Abortion is like hiring a contract killer says Pope

POPE Francis has compared abortion to hiring a hitman. Provoking fury from campaigners, he likened the procedure to ‘eliminating’ an enemy.

‘Getting rid of a human being is like resorting to a contract killer to solve a problem,’ he said at his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square.

The 81-year-old added that abortion shows a ‘contradictory approach to life [that] allows the suppression of human life in the mother’s womb in order to safeguard other values’.

In June, he condemned abortion as the ‘white glove’ equivalent of the Naziera eugenics programme. Abortion has been legal in Italy for 40 years but is still shrouded in controversy in the predominantly- Catholic country, with far-right groups pushing to ban the procedure.

Sarah Cartin, of Christians for Choice, said the Pope had shown ‘complete disdain for women by making absurd and inflammatory statements’. Clare Murphy, of abortion provider BPAS, described the remarks as ludicrous.