Pope hints that condoms could be ‘lesser evil’ than the harmful effects of Zika virus

After ending a dramatic tour of Mexico, Pope Francis on Thursday seemed to open the door for limited use of artificial contraception, long prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church, to prevent pregnancies at risk from the disastrous, fast-spreading Zika virus.

Speaking to reporters aboard his flight from Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez to Rome, Francis was asked if a “lesser evil” – abortion or contraception – could be permitted to prevent the disease from harming a fetus. Researchers believe Zika may be linked to serious birth defects, such as debilitating under-formation of the brain, and hundreds of cases have been reported in Latin America.

Under no circumstances, Francis said, should abortion be considered a “lesser evil”, and he said the procedure should be avoided at all cost. “It is a crime, [killing] one person to save another,” he said. “That is something that the Mafia does … an absolute evil.”

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However, preventing a pregnancy that was in danger of being exposed to Zika might be allowable, he said, but only if it would most certainly prevent a pregnancy at risk.

“Avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil,” Francis said. He cited pope Paul VI’s decision in the early 1960s to allow religious women facing rape during upheaval in the Belgian Congo to use contraception.

However, in the milestone 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, Paul VI banned the use of birth control under normal circumstances. The church teaches that procreation is one of the most important duties of married couples.

The Vatican has been criticised in the past for taking a hard line against the use of condoms to stop the spread of AIDS, especially in Africa and Asia. In most of Latin America, where Zika is most common, abortion is illegal and birth control can be hard to come by.

In all of Mexico and Central America, it is only in Mexico City, where the pope just visited, that abortion can be obtained on demand.