problems. Thus the very women for whom legal abortion is considered justified on psychiatric grounds, are the ones who have the highest risk of post-abortion psychiatric disorders- (Begley 50). All obstetricians and gynecologists know of many cases where the mother, be her single or married, has spoken of abortion early in the pregnancy and later on, has confessed her gratitude to those who have not performed the abortion. On the other hand, we have all seen women that have been troubled, consumed with guilt and development significant psychiatric problems following and because of abortion. I quote Ft. John L. Grady, Medical Examiner for Florida State Attorney's Office, "I believe it can be stated with certainty that abortion causes more deep-seated guilt, depression and mental illness than it ever cures" (Begley 52).
Some people claim the Bible does not specifically condemn abortion, and it is very curious to notice that almost exclusively people who do not consider the Bible to be authoritative sponsor his point of view. Virtually everyone who considers the Bible to be the authoritative word of God understands it to prohibit abortion after conception. At the beginning of the 13th century, Pope Innocent III wrote that "quickening- "the time when a woman first feels the fetus move within her " was the moment at which abortion became homicide; prior to quickening, abortion was a less serious sin ("Religion - 12-24). Pope Gregory XIV agreed, designating quickening as occurring after a period of 116 days (about 17 weeks). His declaration in 1591 that early abortion was not grounds for excommunication continued to be the abortion policy of the Catholic Church until 1869. The tolerant approach to abortion, which had prevailed in the Roman Catholic Church for centuries, ended at the end of the nineteenth century (Schreck 83). In 1869, Pope Pius IX officially eliminated the Catholic distinction between an animated and a non-animated fetus and required excommunication for abortions at any stage of pregnancy ("Religion - 23-49).