While addressing members of a confederation of Italian family associations today, Pope Francis compared abortion to Nazi eugenics, Reuters news agency reports.

“I say it with pain. In the last century the whole world was scandalized by what the Nazis did to pursue the pureness of the race. Today, we are doing the same thing, with white gloves.”

The pope was referring to the practice of having an abortion after pre-natal tests have discovered possible birth defects. According to Pope Francis, children should be accepted “as they come, as God sends them, as God allows.”

The “killing of children,” is something we have to get rid of, the pope added. According to a 2017 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics, conducted by University of Utah researchers, birth defects affect one in 33 babies, and are a leading cause of infant mortality in the United States. More than 5,000 infants die each year due to birth defects.

According to the same study, babies who live with birth defects are at increased risk for developing lifelong cognitive, physical, and social challenges. Furthermore, employer-sponsored health plans spent at least $6 billion on infants born prematurely in 2013.

Hitler’s obsessive attempts to create a superior Aryan race, “National Socialist racial hygiene,” resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. As History noted, during World War II, concentration camp prisoners endured horrific medical tests, meant to help Hitler create the perfect race.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 652,639 abortions were reported in 2014, the most recent year for which the CDC has released statistics in the United States. As CNN noted, the number of abortions in America increased gradually from 1973, then peaked in 1990. It has been on the decline since.

Pope Francis compares abortion to Nazi eugenics: Accept kids 'as God gives them' https://t.co/X04GXyS3Gx — Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) June 16, 2018

According to Human Rights Watch, abortion is a human rights issue, since lack of access to safe and legal abortion services may jeopardize a number of human rights, including the right to life, right to health and health care, right to privacy, right to non-discrimination and equality, right to liberty, right to freedom of conscience and religion.

From USA Today, over the Israeli Haaretz, to the Wall Street Jorunal, the Associated Press, and now the Inquisitr, numerous high-profile media outlets have reported on the pope’s statements. More recently, as the Inquisitr noted, Pope Francis bowed to pressure, accepting Chilean Bishop Juan Barros’ resignation amid child sexual abuse scandal.

Unlike his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis has metamorphosed into a media darling, as Vice noted, while deconstructing the pope’s PR machinery. Greg Burke, a former Fox News correspondent is the PR guru behind the pope, Vice revealed, so it remains to be seen how the pope’s public image will recover from comparing abortion to Nazi eugenics.