"Abortion is not a lesser evil," said the pope. "It is a crime. Avoiding a pregnancy [however] is not an absolute evil."

According to an AFP report, Francis noted that Pope Paul VI had once allowed nuns working in Africa to use contraceptives in "light of a high risk of them being raped by soldiers."

"We must not confuse the evil consisted of avoiding a pregnancy with abortion," he added. "Abortion is not a theological problem. It is a human problem—medical. One person is killed to save another. It is evil in itself. It is not a religious evil: it is a human evil."

The pope was quoted as also urging doctors to do everything in their power to develop a vaccine against the virus.

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