The Venerable Bede, in the Penitential ascribed to him by Albers c. 725, upheld the 40-day distinction, prescribing a one-year penance for abortion before the 40th day, and added that it makes a difference whether the woman was simply in financial desperation, or had conceived out of "harlotry".
In 1588, Pope Sixtus V adopted a papal bull adopting the position of St. Thomas Aquinas that contraception and abortion were crimes against nature and sins against marriage.