I have yet to see anybody present a scenario that would require a devout Catholic to precipitate in abortion whether it be chemical or surgical. What I have seen a lot of rationalizations on why would be okay for Catholic to do so-rationalizations are church does not accept.
Actually, you have. Remember the recent Arizona case in which the woman had pulmonary hypertension and was being treated on an emergent basis in a Catholic hospital? Her doctor examined her and found her to be in need of an abortion in order to relieve the phsyiological stresses that the pregnancy was causing, due to underlying pulmonary hypertension. The ethics committee was consulted, and sided with the doctor. The procedure was done on an emergent basis as they ruled out transferring her to another facility because she was too sick.
Everyone not involved in the case can banter back and forth over whether this woman had a
true emergency, or whether or not the case was warranted even to begin with. But outside of everyone’s own personal world, there’s a medical world, and the medical world gives the responsibility of calling emergencies to the doctors assigned to patients. That woman’s doctor called an emergency, and ordered an emergency treatment and stated that she would have died without the procedure, and had the backing of an ethics committee. The fact is, a woman wound up in the ER of a Catholic hospital, and an emergency procedure resulting in terminating the pregnancy was done to help her recover and live longer, and they had doctors and staff present to be involved and carry out the doctor’s orders, in agreement with the ethics committee. Whether the staff was Catholic or not, they had to take care of their patient and stabilize her. They are not allowed to sit back and watch her die. They know this. That’s why they treated her as ordered and took the heat later.
With regards to pharmacies and prescriptions for contraceptives/plan B, I don’t know any doctors who just wouldn’t send the patient to a pharmacy who dispenses contraceptives/plan B. That is, if the doctor didn’t give it to the patient in the office to begin with. Doctors have a list of pharmacies who give patients a hard time, and give that info to the patient. And pharmacists who give their pharmacies a hard time because they don’t want to do their job just dont’ get hired (if they’re honest in the interview) or get fired later for not doing their job. They’ll whine about it later, sure, but they’ll be gone from that pharmacy.
In the ER, a nurse who has a problem dispensing plan b to a rape victim should be able to find someone willing to give Plan B to the woman. If a nurse anywhere creates too much of a problem and patients and other staff complain about her, the hospital
will get rid of her. They’ll just cut her hours, switch her days, move her to another department or make her life miserable until she leaves. That’s why the best place for Catholics nurses to work is in Catholic institutions or low-risk areas (low risk meaning a low risk of being assigned something that will conflict with Catholic teaching).
