[A.A. Cunningham]

Chaput explains the difference in his column but if you're still confused then you can ask him yourself:

shepherd@archden.org

What does the CMA have to say about therapeutic abortions?

[Tax-chick]

Abp. Chaput either assumes that there is a hormonal or other agent that can actually prevent fertilization post-intercourse, or he's simply theorizing one for discussion purposes.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no hormonal contraceptive, "emergency" or otherwise, that is guaranteed always to prevent ovulation/fertilization, and never to prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. To me, discussion of the ethical issues involved is misleading unless the biological facts are correctly presented.

[Frank Sheed]

http://www.cathmed.org/index.shtml
Main website

http://www.priestsforlife.org/media/interviewisajiw.htm
Part of an interview with their former president and Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life is below.

I am not sure if things have advanced beyond the position paper I listed above in 2003, but their ethical journal, Linacre Quarterly, is available to peruse online on their website.

I would address this question to them if you are interested. In the meantime, I am not sure if the Bishop of Denver has consulted them or not.

---

G: Actually it’s not. There is no such thing as an abortion to save the life of the mother. As a matter of fact for a while.. several years.. I was very interested in that question in my formative years and I would ask every obstetrician and gynecologist that I met anywhere. And I said have you ever had a case where you had to do something to kill the baby to save the life of the mother. I have not come across one case, you know. People think of in the movie, the story the Cardinal, where the woman was delivering the child and got into complications and they crushed the baby’s head. And that is just not a part of modern medicine. That is not necessary to be done.

Where the confusion arises is the so-called indirect abortion. Or those cases where both mother and child are dying because of a situation, there are really only three situations like this that I can think of and that’s ectopic pregnancy, cancer of the uterus, and perhaps trauma, or an accidental traumatic injury to the uterus. And if you don’t do anything then both mother and child will die. Now if you treat the mother for whatever needs to be treated, the uterus is bleeding, and you remove the uterus and the baby is still in there, and you do nothing to kill the baby, that is if you had a means an artificial incubator, some day we will have it, I’m sure, you could put that baby in there, so in no way do you directly attack the life of the baby. But you can foresee that that baby will lose its life, but it will lose its life anyhow but without directly attacking. Those are the three instances, very rare, very rare, but those are not abortions. If you look at the five ways that abortions are done, which is the only purpose is to kill the child, none of these techniques are the methods used in these operations. So there is no such thing as an abortion necessary.

And you don’t need a law, you don’t need an exception because for ages that treatment of ectopic pregnancy, once the mother starts bleeding or has life-threatening complications, the treatment of cancer of the uterus, that has been always permissible without …having to legalize abortion. So the answer is simply no. There is no such thing as an abortion to save the life of the mother, sometimes early delivery, sometimes it is so early that the baby has a great risk of dying perhaps, but the baby is delivered, the baby is placed into intensive care, is given all the possible support, and may or may make it, but there is no such thing as an abortion to do that.

[Frank Sheed]

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Board of Directors 2005-2006

Officers President Thomas M. Pitre, MD Portland, OR President-elect Gerald P. Corcoran, MD Needham, MA Vice President Kathleen M. Raviele, MD Tucker, GA Treasurer Louis C. Breschi, MD Towson, MD Secretary Leonard P. Rybak, MD Springfield, IL

Board Members Immediate Past President R. Steven White, MD Daytona Beach, FL Past President John D. Lane, MD Langhorne, PA Regional Director Representative Jan Hemstad, MD Yakima, WA Regional Director Representative Lorna L. Cvetkovich, MD Ann Arbor, MI

Ex-Officio Members (Non-voting) Episcopal Advisor Most Rev. Robert F. Vasa, JCL, DD Diocese of Baker, Oregon Bend, OR Chaplain Rev. James R. Gould Diocese of Arlington, Virginia Fairfax Station, VA Parliamentarian Louis C. Breschi, MD Towson, MD Executive Editor, Linacre Quarterly Eugene F. Diamond, MD Chicago, IL FIAMC Representative Kevin Murrell, MD Augusta, GA

Appointed CMA Positions

Executive Vice President Robert J. Saxer, MD Ft. Walton Beach, FL

Consultant to the President Clement Cunningham, MD Rock Island, IL

Consultant to the President Patrick D. Guinan, M.D. Chicago, IL

Regional Directors

Region I Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont Helen T. Jackson, MD Brookline, MA James Suojanen, MD Medfield, MA Region II New York Anthony R. Pivarunas, MD Elma, NY Robert E. Madden, MD Bronxville, NY Region III Delaware, DC, Maryland New Jersey,Pennsylvania Virginia and West Virginia Lawrence L. Lyons, MD McKeesport, PA Lester A. Ruppersberger DO Washington Crossing, PA Region IV Indiana, Michigan and Ohio Lorna L. Cvetkovich, MD Ann Arbor, MI

Region V Alabama, Florida, Georgia North Carolina, Puerto Rico South Carolina and Tennessee Eric Norton, MD Spartanburg, SC Peter R. Morrow, MD St. Cloud, FL Region VI Arkansas, Kentucky Louisiana, Mississippi Oklahoma and Texas Albert E. Gunn, MD Houston, TX Martha M. Garza, MD San Antonio, TX Region VII Illinois, Iowa, Kansas Minnesota, Missouri Nebraska, North Dakota South Dakota and Wisconsin Thomas M. Zabiega, MD Lyons, IL Paul B. Dickinson, MD, JD St. Paul, MN Region VIII Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho Montana, Oregon Washington and Wyoming Lynne Bissonnette Pitre, MD, PhD Portland, OR Jan Hemstad, MD Yakima, WA

Region IX Arizona, Colorado, Nevada New Mexico and Utah William H. Brophy, MD Mesa, AZ Maricela P. Moffitt, MD Phoenix, AZ Region X California Stephen G. Watson, MD Van Nuys, CA John Lewis, MD Santa Clara, CA Region XI CANADA Howie L. Bright, MD Chilliwack, BC Brian Hynes, MD Sarnia Ontario Military Guild Richard A. Watson, MD Mountainside, NJ Medical Missions Director Daniel B. Reardon, MD East Greenwich, RI