Catholic Church is Pro-Choice

The Catholic Church used to be pro-choice until around the 19th Century. This is because the Bible did not really condemn abortion. Thomas Aquinas actually stated a fetus does not get its soul until several months after conception, which contradicts with modern (post 19th century) Catholic teaching that it gets a soul at conception. St. Augustus justified abortion on certain grounds.

Even though this requires a POD in the 19th century, the affects would really only be felt in the 20th.

How would a pro-choice Catholic Church affect the 20th Century?
 
The Catholic Church used to be pro-choice until around the 19th Century. This is because the Bible did not really condemn abortion. Thomas Aquinas actually stated a fetus does not get its soul until several months after conception, which contradicts with modern (post 19th century) Catholic teaching that it gets a soul at conception. St. Augustus justified abortion on certain grounds.

Even though this requires a POD in the 19th century, the affects would really only be felt in the 20th.

How would a pro-choice Catholic Church affect the 20th Century?
Errr... Everyone was anti-abortion until the 20th century. How on earth do you claim that the Roman Catholic Church was 'pro-choice'?

Here's a Wiki quote (yes, I realize that on a contentious topic like this Wiki is iffy, but it's what I could find quickly).
In Christianity, Pope Sixtus V (1585–90) is noted as the first Pope to declare that abortion is homicide regardless of the stage of pregnancy;[93] the Catholic Church had previously been divided on whether if believed that abortion was murder, and did not begin vigorously opposing abortion until the 19th century.[91] Islamic tradition has traditionally permitted abortion until a point in time when Muslims believe the soul enters the fetus,[91] considered by various theologians to be at conception, 40 days after conception, 120 days after conception, or quickening.[94] However, abortion is largely heavily restricted or forbidden in areas of high Islamic faith such as the Middle East and North Africa.[95] In Europe and North America, abortion techniques advanced starting in the 17th century. However, conservatism by most physicians with regards to sexual matters prevented the wide expansion of safe abortion techniques.[91] Other medical practitioners in addition to some physicians advertised their services, and they were not widely regulated until the 19th century, when the practice was banned in both the United States and the United Kingdom.[91] Church groups as well as physicians were highly influential in anti-abortion movements.[91] In the US, abortion was more dangerous than childbirth until about 1930 when incremental improvements in abortion procedures relative to childbirth made abortion safer.[note 2] The Soviet Union (1919), Iceland (1935) and Sweden (1938) were among the first countries to legalize certain or all forms of abortion.[96]

Interestingly, there does seem to have been a period when abortions were allowed until 'quickening' (basically about the first trimester), which I hadn't realized.

But even so, the RC church was one of the early condemners of the practice assuming that the comment about Pope Sixtus is correct.
 
Abortions were allowed until the "quickening" because pre-20th century, it was hard to determine when life actually began for the child. Given the scientific limitations of the time, the "quickening" (when the child actually begins to move) seemed to be a safe assumption for the beginning of life.

As medical advances continued and more about early development was learned, the Catholic Church kept moving the time back when the child was considered to be living until they decided that conception was the best option.

It should be noted that like with all Catholic moral teachings, the idea is not "what is the most we can get away with?" but "what is the ideal, and at what point should prohibitions exist because past that there is no possible justification?" So even though abortions might have been allowed early on, it was never the idea that "abortion is OK." Abortion was always morally problematic, but given that the first sign of life was the "quickening", it introduced an element of doubt that allowed abortion to be considered provided other factors might justify it. When more scientific evidence came, the Church eliminated that "element of doubt" more and more until today's position.
 
Abortions were allowed until the "quickening" because pre-20th century, it was hard to determine when life actually began for the child. Given the scientific limitations of the time, the "quickening" (when the child actually begins to move) seemed to be a safe assumption for the beginning of life.

As medical advances continued and more about early development was learned, the Catholic Church kept moving the time back when the child was considered to be living until they decided that conception was the best option.

It should be noted that like with all Catholic moral teachings, the idea is not "what is the most we can get away with?" but "what is the ideal, and at what point should prohibitions exist because past that there is no possible justification?" So even though abortions might have been allowed early on, it was never the idea that "abortion is OK." Abortion was always morally problematic, but given that the first sign of life was the "quickening", it introduced an element of doubt that allowed abortion to be considered provided other factors might justify it. When more scientific evidence came, the Church eliminated that "element of doubt" more and more until today's position.

This.

The whole premise is even more ASB than the Mammal Who Shall Not Be Named.
 
This.
The whole premise is even more ASB than the Mammal Who Shall Not Be Named.

Maybe pro-choice is going too far, but it might be possible for an ATL church to loudly emphasise exceptions such as rape, incest, and medical threat to the mother's life. As opposed to mumbling them quietly as they tend to do OTL.

Taking it a step further you might have some kind of inquisitional court that actively sought out instances of catholic ethical malpractice, and vigorously stamped on them when they came to light; which would include involving the authorities when possible - and journalistic dirty tricks when not.

Though the acts of excommunicating people (and sometimes communities) would lead to a catholic church that's much smaller and exclusive than it is today. Not only because it would take a dim view of child torture in africa (that's a few million borderline-catholics lost right there) but who also might have fared rather poorly under Nazi occupation.

On the other hand if the Pope did this, it's very like some other part of the world would become a focus point for True Global Catholicism - and the Pope et all would have the status of The Church of England today. Largely ignored by all, and definately without observer status at the UN.
 
The Catholic Church used to be pro-choice until around the 19th Century. This is because the Bible did not really condemn abortion.

Not explicitly in the New Testament. (The Old Testament does condemn it in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.) But the Didache - which was written by the Apostles before several books of the NT were completed - does so quite explicitly.

So do many decretals and canons after that, along with a wide array of early Doctors of the Church.

So...your point of departure needs to be...pretty much at the beginning.

Thomas Aquinas actually stated a fetus does not get its soul until several months after conception, which contradicts with modern (post 19th century) Catholic teaching that it gets a soul at conception. St. Augustus [sic] justified abortion on certain grounds.

In the first place, while both Aquinas and Augustine are Doctors of the Church (and the most esteemed ones at that), that's all they are - Doctors of the Church. Not everything that they wrote is taken as doctrine. Occasionally, they were recognized as being in error - albeit post mortem, when doctrines were subsequently defined, as in the case of the Immaculate Conception, which Thomas took issue with (but wasn't generally accepted until the 14th century, and was only defined infallibly as dogma by Pope Pius IX in the 19th).

In the second place, Aquinas did hold a theory of delayed animation (at 40 days, not quickening). But he nonetheless held that no direct abortion was morally licit, that all abortions were a grave sin (peccatum grave); among evil deeds (inter maleficia), and against nature (contra naturam); see his ''Commentary on Sentences,'' Bk. 4, dist. 1, art. 3, exposition of text.

St. Augustine, likewise, held that abortion was always a grave evil. But because he similarly accepted an erroneous Aristotelian understanding of gestational biology, he did not consider abortion as tantamount to murder in the first 40 days (Enchiridion). Nonetheless, he still held that abortion is always a grave sin.
 
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