Thursday 27 May 2010

The Excommunication of Sister Margaret McBride


The Spectator - Nun's excommunication shows hypocrisy:

Sister Margaret McBride, the highest-ranking Catholic official at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Ariz., was excommunicated earlier this month.

The sin that earned her the most severe punishment the church can dole out?

McBride condoned a life-saving abortion for a patient.

A 27-year-old woman pregnant with her fifth child arrived at St. Joseph’s last November in critical condition. Doctors discovered she had pulmonary hypertension, a heart condition that would have almost certainly caused her to die if she had not aborted her 11-week pregnancy.

McBride, the hospital’s vice president of mission integration, consulted with a group of medical professionals. They approved the procedure to save the patient, who was already experiencing heart failure, according to hospital records.

See also 'Sister Margaret's Choice' by Nicholas D. Kristof in The New York Times.

2 comments:

  1. I quite simply don't know what to say Tina. Thanks for posting this - it is very important.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am surprised that anti-Roman Catholic controversialists in the UK have not made more of this story.

    May they be saving their fire for the visit of the Pope?

    I have a personal take on this. Before my mother was pregnant with me, she had a pregnancy that went wrong, and she had an abortion because of the threat to her life.

    I do not know whether the abortion was direct or indirect, but if the latter the RC Church would appear to teach that I ought not to exist!

    ReplyDelete

Comments and contributions are welcome so long as they respect the rules of courtesy and respect, which is not to inhibit robust disagreement.