Arizona Nun Excommunicated for Saving Woman's Life

Sister Margaret McBride was an administrator at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center; now she has been excommunicated and demoted, for the grave moral crime of acting to save a woman's life.

McBride was part of an ethics committee that decided to grant a life-saving abortion to a patient with pulmonary hypertension, a dangerous illness impacts hearts and lung function and can make pregnancy fatal. When Bishop Thomas J. Olmstead got wind that the procedure had taken place, he denounced it and took action against the nun; McBride was automatically excommunicated for the sin of "formal cooperation" with an abortion. Update: While Bishop Olmstead and the Catholic diocese claim that anyone who has an abortion or helps provide one is automatically excommunicated, RH Reality Check explains that this is simply not true.

The Catholic hospital stands behind the decision to terminate the 11-week pregnancy as necessary to save the woman's life. With recent news stories, I grow more and more frustrated with and opposed to the positions of conservative Catholic bishops and male church leadership, while admiring the courageous stands of Catholic nuns.

As Jos points out on Feministing, "a fetus couldn't survive if the woman died at 11 weeks — a fact that wouldn't change my feelings on saving a woman's life anyway, but it does show Olmsted's interest really isn't in saving life." And isn't it interesting that the Sisters of the Church and the Catholic Health Association supported health reform, instead of trying to derail it over misinformation about abortion provisions. So it's the women of the church and the actual medical professionals who aren't making it their top priority at every turn to keep women from getting abortions, while high-ranking men interfere trying to stop these procedures, even at the cost of sacrificing a woman's life. Who is really pro-life here?

At the very least, a life-saving abortion such as the one in question should be accepted by the Catholic Church as an act of self-defense. As the Catholic Church's Catechism says: "Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow." So why, for some elements of the Catholic Church, is the fetus' so-called "life" the only one sacred and worth saving? Why deny women the ability to defend their own lives, which the Church has stated is a legitimate aspect of morality.

And for Sister McBride and the hospital, approving a procedure to save the life of their patient was not only permitted but, if anything, duty: "Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another's life." McBride would have been wrong to deny the pregnant woman the ability to save her life — she had a grave duty to protect the patient in her care. Maybe Bishop Olmstead and the Catholic Church need to brush up on their Catechism.

Photo credit: quinn.anya