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no choice -
Under Vatican ruling, abortion triggers automatic excommunication
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Under a 1988 Vatican ruling, “abortion” is defined as any method used to terminate a pregnancy from the moment of conception. Abortion thus understood is always illicit, according to the official discipline of the Catholic church, and can trigger excommunication for the parties involved.
The church’s condemnation of abortion includes not only interventions to remove a fetus before birth, but the use of all abortifacients, including intrauterine devices and certain types of birth control pills that prevent implantation or stimulate uterine contractions to reject a fertilized egg. It also encompasses drugs such as RU486, called the abortion pill, which provokes miscarriages by blocking progesterone in the first weeks of pregnancy.
This expansive standard is expressed in a May 23, 1988, ruling from the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, the Vatican office charged with authoritative interpretations of canon law. The council was responding to a dubium, or request for clarification, from a bishop on canon 1398, which stipulates excommunication as the penalty for abortion.
The ban on abortion, in the sense of the deliberate termination of a pregnancy, is absolute.
So Nebe, although my sister may have her head in the sand. She is following the ruling of her church, something many people choose not to do. Its a personal choice for her, and one I respect.
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