Pope Francis compared abortion to hiring a hitman to kill someone Wednesday, saying unequivocally that to abort a baby is to eliminate someone.

The pontiff made the comments during his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square, breaking from his prepared text for his homily on the commandment against killing. He not only denounced abortion as a form of killing the innocent, but also refuted the argument that abortion is a natural human right. (RELATED: Body Count Is About To Go Up In Chicago With New Abortion Clinic)

“Interrupting a pregnancy is like eliminating someone,” Francis said, according to USA Today. “Is it fair to hire a hitman to solve a problem? It is not fair. We cannot take out a human being, even if it is small.”

“How can an act that suppresses innocent and defenseless life as it blossoms be therapeutic, civil or simply human?” he added, addressing the position that abortion is a right.

Francis’ comments on abortion, amid his denouncement of war, a “throwaway culture,” and exploitation, may be some of his strongest yet, but they are par for the course with regard to past addresses on the matter. The pontiff, for example, denounced in June the practice of couples aborting their unborn child if they discover, through pre-natal screening, that they have a physical deformity.

“Last century, the whole world was scandalized by what the Nazis did to purify the race. Today, we do the same thing but with white gloves,” Francis said, according to The Associated Press. He exhorted couples to accept their children “as God gives them to us.”

The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is unacceptable in any circumstance, as life is sacred from the moment of conception and all human life is made in the image of God. Francis has, however, permitted priests to absolve women of the sin of abortion if they repent, in light of the fact that some women seek abortion out of desperation and difficult circumstances.

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