[3][4][5][6] Into the 21st century, the church's opposition to abortion, and specifically the actions it has taken against pro-abortion rights Catholics, has often been the subject of controversy.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the Catholic Church in the United States took the lead in denouncing what it termed "criminal abortion".
The Michigan State Medical Society journal reported in 1870 that, while most churches were "neglecting" the subject of abortion, Catholic priests were teaching that "destruction of the embryo at any period from the first instant of conception is a crime equal in guilt to that of murder," and "that to admit its practice is to open the way for the most unbridled licentiousness, and to take away the responsibility of maternity is to destroy one of the strongest bulwarks of female virtue.
[8] Following the 1968 publication of Humanae Vitae, an encyclical by Pope Paul VI that expressly forbade abortion and most methods of birth control[9] and that sowed controversy within the church over its restatement of the prohibition on birth control,[10] Catholic bishops in the United States started to stress anti-abortion views as a central facet of Catholic identity and preached against proposed liberalization of state-level abortion laws.
According to Charles Curran, prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion was not a high priority for Catholic bishops in the United States.
A short time after the decision, the Catholic-sponsored National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) was created to mobilize a wide-scale anti-abortion movement.
"[12] At the same time, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, in Forming consciences for Faithful Citizenship,[13] quoted the words of Pope John Paul II: "The fact that only the negative commandments oblige always and under all circumstances does not mean that in the moral life prohibitions are more important than the obligation to do good indicated by the positive commandment.
The Vatican initiated disciplinary measures against some of the nuns who signed the statement, sparking controversy among American Catholics, and intra-Catholic conflict on the abortion issue remained news for at least two years in the United States.
[19] In November 2009, when Sister Margaret McBride, as a member of the ethics board of a Catholic hospital, allowed doctors to perform an abortion to save the life of a mother of four suffering from pulmonary hypertension, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted excommunicated her on the grounds that, while efforts should be made to save a pregnant woman's life, abortion cannot be used as a means to that end.
[20][21] Since the Catholic Church views abortion as gravely wrong, it considers it a duty to reduce its acceptance by the public and in civil legislation.
[25] These statements of intent from church authorities have sometimes led American Catholic voters to vote for candidates who wish to ban abortion, rather than pro-abortion rights candidates who support other Catholic Church positions, such as war, health care, immigration, or lowering the abortion rate.
[27] Politicians who have been targeted in such controversies include Lucy Killea,[28] Mario Cuomo,[29] John Kerry,[30] Rudy Giuliani,[31] and Joe Biden.
Analysis of the 2006-2008 Gallup Values and Beliefs surveys indicates that 40% of Catholics consider abortion "morally acceptable", a result that is roughly equivalent to the 41% of non-Catholics holding the same view.
[37] According to 1995 survey by Lake Research and Tarrance Group, 64% of U.S. Catholics say they disapprove of the statement that "abortion is morally wrong in every case".
In what the Los Angeles Times called a key admonition, he added: "It has never been easy to accept the Gospel teaching in its entirety, and it never will be.