German bishop condemns women’s group for pushing abortion in Catholic hospitals

(LifeSiteNews) — A German bishop and a Catholic women’s lay organization have slammed the Catholic Women’s Association of Germany for demanding access to abortion in Catholic hospitals.

As LifeSiteNews reported last week, the Catholic Women’s Association of Germany (kfd) demanded that abortions be carried out in Catholic hospitals as part of its paper: “Between the Protection of Life and Self-Determination: Positions and Perspectives of the kfd on Section 218 of the German Criminal Code.” The kfd is a private association that is subject to the oversight of the German bishops’ conference.

Bishop Heinz Josef Algermissen, emeritus bishop of Fulda, responded to the scandalous text, saying it was “not Catholic.”

“That a Catholic organization is seriously demanding that the killing of children before birth ‘must also be possible in Catholic hospitals’ is completely unacceptable and downright intolerable,” Algermissen, who serves as chairman of the pro-life group Seelsorge für das Leben, said.

“The killing of an innocent and defenseless child in the womb does not constitute a medical service,” he stated. “Nor is an unwanted pregnancy an illness. Attempting to shift the costs of the killing of children before birth onto the community of insured individuals trivializes and undermines the prohibition against killing.”

The kfd defended a woman’s decision to abort their unborn child and attacked pro-life activists, claiming that they challenge “sexual and reproductive rights” and calling them “religious fundamentalists” who align with “radical right-wing forces.”

The orthodox Catholic laywomen’s organization Maria 1.0 published a scathing critique of the kfd’s paper.

“When it comes to the killing of unborn children, there can be no legitimate pluralism, for the direct killing of an innocent human being is, by definition, murder,” Maria 1.0 wrote.

“The Catholic faith clearly states: Human life is sacred from the moment of conception, inviolable, and must be protected with the utmost care. A pregnancy conflict is therefore not a conflict between two equally valid interests, for human life is a far greater good than any life plans or aspirations. Anyone who claims it is justified to directly end innocent human life – even moments after conception – cannot call themselves Catholic, nor indeed a person of integrity.”

“The supreme good is the glory of God, which naturally forbids sacrificing the life of an innocent human being created by God to any ‘right to self-determination,’” the group stated.

“God alone is Lord over life and death. In accordance with the glory of God, a person must first attend to the salvation of their own soul. Abortion, however, is objectively a mortal sin which, if not repented of, can lead a person directly to hell.”

Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 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 as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law: “You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.”

Moreover, formal cooperation in an abortion carries the penalty of automatic excommunication. The 1983 Code of Canon Law states: “A person who actually procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.”