which the amniotic fluid is removed from the womb and replaced with saline, chemically burning the baby to death in the process.
While the procedures he conducted were decades ago, his regret remains fresh.
“It’s so hard to (witness) abortion survivors knowing that I’m the perpetrator, I’m the evil one,” Dr. Anthony Levatino said.
Live Action has created a platform sharing real stories of women who have had an abortion, and the aftermath they’ve experienced. For those struggling with post-abortive trauma, LiveAction.org has launched a Can’t Stay Silent Campaign committed to sharing the truth about abortion regret and healing.
“It took me 10 years to repent of my abortion,” said a woman named Charlotte. “During that traumatic decade … my first denial stage quickly evolved into unexpressed grief and then into a deep pit of depression and crippling shame.
“Because my abortion was a secret to everyone except my husband, a cluster of normal human emotions began to freeze up inside of me, isolating me emotionally and psychologically from my family and friends.”
“In my 33 years of being a priest there have been many times I have dealt with someone who has had an abortion for a variety of reasons,” Father Stansberry said. “They found themselves in a compromising situation and panicked and felt like that was the only choice, or another party or a parent influences them.
“Within each situation I have encountered, they have all deeply regretted it. The common thread I always hear is the person that got the abortion sees children in their daily life and wonders what the child they aborted would have been like when they grew up. It’s something that is very haunting and never goes away. At the time, they felt as if abortion was the only thing they could do. There are several instances where individuals didn’t realize it was wrong – maybe some being converts to Catholicism – and abortion was an alternative that was presented to them.”
For Catholics, the consequences on a person’s soul are severe.
“The Church states if you participate in any way in an abortion – driving them there or encouraging it – then that is a mortal sin,” said Father Stansberry. “That being said, if any mortal sin is committed, and the person is contrite – they can be forgiven. I almost lost a really good friend debating abortion. Finally, I just said we don’t agree on this – we have been friends too long to have this destroy our friendship.
“Many Catholics nowadays go right along with it, which is disheartening. The term ‘pro-choice’ has overshadowed the fact that this is indeed a human life. People think that it is the woman’s choice, but they are not considering that the choice involves taking a human life.”
Joanna Borelli is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.