Sister Margaret McBride Excommunicated For Support Of Life-Saving Abortion (VIDEO)

PHOENIX (AP) -- A nun and administrator at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix has been reassigned and rebuked by the local bishop for agreeing that a severely ill woman needed an abortion to survive.

Sister Margaret McBride was on an ethics committee that included doctors that consulted with a young woman who was 11 weeks pregnant late last year, The Arizona Republic newspaper reported on its website Saturday. The woman was suffering from a life-threatening condition that likely would have caused her death if she hadn't had the abortion at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center.

Hospital officials defended McBride's actions but confirmed that she has been reassigned from her job as vice president of mission integration at the hospital. They said in a statement that saving the mother required that the fetus be aborted.

"In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother's life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy," hospital vice president Susan Pfister said in an e-mail to the newspaper. She said the facility owned by Catholic Healthcare West adheres to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services but that the directives do not answer all questions.

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Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, head of the Phoenix Diocese, indicated in a statement that the Roman Catholic involved was "automatically excommunicated" because of the action. The Catholic Church allows the termination of a pregnancy only as a secondary effect of other treatments, such as radiation of a cancerous uterus.

"I am gravely concerned by the fact that an abortion was performed several months ago in a Catholic hospital in this diocese," Olmsted said in a statement sent to The Arizona Republic. "I am further concerned by the hospital's statement that the termination of a human life was necessary to treat the mother's underlying medical condition.

"An unborn child is not a disease. While medical professionals should certainly try to save a pregnant mother's life, the means by which they do it can never be by directly killing her unborn child. The end does not justify the means."

Olmsted added that if a Catholic "formally cooperates" in an abortion, he or she is automatically excommunicated.

Neither the hospital nor the bishop's office would say if Olmsted had a direct role in her demotion. He does not have control of the hospital as a business but is the voice of moral authority over any Catholic institution operating in the diocese.

The patient, who hasn't been identified, was seriously ill with pulmonary hypertension. The condition limits the ability of the heart and lungs to function and is made worse, possibly even fatal, by pregnancy.

"This decision was made after consultation with the patient, her family, her physicians, and in consultation with the Ethics Committee, of which Sr. Margaret McBride is a member," the hospital said in a statement issued Friday.

A letter sent to Olmsted Monday by the board chairwoman and the president and CEO of CHW asks Olmsted to provide further clarification about the directives. The pregnancy, the letter says, carried a nearly certain risk of death for the mother.

"If there had been a way to save the pregnancy and still prevent the death of the mother, we would have done it," the letter says. "We are convinced there was not."

McBride declined to comment.

Comments

[Artemis34]

02:22 AM on 06/22/2010

http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=3013

Canon Lawyer: Sister's Excommunication 'Null and Void'

"In a Letter to the Editor of The (London) Tablet, Ladislas Orsy, S.J., professor of canon law at Georgetown University has weighed in on the excommunication of Sister Margaret Mary McBride, and has declared it, based on canon law, "null and void."..."

[joeyfoto]

08:47 AM on 06/17/2010

The sexual sickness of Catholicism is the essential sexual sickness of Christianity. To be a Christian is to accept 'the fact' that real life begins when you die. That is a goddamned lie.

Once you begin with that twisted premise, there is no telling what anti-human irrational nonsense you can come up with. A quick glance at the history of "Western Civilization" for the last 2000 years, gives you a very good picture of the variants on the theme of idiocy. There is no indication that the crack-pot misconceptions, the cruelty or the inhumanity of Christianity will stop any time soon just as the kindness and decency of Christians, like Sister Margaret McBride, will continue to compound the confusion.

When he was asked what he thought of Western Civilization, Gandhi responded: "I think it would be a good idea."

[Artemis34]

11:40 PM on 06/08/2010

Catholic Church:
Inside the womb = sacred
Outside the womb = prey

BTW, I understand that if a priest commits sexual abuse or rape inside the confessional that excommunications is supposed to be automatic.

[Artemis34]

11:29 PM on 06/08/2010

National Catholic Reporter: Ethicists fault bishop’s action in Phoenix abortion case

http://ncronline.org/news/ethicists-fault-bishop%E2%80%99s-action-phoenix-abortion-case

"Since that declaration [of excommunication] was released in May, however, the bishop’s action has come in for criticism from a wide range of Catholic experts who question its proportionality and its precipitous nature. Some see it as disproportionally harsh; others as inconsistent within the framework of the application of wider Catholic law."

[DMSmith]

09:10 PM on 06/06/2010

In a smart world, NO religion should have ANY control over what is done by Doctors and their patients.
There really SHOULD be a law. This was and should have been purely a personal medical decision. The church had no place in it.
That they expel the nun and not the priests who have raped children says all that need be said about the Catholic church - and by extension ANYone who still adheres to this religion.
Many will consider it wrong, but I personally blame ALL who remain in any way affiliated with this church to be guilty by association in all the rapes and incest that have gone on and will continue to because they remain silent and involved.

[turfkiller]

10:39 AM on 06/07/2010

Fundamentally, this is not about religion having control over doctors or being a purely personal decision.

1. This is about how we make decisions. Are our decisions based on science or belief?
2. Is the organizations of belief, churches, superior to the contract of our nation, the US Constitution?

As for those remaining in the church, Sister Margaret McBride demonstrates that there is opposition to the radicals in the Vatican who are in contravention of the Vatican II council. She and many Catholics who deal with the real problems making science based decisions and recognizing the wishes and desires of individuals and their families are remonstrating.

[DMSmith]

02:29 PM on 06/07/2010

Fundamentally it IS religion having control over doctors.

Those who remain do just that. And that, ultimately is all. They should not.

[charlesdickens]

12:32 PM on 06/06/2010

It is through some of these women that the Catholic church will go on.

[Number 6]

01:22 AM on 06/06/2010

Speaking as a former Catholic, I have to state the obvious. Why does the male Church hierarchy lose all interest in the well-being of children AFTER they're born? They have the gall to excommunicate this good nun, while enabling and covering up for pedophile priests? People will continue to walk away from the Church unless and until (1) they allow women in the priesthood, (2) they permit priests to marry, and (3) they clean house and stop making excuses for predators in their ranks. But I believe all this can happen if they take that first huge step and permit women in the priesthood.

[scottyknows]

11:42 PM on 06/07/2010

Catholic Charities is a great organization for helping women and their children.

And there are many Christian organizations, as well.

Don't know any atheist ones. Planned Parenthood does help women in not attaining that "after they're born" state.

[Number 6]

01:42 AM on 06/08/2010

I think you've misconstrued my comment. I'm not criticizing Catholics or Catholic organization. I'm criticizing the Catholic hierarchy, including the Vatican. There are two Churches. The one in the field, represented by people like this Sister, are doing good.

I'm sorry, but this attitude that the life of the fetus outweighs every other consideration, including the life of the mother, is archaic and a bit insane.

[bluerthanblue15]

11:59 AM on 06/08/2010

There are many, many ------secular------ organizations that help women and children. To continue to spread the image of Catholicism being in the trenches and no others is patently false.

Secular, ------humanist------ organizations are out there and in fact were there first.

[MarkMad]

06:32 PM on 06/05/2010

Do they actually think that anyone in this matter have reason? That’s lunacy.

[Chuck Hannington]

12:29 AM on 06/05/2010

According to the church, IF "a Catholic "formally cooperates" in an abortion, he or she is automatically excommunicated".

and

"This decision was made after consultation with the patient, her family, her physicians, and in consultation with the Ethics Committee, of which Sr. Margaret McBride is a member,"

therefore

EVERYONE that is a catholic, including the patient, her family, her physicians and the entire Ethics Committee should be excommunicated.

Bottom line is, the decision was not made by one person.

It is very scary however, to contemplate the idea that any one of us might end up in a hospital where hospital administrators will choose to let us DIE because of their religious beliefs.

[bluerthanblue15]

10:39 AM on 06/05/2010

Absolutely.

And I've been trying to make the case that the church ought to be excommunicating those Catholics practicing birth control for the sake of responsible family planning since the church considers contraception an ----intrinsic---- evil and killing the potential for a conception which, in the church's eyes, is a fully considered human being.

But then imnsho, the church does what is ---convenient--- and expedient, all with the bottom line of $$$$$ and that in and of itself answers a lot of questions.

Excommunication is a joke.... and used to terrify Catholics. Unfortunately for the church for the church, it's lost its glitter. Fortunately, Catholics are waking up to just that.

[scottyknows]

11:43 PM on 06/07/2010

What hospitals would that be and what beliefs would bring that about?

"Paranoia is destroy-a." ray davies, the kinks.

[Carpool Kathleen]

07:13 PM on 06/04/2010

A new low......if I did believe in a God, I'd be thanking S/Him every day for my mom formally renouncing the Catholic Church when she had kids. She wasn't about to sign our souls over to them for eternity. I can't even imagine growing up in that cesspool.

[mollymac]

05:51 PM on 06/04/2010

Why do we care what this bishop says? He is not a woman, not life-threatened, not a medical expert, not anything but a misogynistic jerk. He has no business sticking his nose in this woman's body or medical decisions.

[turfkiller]

01:49 PM on 06/05/2010

The 'culture' war is not over. Be it the rights of a mother to choose or science based medicine these Bishops and others who believe they are doing God's work are slowly winning. Now with Palin convincing her followers that she is the real woman rights liberator in liberating women from the pain of individual rights. More and more Americans believe that abortion can only be murder.

The Bishops, Palins' and other radicals like the supreme court now pronounce that the rights of organizations, corporations and countries to exist is equal to or superior to the rights of individuals to exist.

Everyone has the right to be free but by it's nature cannot but is being granted to countries, governments, churches, corporations or just about any other organization. It is and should only be a right granted to and restricted to individuals.

[LynneE]

12:08 AM on 06/06/2010

Good point! Here in Montana, the right-to-life-for-fetus-not-women groups are trying to pass a "personhood" amendment, granting full rights to a "human being from the beginning of development." There are many bloggers that feel that women should be allowed to die in lieu of having a life-saving abortion. It's frightening really.

[Brian OHara]

01:45 AM on 06/04/2010

50,000 - 100,000 die every year because they don't have healthcare. These people who die are interesting. They don't run up bills that they can't pay. They choose death because it is the only choice given them. The Catholic Bishops Conference has no problem killing the honorable poor because they are pro-life. Some pro-life people, apparently Bishops, too, are quite as pro-life as they seem to think they are.

[William J Unverferth Sr]

10:02 AM on 06/04/2010

hunh?

[333888999]

09:28 AM on 06/05/2010

Is that not a winner, Bill? Something Sarah Palin might say.

[Poorsarah]

11:47 PM on 06/03/2010

Good for her; she did the right thing by saving the mother's life. Hopefully she will consider it an honor to be booted by the Catholic church. Personally, I believe that abortions should be performed under certain conditions: when the life of the mother is in peril, anencephaly, if the baby is already dead in the womb, rape and/or incest, when the baby can only survive in the womb and will die shortly after birth. I cannot see indiscriminate abortions, though.

[nikanj]

08:30 PM on 06/04/2010

Personally, if there was no indiscriminate spewing of sperm by irresponsible males,
there would be very few 'indiscriminate abortions'.

[turfkiller]

02:06 PM on 06/05/2010

If you can ban 'indiscriminate' abortion, you can impose abortion on 'indiscriminate' breeders. The opposite of pro-life isn't pro-choice. The opposite of pro-life is sterility and abortion practices based on political / religious beliefs on selected groups, justified by being better for society and elimination of evil and those not like the believers.

[Artemis34]

11:36 PM on 06/08/2010

Conservatives in the US Northern Mariana's enslaved workers, raped them and forced them to have abortions, all under the US flag. This is one of the many cases where they prove the are both anti-life and anti-choice.

Trust women.

[Beth Boyle]

11:03 PM on 06/03/2010

I find Margaret McBride's story heart rending. She did what God would want her to do, she made her choice using her heart and did not let the Church stand in the way of doing something Christlike. I am sure the women she saved and her family will be ever grateful.

[BrunswickGaDem]

09:06 PM on 06/03/2010

God Bless Sr. Margaret and her colleagues at St. Joseph. You've shown the world what it means to be truely Christ-like. If the hierarchy of the Church could only learn to emulate you and the tens of thousands of dedicated priests, nuns, brothers, and laity who are willing to go where there is need and sacrifice themselves, rather than worrying about what is said by "Canon Law" of how it affects the churches "image" the church would not be in the straits it finds itself in.