Ariz. Hospital Rebukes Nun For Allowing Abortion To Save Woman's Life

The Catholic Diocese in Phoenix excommunicated a nun who was an administrator at a Catholic hospital after she participated in a 2009 decision authorizing an abortion to save the life of a critically ill patient, the Arizona Republic reports. The patient was 11 weeks pregnant and had pulmonary hypertension, a rare condition in which continuing the pregnancy often jeopardizes the life of the woman, according to the Republic.

Bishop Thomas Olmsted, the leader of the diocese, said in a statement to the Republic that Sister Margaret McBride -- vice president of mission integration at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center -- was "automatically excommunicated" for her role in the decision. Olmsted serves as "the voice of moral authority" for institutions in the diocese but does not have control over the hospital's business practices, the Republic reports.

Hospital officials said McBride, who was on call as a member of the hospital's ethics committee when the abortion took place, helped reach the decision in conjunction with the patient and doctors. The hospital stands by the ethics committee's decision, the officials said (Clancy, Arizona Republic, 5/15).

In his statement, Olmsted contended that McBride violated the principles of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which ban abortions in all circumstances and dictate that pregnancies can be terminated only as an indirect result of other medical treatment, such as radiation (Olmsted statement, Arizona Republic, 5/15).

Olmsted also said he is "gravely concerned" that an abortion took place at the hospital and that he is "further concerned by the hospital's statement that the termination of a human life was necessary to treat the mother's underlying medical condition." He continued, "An unborn child is not a disease," adding that health care providers "should certainly try to save a pregnant mother's life" but that "the means by which they do it can never be by directly killing her unborn child."

Suzanne Pfister, a vice president at St. Joseph's Hospital, in a statement said that the religious directives do not always "explicitly address a clinical situation" and that the facility took steps that were guided by Catholic values, including the belief that "all life is sacred." She added, "In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother's life required" an abortion.

In a letter to Olmsted, officials from Catholic Healthcare West -- St. Joseph's Hospital's parent company -- wrote, "If there had been a way to save the pregnancy and still prevent the death of the mother, we would have done it," adding, "We are convinced there was not." The officials asked Olmsted to clarify the directives, one of which says that "operations, treatments and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious condition of a pregnant woman are permitted ... even if they will result in the death of the unborn child."

After the incident, St. Joseph's Hospital reassigned McBride to another position in the hospital, according to the Republic. McBride can appeal her excommunication through the Vatican or seek a remedy through confession, the Republic reports (Clancy, Arizona Republic, 5/15).


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