Pope Francis: The Zika Virus Justifies Use of Contraception

Pope Francis has suggested that women threatened with the Zika virus could use artificial contraception, saying there’s a clear moral difference between aborting a fetus and preventing a pregnancy.

Pope Francis attends a meeting with the world of labour at the Bachilleres College in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on February 17, 2016. GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE—Pope Francis has suggested that women threatened with the Zika virus could use artificial contraception, saying there’s a clear moral difference between aborting a fetus and preventing a pregnancy.

Francis was asked Wednesday en route home from Mexico if abortion or birth control could be considered a “lesser evil,” when confronting the Zika crisis in Brazil, where some babies have been born with abnormally small heads to Zika-infected mothers.

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