I do not believe that direct abortion is ever condoned as a licit option. There are certain cases of rare ectopic pregnancies where the fertilized seed implants in the fallopian tubes (or doubly rarely in the abdomen, ovaries, or within the cervix) and will result in the imminent death of the mother and child due to rupture of the fallopian tubes is one special case.
There is no current medical treatment available that can guarantee the life of both mother and child. But The Church has given moral guidelines without specific official instructions about what options are morally licit or illicit. Most Catholic theologians accept full or partial salpingectomy (removal of the fallopian tube), as a morally acceptable medical intervention in these cases. This is not the same as a direct abortion and it is beyond my technical knowledge to know if its medically possible (highly doubtful) for the tubal tissue with intact fetus to be surgically relocated and reattached to the uterus.
Tubal pregnancies used to be fairly rare but have in modern times increased in frequency to the alarming rate of about 100,000 a year. So this is something that couples need to be concerned with. Reasons for increased incidence are statistically related to increasing risk factors: smoking, sexually transmitted diseases, tubal sterilizations, fertility drugs, and previous occurrences (in most cases behaviorally related factors). In fact, ectopic pregnancies are now the leading cause of maternal deaths in the first trimester when they do not result in a natural miscarriage. This kind of abnormal pregnancy leaves less than 10 weeks for its detection and a medical and moral decision before waiting for a miscarriage or for the tubes to rupture and risk hemorrhage and death.
The moral teachings of the Church call for medical treatment that respects the lives of both mother and child.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has promulgated moral principles for Catholics to follow in these cases:
- In the case of extrauterine pregnancy, no intervention is morally licit which constitutes a direct abortion.
- Operations, treatments and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child.
There is a great detailed discussion of this topic area for further insights here:
Catholics United For The Faith: Ectopic for Discussion - A Catholic Approach to Tubal Pregnancies
The bottom line is The Church NEVER permits the direct abortion of a child for ANY reason. Child and Mother must be given equal protection and moral consideration. Those opposed to Catholic teaching on morals and faith will often seek to attack the Church on this topic and claim we are just hiding behind double talk. But in fact The Church is very consistent and its motives of respecting all live (both mother and child) are highly consistent and compassionatly recognize and respect the difficult moral delimmas, grief of the parents and limited medical choices available.
Generally speaking, the child is dependent on the mother for life. At that time the uterus loses its ability to support the life of the embryo it is permitted to intervene to preserve the mother’s life. The difference between this and abortion is the motive within the limitations of remedial actions - there has been no intentional attack on the child. In cases where a hysterectomy needs to be performed (cancer while pregnant or tubal birth etc.) the mother and the uterus have been directly treated; a secondary effect is the UNAVOIDABLE death of a child whose death was imminent as a result of the mother losing her ability to sustain life. This should be seen more as an intervention to prevent an accidental double death rather than an illicit act to arbitrarily target one human over another for death as a matter of social convenience and lifestyle choice.
I hope this helps.
James
