AP 7 Oct 94 10:20 EDT V0215 1994. The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A Vatican official on Friday denounced research on methods of "chemical abortion," such as the so-called abortion pill or day-after treatments.

"Huge sums of money are being devoted to this field of research," said Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

"The ultimate goal is to avoid surgical abortion and reach chemical abortion," he said at a conference organized by the council at the Vatican's Lateran University. Sgreccia also warned against new methods of artificial fertilization that he said have "opened new roads for eugenics."

Pope John Paul II has been waging a campaign against abortion particularly tied to the declaration by the Church of 1994 as the year of the family.

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