‘Children should be accepted as they come’: Pope likens abortion to Nazi crimes

Francis spoke of pre-natal tests to determine if a fetus has any illnesses or malformations.

"The first proposal, in that case, is 'Should we get rid of it?' The killing of children. And to have a more tranquil life, an innocent is done away with," he said.

"I say it with pain. In the last century the whole world was scandalised by what the Nazis did to pursue the pureness of the race. Today, we are doing the same thing, with white gloves."

The pope also declared that the only family in the eyes of God is a heterosexual partnership.

"Today one speaks of "diversified’ families: different types of family ...but the human family as the image of God, man and woman, is only one. Only one," the pope said.

Francis has been criticised by some conservatives following his silence on Ireland's referendum result last month where over two-thirds of voters voted to remove the Eighth Amendment from the Irish constitution. He is due to visit Ireland on 25 and 26 August this year.