Firstly, I will discuss what the Roman Catholic Church says about abortion. Then I will tell you about pro-choice and pro-life and their arguments for and against abortion. Then I will look at what other religions say about abortion.Human life is sacred, this means life is precious and that no one has the right to take life away only God. The Christian church teaches us this message of life being a sacred gift from god.

In the bible we read, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish and the sea, the birds of the air, over the livestock, over the world and all the over creatures that move along the ground '. The teaching of the Catholic Church is expressed in the declaration on procured abortion (1974) in this the church points out that respect for human life is not just a Christian duty.'So God created man in his own image, the image of God created him, male and female he created the' (Genesis 1:26-27). Created in the image of one God..

. has the same nature and the same origin of all...

. Enjoy an equal dignity. The equality of all rests on essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it. (Taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1994)'A child may not be considered as a piece of property, married couples share in the 'love of God the creator and are in a sense interrupters' since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of procured abortion' the church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.

' (Taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church)Contraception and birth control may be used for a variety of reasons, when pregnancy or childbirth might harm the medical or physical condition of the Mother.The various Christian churches have different views on contraception. The Roman Catholic Church says that the use of contraception is against natural law. It is natural that conception may happen with sexual intercourse and therefore this should be prevented.

Abortion is an operation carried out to remove the growing foetus from its Mothers womb so that it can be destroyed. In the UK, abortion has been legal since 1967, when the law about abortion was passed in parliament. The abortion act said that a person should not be guilty of the unlawful ending of a pregnancy if:'The operation is carried out by a registered doctor and in a registered hospital. There must be two registered doctors who both agree that by carrying on with the pregnancy there would be a serious risk to the physical and/or mental health of the Mother.

'In 1990, another law was passed called the Human Fertilization and embryology act. The act says abortion is acceptable if the pregnancy is no longer than 24 weeks. The pregnancy involves the risks to the mental or physical health of the pregnant women or any existing children of the family.There are many points against abortion, these are: The unborn child is a separate human being. Such arguments against it are as follows:* By letting women have abortions, society is taking the easy way out.* We should create a society were no child is unwanted.

* A foetus has a right not to be killed.* People with the most serious handicaps can still lead a happy life.* A foetus is a potential human being; one day it could be a person.The Roman Catholic teachings on abortion is that the church says that abortion shouldn't be allowed under any circumstances, because even while still very tiny and still hardly developed the baby growing in the womb is the beginning of a human life. In addition, another human being should not end any life created by God at any stage of its development. All life is precious as the psalmist says 'you created every part of me, you put me together in my Mothers womb.

.. When I was growing there in secret, you knew that I was there, you saw me before I was born.Firstly, I will discuss what the Roman Catholic Church says about abortion.

Then I will tell you about pro-choice and pro-life and their arguments for and against abortion. Then I will look at what other religions say about abortion.The Roman Catholic Church position stems from the view that human life begins now of conception and should be protected accordingly. Earlier arguments involving a distinction foetus were discontinued after the interference of Pope Paul VI in 1869. For the past twenty years, Roman Catholicism has been struggling with the tension between the traditional position of the central teaching authority of the church on population issues and various moves to change the doctrine.

Pope Paul VI in the papal encyclical Humane Vitae (1968) restated the traditional catholic condemnation of artificial conception stating that every conjugal act had to be open to the transmission of life.