WTF?!

I just heard in the news that somewhere a woman was actually thrown out of the Roman Catholic church (can’t find a translation for the German word Exkommunikation) for an abortion. She did not abort the child just ‘for fun’ or because it was cheaper than buying the pill regularly. No, she was first of all in mortal danger when carrying out that child and secondly got pregnant through rape. The same happened to the doctor who performed the abortion - but not the rapist!

The first thing that went through my mind when I heard the bishop’s argument for doing the thing a true believer in Christ would see as the worst punishment of all was indeed “What the fuck?”

Although Roman Catholic, I’m not exactly a religious person, but the first reaction after the aforementioned cursing was thinking ‘why is any woman still part of the Roman Catholic church while people like that bishop are allowed to judge a woman’s decision about something they will never have to experience themselves?’

I can just about accept the fact that the Roman Catholic church sees abortion as murder. Depending on how you define a life, it is murder. But not even seeing the wrong which happened to the woman beforehand - the rape - as a possible reason for not carrying out that child. And, in addition, putting the life of an unborn person - the foetus - before the life of a born person - the mother - is even less understandable. The mother is still very young and only weights about 36 kilos. She’s extremely thin and would certainly have been in grave danger throughout the pregnancy.

Doing the worst to her which the Catholic church is capable of certainly was extreme. And certainly not covered by Jesus’ command of loving the others like yourself.