(LifeSiteNews) — The president of the Catholic charity Caritas Germany has called for cost reimbursements for women who obtain abortions.
In an interview with the German Catholic News Agency (KNA), Caritas president Eva-Maria Welskop-Deffaa was asked her opinion about the fact that women in Germany have to pay approximately 350 to 700 euros for an abortion.
“A lack of reimbursement or a complicated application for reimbursement is an unnecessary burden,” Welskop-Deffaa said.
“In all cases in which abortion is not punishable by law, it should be possible to reimburse the costs,” she added.
In Germany, abortion is formally illegal, but abortions that are committed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy are exempt from punishment in most cases. Over 100,000 abortions were carried out last year in Germany.
The German Caritas president is following the lead of some of the heretical German bishops in Germany regarding their weak stance on the murder of innocent unborn children.
Earlier this year, Cardinal Reinhard Marx said that the current law that allows abortion up to 12 weeks has “contributed to peace” in society. Marx said that he hoped the federal government would be “smart enough” not to move away from the “hard-won compromise” of the current abortion law. Otherwise, there would be a risk of “a battle in society over the protection of human life.”
Marx, who is a staunch proponent of the heretical German Synodal Way, is not the first German bishop to defend the current law on abortion. Only two days prior to Marx’s comments, Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier said the present legal situation on abortion has contributed to “societal peace.” Ackermann called abortion a “sensitive” and complex matter and declared that he would not take part in the March for Life in Munich.
Moreover, in a discussion held in a brewery in March, another heretical prelate, Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers, called the law allowing abortion up to 12 weeks a “viable compromise.”
The co-president of the German Synodal Way, a laywoman, had previously called for the “nationwide provision of abortion” in Germany.
READ: German bishop says nation’s law tolerating abortion up to 12 weeks is a ‘viable compromise’
Catholic Church condemns all abortion as gravely sinful
The Catholic Church has always taught that abortion is a grave sin, in accordance with the Fifth Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.”
“Since the first century, the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,” the Catechism reads. “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.”