in treating an ectopic pregnancy, you are still killing the preborn. It is abortion in all but name.
also, in many cases, if the mother dies due to medical complications, the baby will die too. A baby at, say 11 weeks, cannot survive out of the womb.
I am not saying that I believe abortion is right-—I am saying in some rare situations it is excusable. There are real moral “gray areas” in some of these medical emergency cases. And I am a Catholic who would never want to be involved in an abortion for any reason. I would feel tremendous guilt for the rest of my life, even if the abortion was done to save the mother.
The critical difference is that you are intending to treat an illness; the death of the child is an undesired but unavoidable side effect.
Contrast this with an abortion procedure, where the object and intent of the procedure is to kill the child and remove her body from the womb, usually in bits and pieces.
And I am a Catholic who would never want to be involved in an abortion for any reason. I would feel tremendous guilt for the rest of my life, even if the abortion was done to save the mother.
It sounds to me like your conscience doesn't really believe that it is "excusable", then. People don't feel "tremendous guilt" over something that they truly believe is "excusable".
You need to read up on the matter. You do not understand the moral principles involved.
Read the “Declaration on Procured Abortion,” from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (1974)
Also, read the Catechism on the Fifth Commandment.