[Rytwyng]

Doctors concede that it is always safer for the woman to come to term with her pregnancy than to have an abortion, even if this means having a caesarian section.

What about tubal & ectopic pregnancies? In those cases, the child cannot be saved, but surgery can save the mother. Note that in this rare case, the destruction of the unsaveable fetus is an unintended side effect of a livesaving operation, not a desired goal. (Intentional destruction of the fetus is always murder, of course -- this much I learned in Evangelicalism back in my Operation Rescue days.)

I'm not arguing with you, I'm just genuinely desiring to understand the Catholic position. I always thought that the unintended double effect was acceptable in such a sad (and RARE) case.

[VeritatisSplendor]

good catch. There are other situations besides ectopic pregnancy where it is not safer for women to go to term - significant heart or kidney disease, preeclampsia, for example.

It simply isn’t true that doctors concede “it is always safer.”

Mrs VS

[NYer]

What about tubal & ectopic pregnancies?

Ectopic for Discussion: A Catholic Approach to Tubal Pregnancies