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Pope Leo XIV Calls Abortion the ‘Greatest Destroyer of Peace’ in Address to Young Politicians

Austria’s women’s minister denounced the claim as an attack on women’s rights.

Overview

  • Speaking Saturday at the Vatican, the pope invoked Mother Teresa and urged caring for the “smallest” as the path to peace.
  • He said peace is impossible while the weak are excluded and society remains indifferent to the poor, refugees and the oppressed.
  • He argued that politics cannot truly serve peoples if it excludes the unborn or neglects those in material and spiritual need.
  • Austria’s Eva‑Maria Holzleitner responded on Bluesky that peace requires inviolable human and women’s rights, including self‑determination over one’s body.
  • Coverage connected the remarks to healthcare rules, noting a Catholic owner barred medically indicated abortions at Evangelisches Krankenhaus Lippstadt after a 2025 merger, with exceptions only to protect the pregnant person’s life.