The Catholic Church has softened its stance on contraception when faced with the threat imposed by the Zika virus. Pope Francis has given his blessings to the use of artificial contraception when it comes to the Zika virus and the damage it could cause an unborn fetus. The pope says that there is a clear moral difference between aborting a fetus and preventing a pregnancy, but has not gone as far as softening his stance on abortion of unwanted Zika-infected pregnancies. Pope Francis says that abortion “is an evil in and of itself, but it is not a religious evil at its root, no? It’s a human evil”. “On the other hand, avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil.” Japan Times reports: Francis was asked Wednesday en route home from Mexico if abortion or birth control could be considered a “lesser evil,” when confronting the Zika crisis in Brazil, where some babies have been born with abnormally small heads to Zika-infected mothers. The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency over the Zika virus and its suspected links to birth defects. The virus has been reported in at least 34 countries, many of them in Central and Latin America. [...]