Jerome (347-420)
You may see many women widows before wedded, who try to conceal their
miserable fall by a lying garb. Unless they are betrayed by swelling wombs or by
the crying of their infants, they walk abroad with tripping feet and heads in
the air. Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and
thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find
themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when
(as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world
laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and
child murder.
- Epistula 22
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