Synod of Ancyra Quotes
Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years of penance, according to the prescribed degrees.
The Synod was held in Ankara, the current capitol of modern Turkey, and at the time, the provincial Roman capitol of Galatia, The Church leaders wanted to make the punishment more lenient than the lifetime of penance that had previously been required. Abortion was very frequent at the time. Note that the penalty was a religious one that did not curtail the civil freedom of the offending woman. When abortion has been outlawed by law in the last century, the penalties have been much harsher than 10 years of penance.
Synod of Ancyra, Canon XXI, Galatia, ~314
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Barnabus, like most Christians at the time, was also Jewish and was reflecting the Jewish view on abortion and infanticide in that part of the world. However, the Christians tended to be more forgiving than traditional Judaism was and made much greater provision for repentance and forgiveness. See {620149} .
At the time, even with all the barriers that many states placed in the way, over 1 million legal abortions were performed each year.
Actually it was as late as 1963, that the Supreme Court ruled that States could not make the sale of birth control devices or drugs illegal. In many jurisdictions in the United States, women who do not have insurance and cannot afford birth control, there are state and private organizations, like Planned Parenthood, who will provide them. However, some conservative forces are trying to put Planned Parenthood out of business. A few doctors and nurses who perform abortions and proscribe birth control have been murdered by the fanatics. Almost of the so called “pro life” forces not only oppose abortion but contraception and family planning as well. They tactically tend to concentrate first on abortion, but most also believe that the life and death issues are for them the same, as opposed to most American feelings. The literal prohibiting Biblical injunctions are even more specific about birth control than abortion.
This quotation is important for two reasons. First, it illustrates a typical political exaggeration about the opposition party priorities. The birth control insurance issue was far from the Republicans’ “single most important issue” with many others such as smaller government and tax reduction given much more priority. The majority of Republicans did not even see this as a significant issue. However, there were a few right wing religious extremists for whom this and abortion (which they saw as the same thing) was of the highest priority. Second, it illustrates how the radical right wing – the Tea Party – of the Republican Party sufficiently intimidated the rest of the party so that for that time, almost the entire party acted as if the birth control insurance issue was a very high priority. If the normal Republicans did not support the Tea Party ultra conservative issues, the Tea Party threatened to run a more conservative candidate against them in the Primary election—thus controlling the regular republicans including and especially the leadership. So Warren’s accusation appeared to be true based on the words and deeds (votes) of the majority of the Republican Party.
If a state or community legally decides that a fetus is a person, there are many situations where there is a conflict of interest between the mother to be and the fetus. A pregnant woman, having a single drink of alcohol, potentially dangers the fetus (called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome). Smoking is clearly hazardous to the health of the fetus (underweight babies and more infant mortality and even more SIDS deaths. A diet to keep a mother thinner may not be nutritious for the fetus, A few states and local government have started prosecuting pregnant women for their personal behavior that might be detrimental to the fetus—often the purpose is to assert the right of the state to regulate the behavior of the pregnant woman so that the state can control abortion.
The Synod of Ancyra was an ecclesiastical council, or synod, convened in Ancyra (modern-day Ankara, the capital of Turkey), the seat of the Roman administration for the province of Galatia, in 314. The season was soon after Easter; the year may be safely deduced from the fact that the first nine canons are intended to repair havoc wreaked in the church by persecution, which ceased after the overthrow of Maximinus II in 313. Only about a dozen bishops were present, nonetheless representing nearly every part of Syria and Asia Minor. Either Vitalis, Bishop of Antioch, or Marcellus of Ancyra presided, and possibly both were present, although the Libellus Synodicus, also known as the Synodicon Vetus, assigns to the latter.
