"Abortion Never Saves a Woman's Life"

UPDATE:  Some necessary substantiation here.  See also this consideration of ending ectopic pregnancies and the principle of double effect.  Excerpts:

It is absolutely true that the Catholic Church bans direct abortion to save the life of the mother. However (and this is an extremely important point) the mother's life may be saved by a surgical procedure that does not directly attack the preborn baby's life.

The most common dysfunctions that may set a mother's life against that of her preborn child's are the ectopic pregnancy, carcinoma of the uterine cervix, and cancer of the ovary. Occasionally, cancer of the vulva or vagina may indicate surgical intervention.

In such cases, under the principle of the "double effect," attending physicians must do everything in their power to save both the mother and the child. If the physicians decide that, in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, the mother's life can only be saved by the removal of the Fallopian tube (and with it, the preborn baby), or by removal of some other tissue essential for the preborn baby's life, the baby will of course die. But this kind of surgery would not be categorized as an abortion. This is all the difference between deliberate murder (abortion) and unintentional natural death.

Aborted Children: "They're Just Thrown Away Like Garbage"

Father Dan Pattee of Franciscan University is interviewed by Emily Stimpson and talks faith, life, and human rights. Excerpts:

...OSV: Did spending weekend after weekend praying at abortion centers across the country change how you see the abortion industry?

Father Pattee: It did. As the weeks went by, I started noticing that these centers tended to be unmarked. You often would have no way of knowing what was going on inside except for the pro-life groups praying outside on the sidewalks. It’s like they’re trying to cultivate a stealth presence.

Others have very misleading names. In Shreveport, La., the abortion center is called the Hope Family Care Center. There is deception at the heart of the abortion movement, and that comes across even in the way their centers look. Of course, along the way, it came out in far worse ways as well.

OSV: Like what?

Father Pattee: The reason they always give for keeping abortion legal is that it’s necessary to keep women safe. But to make that argument, they have to cover up all the ways abortion is not safe for women and all the terrible things that happen to women inside abortion clinics. 

For example, in Birmingham, Ala., right before we got there, two ambulances came rushing to the abortion center, and two women were carried out on gurneys. The pro-lifers standing outside took pictures, but if they hadn’t, no one would have known about that. Again, in Jackson, Miss., the day before we arrived, the court permitted the last abortion center in the state to stay open for another 90 days so that it could find a way to bring itself into compliance with the law that requires only OB-GYNs perform abortions. Before that, they were allowing people who weren’t doctors to do abortions. No OB-GYN was present.

Then, there was the case in Chicago this summer, where a woman died because the clinic workers held off on calling 911. They knew she was in trouble, but they didn’t want it to look bad for the clinic. Again, there is deception at the heart of the pro-abortion movement. They claim they’re all about the health and well-being of the mother, but their actions say otherwise.

OSV: Before Andrew Moore’s death, what was the hardest moment of the walk for you?

Father Pattee: That was in El Paso.

What's Inside a Pregnant Woman?

Let's ask an expert, shall we?