the catholic church's stand on abortion

Note that "zygotic personhood" (the idea that a fertilized egg is a
person) is a recent concept. For example, before 1869, the Catholic
church believed that the embryo was not a person until it was 40 days
old. (Aristotle agreed with this 40-day threshold.) Thus, the church
did not believe a human had a soul until day 40. Pope Innocent III in
1211 determined that the time of ensoulment was anywhere from 12 to
16 weeks. This means that the Catholic church, for centuries, did not
equate abortion with murder.