The United States walked a delicate line, resisting attempts to include language that specifically ruled out abortion but not endorsing abortion as a method of family planning either.

Cecilia Soto said she is against legalizing it even though her party, the Workers Party, endorses legalized abortion.

The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade neither endorsed abortion nor declared that one side had the superior moral claim.

The court neither endorsed abortion nor declared that one side had the superior moral claim.

"Nothing is to be understood to imply that the Holy See endorses abortion or has in any way changed its moral position concerning abortion," Archbishop Martino said.

It is morally wrong for society as a whole to endorse abortion on demand, since this has led to abortion's being used for birth control and gender selection.

The Vatican statement added, "For moral reasons, shared by citizens of many nations, it does not endorse legal abortion."

That language did not endorse abortion as a family planning method, but declared that abortions ought to be safe in countries where they are legal.

For example, various religious perspectives have either endorsed or condemned alternative family structures, homosexual relationships, and abortion.