Pope Francis encouraged a group of medical professionals Thursday at the Vatican to keep working to protect all human life, including unborn babies from abortion “homicide.”
Catholic News Service reports the Catholic leader addressed a growing push by pro-abortion political leaders to end conscience protection rights and force medical professionals to participate in the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
Speaking to a group of pharmacists and other medical professionals gathered for an Italian medical conference, Pope Francis encouraged them to keep working to protect all their patients, including those who are still in the womb.
“I have been very clear — [abortion] is homicide and it is not licit to become complicit,” he said, according to the report.
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He urged the pharmacists and doctors to remain vigilant of “medicinal products that may … turn into poison,” and keep their work centered around the goal of protecting “the life of the patient in all of its aspects.”
“You are always at the service of human life, and this may, in certain cases, lead to conscientious objection, which is not disloyalty, rather the opposite. [It is] loyalty to your profession, if validly motivated,” the pope continued.
He condemned abortion activists’ push in Europe and the United States to get rid of conscience objection rights for medical workers, saying it should be non-negotiable.
Protecting the lives and rights of all human beings “is the ultimate responsibility” of every person, Pope Francis told the medical professionals. He urged them to remain strong and denounce the “injustices committed that harm innocent and defenseless life,” including abortion, the report states.
Pope Francis repeatedly has condemned the killing of unborn babies in abortions and urged society to support mothers and babies in need. He frequently describes aborted babies as victims of a “throwaway culture.”
Many hope he will rebuke U.S. President Joe Biden for his radical pro-abortion agenda when they meet later this month. Though Biden professes to be a devout Catholic, his administration is advocating for extreme, widely unpopular pro-abortion measures, including forcing taxpayers to fund abortions and legalizing late-term abortions nation-wide.
The pope’s strong condemnation of abortion has angered abortion activists across the world. In 2018, he caused international outrage after comparing abortion to “hiring a hitman” to kill unborn babies. Since then, he has used the comparison multiple times to urge society to protect babies in the womb.
In September, he criticized the “throwaway” culture that makes abortion seem “normal.”
“There is the waste of children that we don’t want welcome,” he said. “It is really a murder.” He added: “Is it right to eliminate, to take a human life to solve a problem? Is it right to hire a hitman to solve a problem? That’s what abortion is.”
