Excommunication for Abortion
ShareCanonical History
The Church has traditionally condemned and attached an excommunication to the act of abortion. In the early Church, largely due to Aristotle’s mistaken ideas of when the child was ensouled, the Church had a graded analysis, with full culpability for homicide reserved for the rational stage of development, believed attained 4-8 weeks into development. Even before that point, the life was sacred and its willful killing forbidden as gravely evil.
This view of embryology survived well into the 19th century, but is untenable today, since we know that the measure of any biological nature is its DNA, present from the moment of conception, and in stage of development as its cause. (See the article in this section Human Life Begins at Conception)
Although legal canons have been present in the Church, whether locally or regionally, or imposed by a Council or a Pope, until 1917 there was no formal codification of canon law. In that year, the Holy See published the first Code of Canon Law, the Codex Iuris Canonici, which established for the Latin Church the norm which applied for much of the 20th century. It stated
1917 CIC, canon 2350, §1. Those who procure an abortion, including the mother, incur latæ sententiæ excommunication reserved to the Ordinary if the abortion is performed; and if they are clergy, they should be removed besides.”
In other words, the mother and those who make possible an abortion that actually takes place are automatically excommunicated. There is no need of a trial or public sentence, only, as in anything gravely evil, that they knew the gravity of their act, and did it with full knowledge and intention. From that moment forward, unless they reconcile with Christ and the Church, they are barred from receiving any sacraments, though still obliged by law to fulfil the Sunday Mass obligation. Furthermore, any priest who is complicit is automatically suspected.
The revised Code of Canon Law, issued in 1983 by Pope John Paul II, says similarly, thought it is narrowed to the procurement of abortion. The crime and the consequences are the same as the 1917 Code and the historic practice.
1983 CIC, canon 1398 A person who procures a completed abortion incurs an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication.
Abortion. An abortion is defined as "the killing of the foetus, in whatever way or at whatever time from the moment of conception" (Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, published in the "Acts of the Apostolic See" vol. 80 (1988), 1818). This definition applies to any means, including drugs, by which a human being present in the woman is killed. Thus, once a woman knows she is pregnant the intentional killing of the new life within her is not only murder but an excommunicable offense. A woman who only thinks she might be pregnant has a grave responsibility to find out and to protect the possible life within. Any action to end a "possible" pregnancy while probably not an excommunicable offense would be callous disregard for life and gravely sinful.
Conspirators. Conspirators who incur the excommunication can be defined as those who make access to the abortion possible. This certainly includes doctors and nurses who actually do it, husbands, family and others whose counsel and encouragement made it morally possible for the woman, and those whose direct practical support made it possible (financially, driving to the clinic etc.). The availability today of chemical abortions only widens the crime to drug manufacturers, pharmacists and family physicians who are guilty of grave sin and subject to excommunication. It should also be noted that many contraceptive pills are already abortifacient in operation. Theoretically, the knowing use of such a pill for its abortifacient purpose could also subject one to excommunication. Pill manufacturers have recently been touting this capability of their deadly wares.
Being Excommunicated. To actually incur the excommunication one must know that it is an excommunicable offense at the time of the abortion. Canon 1323 provides that the following do not incur a sanction, those who are not yet 16, are unaware of a law, those who do not advert to it or are in error about its scope, those who were forced or had an unforeseeable accident, those who acted out of grave fear, or who lacked the use of reason (except culpably, as by drunkenness). Thus a woman forced by an abusive husband to have an abortion would not incur an excommunication, for instance - unlike someone culpably under the influence of drugs or alcohol who would (canon 1325).
Absolution. Whether one has fulfilled the conditions for excommunication or not, the sin of abortion must be confessed as the taking of innocent human life (5th Commandment). If the penitent did not know about this law at the time of the abortion then he or she was NOT excommunicated. If the person knew about the law but there were extenuating circumstances (such as mentioned above concerning c. 1323) then these factors should be mentioned to the confessor.
In the past, abortion was a reserved sin, meaning that the Bishop, and in some cases only the Pope could absolve from excommunication. Only after the excommunication was lifted could the penitent receive sacramental absolution. Thus, a priest who heard the confession of an abortion had to refer the matter to the bishop, obtain absolution of the excommunication from him, and only then could he absolve the penitent of homicide. Today this is no longer true. Pope Francis extended the faculty to all priests to absolve the excommunication for abortion, so that any priest with faculties to absolve sin also has the faculty to absolve from the excommunication.
If you had an abortion or helped procure one. A person who believes they have been excommunicated must refrain from Holy Communion until both the excommunication is absolved and the sin as well. As already noted, the Church's faculty to absolve from the excommunication has been given to every priest which greatly simplifies the process of being reconciled and restored to the sacraments.
One complicating factor for anyone in this situation is that intentionally withholding mortal sin (abortion) or knowledge of one's excommunication invalidates ALL the absolutions for other sins given since the time of the intentionally overlooked sin. Culpably withholding mortal sin or an excommunication means that even after the priest says the words of absolution, because of dishonesty on the penitent's part, the sin has not been absolved. Absolution is not magic; it depends upon sincere repentance from all known mortal sins and a firm purpose of amendment. Such sins would need to be confessed again, as part of an integral (complete and honest) confession. This is not the case if the person did not know that what they did was sinful in the eyes of God and the Church, but only found out this out latter. Since they did not withhold from confession what they knew to be sinful their prior confessions are valid. One is always free to express concerns and doubts of this type in confession, and ought to, for clarity and peace of mind.
The Church makes every effort to make Penance available and obliges priests to make anonymity possible as well (c. 964). There is really no valid excuse for delaying one's full return to the sacraments. All those who have had abortions should come home to Christ and the Church.