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Birmingham, Alabama, December 2, 1988 Church Authorities Clarify Legal Definition Of Abortion  By Greg ErlandsonVATICAN CITY (NC) -- Church authorities have clarified the legal definition of abortion to include new drugs and surgical procedures. "In light of what's happened in abortion lately, and in light of what we know about conception, and in light of the church's teaching of the sacredness of human life, the question arose" whether the "legal definition used by the church is something more encompassing" than the traditional legal understanding of what is meant by abortion, said Dominican Father Joseph Fox, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law. The commission said any method used to terminate a human life from the moment of conception until birth is an abortion and therefore an excommunicable offense. Father Fox said it was his opinion that the ruling includes all abortifacients, including intrauterine devices and certain types of birth control pills. He also said the term "fetus" was used to include all life from the moment of conception until birth. Scientifically speaking, the term fetus is applied to unborn human life from the end of the third month until birth. The canon law commission made the ruling last January, but it was not announced at the Vatican until Nov.24. The ruling clarified Canon 1398, which says that "a person who procures a completed abortion incurs an automatic excommunication." The Nov. 24 statement said abortion is not only the "expulsion of the immature fetus" but is "the killing of the same fetus in any way and at any time from the moment of conception." Father Fox said the traditional understanding of abortion has been the ejection of a "living but nonviable fetus" from the uterus. New technologies have eclipsed this traditional understanding, he said. The recently released French developed drug RU486, called the abortion pill, provokes miscarriages by blocking progesterone in the first weeks of pregnancy. Progesterone is a hormone necessary for a pregnancy to succeed. In addition, doctors have developed new surgical procedures to kill some fetuses in the case of multiple pregnancies. This procedure, in which doctors insert a needle through a woman 's abdomen and inject potassium chloride into the hearts of selective fetuses, was designed to increase the chances of a successful pregnancy for one of the fetuses. Abortifacients include the IUD, which prevents the implantation of the fertilized egg, as well as socalled "morning after" pills and certain birth control pills that prevent implantation or stimulate uterine contractions to reject the fertilized egg. However, for an excommunication penalty to go into effect, one must know there is a pregnancy, and there must be a free choice to abort, Father Fox said. He acknowledged that in the case of the IUD as well as abortifacient drugs, one might not know if an abortion has occurred. Procuring, or helping someone to procure, an abortion is one of only seven offenses explicitly punished by excommunication under canon law. It is an automatic punishment, which means there need not be any official church declaration of the fact. While normally only a bishop or certain church authorities have the authority to remove the penalty of automatic excommunication, in some dioceses this authority can be delegated to local confessors. Father Fox said Catholics seeking to have an excommunication penalty removed should first go to a local confessor to find out what the procedure is in their diocese.
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