"Most people believe that the Roman Catholic Church's position on abortion has remained unchanged for two thousand years. Not true. Church teaching on abortion has varied continually over the course of its history.
There has been no unanimous opinion on abortion at any time. While there has been constant general agreement that abortion is almost always evil and sinful, the church has had difficulty in defining the nature of that evil. Members of the Catholic hierarchy have opposed abortion consistently as evidence of sexual sin, but they have not always seen early abortion as homicide. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the "right-to-life" argument is a relatively recent development in church teaching. The debate continues today" [URL=http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/pubs/cfc_archive/articles/TheHistoryofAbortion.asp]]]History. Abortion in the Catholic church [/URL]