The Catholic Church in the U.S. is facing uproar after excommunicating a nun who saved the life of a pregnant woman by letting her have an abortion.Sister Margaret McBride was also removed from her job as a hospital administrator after choosing life over religion.
Sister McBride had given permission for a mother of four to have an emergency termination when she was rushed to St Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, 11 weeks into the pregnancy.
Doctors said the woman was suffering from pulmonary hypertension, an illness that could have killed her and her unborn child.
Terminating the pregnancy was the only way to guarantee the mother would survive.
As hospital administrator at the Catholic hospital, Sister McBride gave permission for the abortion to proceed.
She consulted with colleagues on the hospital's board before allowing the termination go ahead. The woman survived.
Despite being described as 'saintly' and the 'moral conscience' of the Catholic hospital, Sister McBride was excommunicated from the Catholic Church by Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted for supporting the abortion.
'She consented in the murder of an unborn child,' said the Rev. John Ehrich, the medical ethics director for the Diocese of Phoenix.
'There are some situations where the mother may in fact die along with her child.
'But - and this is the Catholic perspective - you can't do evil to bring about good. The end does not justify the means.'
Hospital officials backed McBride's actions.
A spokesman for the hospital said: 'In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother's life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy.'
Surgeon John Garvie said: 'Let me assure all that there is no finer defender of life at our hospital than Sister McBride.
'Everyone I know considers Sister Margaret to be the moral conscience of the hospital.
'She works tirelessly and selflessly as the living example and champion of compassionate, appropriate care for the sick and dying.
'Any suggestion to the contrary is misguided and frankly outrageous.
'I am very disappointed to read that Sister Margaret's role at the hospital has been reassigned. This leaves the impression that she did something wrong.
'What she did was something very few are asked to do; namely, to make a life-and-death decision with the full recognition that in order to save one life, another life must be sacrificed.'
Friends of the Irish born nurse have accused the Catholic church of hypocrisy as it takes years for priests who sexually abuse children to be excommunicated.
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