Reply #61: I am catholic and they do (and they don't)

[RUDUing2]

the wording is a little unclear and a lot of it depends on how you and/or your priest interprets the canon law...

Elective abortions are banned (but even there dissent abounds)..

some priest (and the pope, etc) say this also applies to abortions to save the mothers life...other priest say it doesn't cause the church allows a type of *self defense* loophole...

also the church allows an abortion that is a *side effect* of another procedure...

for instance there is dissent over whether you can have an etopic pregnancy aborted...but you can have the fallopian tube (including the fetus) removed w/no naysaying by the church..

There really is no *one* stance for all catholics...but the so-called *official* stance (but not an infallible declaration) is that all abortion is wrong and that you cant even have one to save the mothers life because the life of the fetus is just as important (whackjob reasoning in my opinion...)...however the majority of american catholics believe that abortion should remain legal even if they are personally opposed to it, and almost all believe that there should be exceptions made for mothers health and life..and if the fetus has severe or incompatible w/life anomalies/defects...