Mahony Letter Calls Abortion ‘One of Most Evil Sins’

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony reiterated the Roman Catholic position condemning abortion as “one of the most evil sins” in a pastoral letter issued today to the 4 million Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

In the three-page letter, Mahony contended that one-fourth of all abortions in the nation are performed in California, and he accused the media of confusing the public by making abortion appear to be “the exercise of personal freedom.”

“ ‘Choice’ is for all Americans a very attractive word,” the statement said. “But we should never stop asking ourselves and others, the freedom to choose what--to kill another human being? We must be for the natural choice, and that choice is life.”

According to Mahony’s letter, “an overwhelming majority” of the American public believes that abortion is not only wrong but is “plainly . . . murder.” The average American, he added, is “opposed to almost every abortion performed except in the most extreme hardship cases.”

Mahony could not be reached for comment.

Polls on the topic vary. A 1989 poll conducted by The Times found that 57% of Americans agreed that abortion is murder. A poll conducted by The Times this September found that 56% of Americans favor upholding Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that permits women to have an abortion. The latest poll did not ask if the respondents equated abortion with murder.

Information tabulated by the Alan Guttmacher Institute in Washington, a nonprofit research group for reproductive health, indicates that of the 1.59 million known abortions performed in the nation during 1988--the most recent year for which figures are available--312,000 were in California, or 19.6% of the total. Figures at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta indicate that 24.4% of 1988 abortions were in California.

During 1988, California had the highest abortion rate of any state: 46 women in every thousand between the ages of 15 and 44, according to Stanley Henshaw, Guttmacher’s deputy director of research.

Mahony said in the pastoral letter that the Catholic view is shared by “countless persons of other faiths.” He added that he was writing the letter--which an aide said had been in preparation for more than a month--in response to “many requests” from parish members to clearly state the church’s position.

The archdiocese, which includes Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, is placing ads today in The Times and the Daily News that include Mahony’s entire letter. It is also printed in this week’s Tidings, the weekly archdiocese newspaper.

Robin Schneider, associate director of the California Abortion Rights Action League, said the Catholic Church “has an obvious interest in freedom of religion and preaching to their flock what their beliefs are.” But, she said, “they have yet to convince a majority of Catholics” that the government should outlaw abortion.

Mahony is “out of step” with most mainstream religions as well, Schneider contended. “The safest moral course is to let people decide for themselves.”

While today’s statement is Mahony’s first pastoral letter on abortion, he issued a “policy statement” in June, 1989, that called the battle to repeal abortion rights “the pre-eminent moral and civil rights issue of our generation.”

Mahony’s letter, which maintains that California law sanctions “abortion on demand,” says the average American “has no idea that almost 96% of all abortions in the country take place for purely elective reasons--and mainly for birth control purposes.”