The Catholic Church allows abortion ONLY if a mother will ACTUALLY DIE if she gives birth

kfarley,

The Church never allows for abortion under any circumstance. Perhaps you are referring to the principle of double effect or secondary effect, but that is still not a case where the Church allows for direct purposeful abortions. I'm unaware of any circumstance where a woman would be completely unable to give birth that only having an abortion would solve? Any issue she would have would simply be treated and if through her treatment the child dies, that isn't an abortion. In any situation like this though, if giving birth can kill her then how would not an abortion be at least of equal or greater harm to the medical malady she's already facing?

This story is a bit unclear. The Catholic Church allows abortion ONLY if a mother will ACTUALLY DIE if she gives birth-the Catholic Church does not allow abortion for rape or any other circumstance. If the nun were truly asking for an abortion in a case where the woman would certainly die if she gave birth the nun would not be going against Church teaching. I am guessing that this nun was asking for an abortion for a woman who truly was not in mortal danger if she gave birth and that must be why she was excommunicated.

Jesuit magazine editor: Pope's comment on same-sex marriage against the Gospel
Fr. James Martin, S.J.
Washington D.C., May 18, 2010 / 11:13 pm (
In his post published on Monday, May 17, under the headline
"The Archdiocese of Boston is handling this matter quite differently—that is, more wisely—than Denver did," wrote Martin, in reference to the decision made by the Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, to stand behind a similar decision made last month by a pastor in Boulder, Colo.
The statement of Dr. Mary Grassa O’Neill, Boston's superintendent of Catholic schools, explaining that "the Archdiocese does not prohibit children of same sex parents from attending Catholic schools," was issued, according to Martin, "with the approval of Cardinal Sean O’Malley, I am told by a good source."
Cardinal O'Malley was in Portugal accompanying Pope Benedict on his visit to Fatima, when Grassa O’Neill released the statement.
America's culture editor also expresses his disappointment with the fact that Fr. Rafferty was not forced to reverse his decision. "That's odd, to say the least. Why couldn't they have simply asked the pastor to accept the child into the parish school?"
“(O)verall, though, the archdiocese has taken a wise and pastoral approach," Martin said, saying that it "stands in contrast to the increasingly heated language coming from church leaders on the topic of same-sex marriage."
"Pope Benedict XVI's
"A good friend of mine, who is gay, recently resigned from a position at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, where he said, with great dismay, that 'abortionsamesexmarriage' had become one polysyllabic word among some of his bosses."
Questioning the Pope's comment, Fr. Martin asked, "Why aren't 'abortion and war' the most 'insidious and dangerous' threats to the common good?"

"The great danger is that this increasingly popular equation will seem to many as having less to do with moral equivalency and more to do with a simple dislike, or even a hatred, of gays and lesbians.
"And that goes against not simply Catholic teaching, but against the Gospel,” Martin concluded.
CNA/EWTN News).- The culture editor of the Jesuit weekly magazine America, Fr. James Martin, S.J., argued yesterday in a post on the publication's blog that Pope Benedict's equation of abortion and same-sex marriage "is bizarre" and suggested that it also goes against the Gospel.“Hingham, Same-Sex Marriage, and Life Issues," Fr. Martin, a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, praised the Archdiocese's of Boston move to undermine the decision of Rev. James Rafferty, who last week denied enrollment to the child of a lesbian couple at St. Paul's Catholic elementary school in Hingham, Mass.comments last week in Fatima, Portugal, in which he stated that abortion and same-sex marriage, were 'some of today's most insidious and dangerous threats' to the common good seemed oddly discordant. The equation of abortion, something that clearly is about a threat to life, with same-sex marriage, which no matter how you look at it, does not mean that anyone is going to die, is bizarre," Martin opined.

Phoenix, Ariz., May 18, 2010 / 09:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A religious sister who was on a Catholic hospital panel that approved a direct abortion has excommunicated herself, the Diocese of Phoenix said on Tuesday. According to the diocese, Sr. Margaret McBride told Bishop Olmsted that she believed performing an abortion in a specific case from 2009 "was a morally good and allowable act according to Church teaching."
The abortion took place late last year at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. The mother was 11 weeks pregnant and was seriously ill with pulmonary hypertension, a condition worsened and possibly made fatal by pregnancy, according to the Washington Post.
An ethics committee which included doctors and hospital administrator Sr. Margaret McBride ruled that the abortion was necessary. Sr. McBride has been reassigned from her job as vice president of mission integration at the hospital.
In a Tuesday “Questions & Answers” document, the Diocese of Phoenix’s Office of Communications explained that Sr. McBride “held a position of authority at the hospital and was frequently consulted on ethical matters.”
The diocese stated that she was excommunicated because “she gave her consent that the abortion was a morally good and allowable act according to Church teaching. Furthermore, she admitted this directly to Bishop Olmsted. Since she gave her consent and encouraged an abortion she automatically excommunicated herself from the Church.”
The diocese added that canon law requires an excommunicated member of a religious community be dismissed from religious life unless his or her superior decides that dismissal is not completely necessary and that correction, restitution of justice and reparation of scandal can be sufficiently resolved in another way.
In addition, the diocese said that in this situation it was “clear” that St. Joseph’s Hospital was “not faithful to Catholic moral teaching” as outlined in the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs). Catholic Healthcare West, the hospital system of which St. Joseph’s is a part, has not followed the ERDs in at least one of their institutions, Chandler Regional Hospital.
According to the diocese, Bishop of Phoenix Thomas Olmsted is attempting to work with the hospital to help them fulfill requirements of self-identified Catholic institutions.