As a Christian doctor who does not believe in "abortion

on demand" but who, nevertheless, believes that there are occasions when abortion can be the lesser of two evils, I am invariably troubled when the Church issues its habitual blanket condemnations of abortion.
I cannot regard the foetus as more (or less) than a potential human being and, faced with a pregnant woman who has a medical condition such that her life is endangered by the continuance of her pregnancy, cannot do other than recommend abortion.
If she, apprised of the risks, wishes to continue with the pregnancy, then I will do all I can to help bring it to a successful conclusion; but neither I, nor, I believe, anyone else, has the right to insist that such a woman continue with the pregnancy at the risk of her own life. Only she can make that decision.
I find the justification of abortion on "social'' grounds very much more difficult to accept, but do not believe that all abortions performed on grounds other than that of serious risk to the mother's life are wrong.
An example would be the woman who has become pregnant as a result of an act of rape. Is an abortion in this case really a greater evil than that she spend the next nine months carrying with her a constant reminder of her violation?
The Church condemns abortion on the grounds that it is murder; the Pope calls for: ", unconditional respect for human life, from its very beginnings" (Catholic Herald, May 6); but the Church does not interdict capital punishment and has condoned or even supported wholesale slaughter in the names of justice and freedom in successive wars.
If the Church believes that the taking of another human life is absolutely wrong, why does she not teach absolute pacifism; if she believes that this can sometimes be. the lesser of two evils when the other is an adult human being, how can she take a different view in the case of abortion?
I could point out other inconsistencies in the Church's attitude to the foetus, but space forbids; nevertheless, until her teaching is self-consistent and compatible with Christ's overriding commandment to us to love one another as he loved us, there will be a risk that her children, seeing that parts of her teaching are mutually inconsistent, will disregard the whole and thus be deprived of her support against the very real evils which are abroad in the world — without which support few could stand against them.
Doctor Bristol.