Why Is Abortion A Distinctly Excommunicable Offense?

[Duc_In_Altum]

If I were to commit some supreme atrocity against humanity, the offense can be reduced to the understanding that I had committed a grave sin. Such an act would still have meet the necessary intellect/will criteria to be considered mortal. However, in the case of abortion, the Chuch specifically jumps to excommunication for knowing and willful participation. It seems to me that since abortion is among the most contested moral ills of society, the Church uses the term, [i]excommunication [/i]to emphatically publicise the mortal nature of the act as a means of teaching. Why does participating in an abortion specifically merit[i] excommunication [/i]over other grave sins? Is mortal sin to be considered synonymous with excommunication? Thanks for your response. God bless.

[CatherineM]

Everyone knows that murder is a serious sin. Same with crime against humanity. We may disagree with what actions can be called a murder or a war crime, but pretty much every where, those things are against the law. Abortion isn't. There is very little disagreement on what actually qualifies as an abortion, but there are very few places these days where abortion is illegal. Humans are great at justifying our actions and rationalizing things. The Vatican has had to raise abortion to an excommunicable offense because we needed a strong enough statement that just because it is legal does not make it okay.

Mortal sin is not synonymous with excommunication. A mortal sin is something that is a grave matter, that you know is a sin, and you commit it anyway with free will. If you don't know that abortion is a sin, it can't be a mortal sin even if you can get excommunicated for it. Same if you are coerced into having the abortion. What they have in common is that both involve grave issues.

[cappie]

Just a note:

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, do not advert to it or are in error about its scope, were forced or had an unforeseeable accident, 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, whereas someone culpably under the influence of drugs or alcohol would (canon 1325).