Zika virus threat is not an excuse to change abortion laws, the Vatican tells UN

Any possible link between mothers contracting the Zika virus and potentially serious birth defects in their babies is not justification for the promotion of pro-choice laws in affected countries, the Vatican has said.

The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations released a statement condemning the use of abortion pills as a humane response to the Zika crisis.

"Not only is increased access to abortion and abortifacients an illegitimate response to this crisis, but since it terminates the life of a child it is fundamentally not preventative," the Vatican statement said.

This month, the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern after a rise in incidents of brain defects in new-borns of mothers who contracted the virus in their first trimester in Brazil, France, the US, and El Salvador.

The Holy See statement to the UN, which was read during a launch of a $65 million global strategy from the World Health Organisation this week to tackle the Zika virus epidemic added: "It must be emphasised that a diagnosis of microcephaly in a child should not warrant a death sentence."

The Holy See Mission said that the promotion of such a radical response would be "the confirmation of a failure of the international community to stop the spread of the disease".

With abortion banned in many of the countries affected by the Zika virus, women, according to a report in The Washington Post, are desperately trying to obtain abortion pills online.

Women on Web, a Canada-based group that provides advice and medication for women wanting an abortion in countries where it is banned, has reportedly received over 1,000 emails from women in Latin American countries begging for pills banned by law in their respective countries.

In an interview, the organisation's founder, Dr Rebecca Gomperts, told the US newspaper that the number of Brazilian women contacting Women on Web had nearly tripled, climbing from 100 during the first week of December before the Zika outbreak became public to 285 during the first week of February.

"When Zika hit the news we saw an [immediate] increase in the number of requests from countries that are affected by Zika," she said. "We think that is related to the Zika outbreak. We cannot explain it any other way."

The Brazilian Conference of Catholic Bishops has said they strongly oppose the new push to promote abortion, in a statement released on the 4 February.

To date, 34 countries, mostly in the Americas and the Caribbean, have reported the Zika virus, however Brazil, with 460 confirmed cases of microcephaly and 3,850 suspected cases, has been hit the hardest.