Pope Francis has strongly condemned abortion and the practice of surrogate motherhood as serious violations of human dignity.

In a set of principles released by the Vatican on Monday, the leader of the Catholic Church also criticized gender reassignment and gender theory. The Pope asserted that gender theory undermines the inherent dignity bestowed upon humans by God.

The document affirms that every human being, regardless of birth status, possesses sacred and inviolable dignity. It further emphasizes that terminating a pregnancy amounts to a denial of human dignity to the most vulnerable beings.

The Vatican’s latest statement draws a comparison between abortion and surrogacy, where a woman carries a child for another person and then relinquishes it after birth. According to the declaration, this reduces the child to a mere object and violates the dignity of the woman involved, often for financial gain.