Repeal Abortion Laws Now Why do abortion laws remain on the books? One reason is the apparent inability or unwillingness of those who advocate limiting the population to see the connection. (This does not apply to Planned Parenthood-World Population, which in November 1968 passed resolutions calling for the repeal of abortion laws in support of its stated policy of voluntary parenthood.) By 1968, nearly every major religious group in the United United States, with the exception of the Roman Catholic Church, have declared themselves in favor of reforming or repealing abortion laws. The American Baptist Convention and the Universalist/Unitarian Church have come out in favor of full repeal. And opinion polls have shown that the majority of people, including the majority of Catholics polled on the issue, are in favor of at least some liberalization of the laws. But the opposition of the Catholic Church is powerful and well organized. The Church holds that the fetus is "animated" at the moment of conception. In the encyclical Humanae Vitae of July 1968, Pope Paul stated: "We must once again declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and above all directly desired and procured abortion, even if for therapeutic reasons, are absolutely to be excluded as licit means of regulating births. "To this unequivocal statement - which, obviously, is not the law in any American state, since all states allow abortion at least to save the life of the mother - the Pope adds a " Appeal to the Public Authorities." He says: "To the rulers, who are primarily responsible for the common good, and who can do so much to safeguard moral customs, we say: do not allow the morality of your people to be degraded; do not allow practices contrary to natural and divine law in that fundamental cell which is the Family... All the responsible public powers - as some already commendably do - generously relaunch their efforts". I believe that, to the extent that it is an appeal to Catholic officials in This country, it must clearly be ignored, because it is incompatible with the laws of the country. By issuing such an “Appeal to the public authorities”, the Pope has placed Catholics occupying public positions in this or any other situation in a very difficult position. Country in which the separation of Church and State is essentially guaranteed constitutionally or otherwise. They must choose, for example, when it comes to abortion for the therapeutic reason or even to save the woman's life, between their obligations to their Church and theirs. obligations towards their state..