Sister Margaret McBride Excommunication Controversy
In May 2010, Olmsted declared that Sister Margaret McBride who served on the ethics committee of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, was automatically excommunicated after permitting an abortion at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center. McBride allowed doctors to perform an abortion on a mother of four who was 11 weeks pregnant and suffering from pulmonary hypertension. Hospital doctors had estimated that the woman's chance of dying if she continued the pregnancy was "close to 100 percent".
McBride has been accused of permitting a "direct abortion," which according to the Catholic Church's position is always wrong. The Diocese of Phoenix stated that she was excommunicated because “she gave her consent that the abortion was a morally good and allowable act according to Church teaching" admitting this directly to Bishop Olmsted. "Since she gave her consent and encouraged an abortion she automatically excommunicated herself from the Church.”
As a result of the above case, and because hospital management would not refuse to perform similar abortions in the future, Olmsted announced on December 21, 2010, that the Diocese of Phoenix was severing its ties with St. Joseph's Hospital in mid-town Phoenix and that the facility could no longer be called "a Catholic hospital". Olmsted is attempting to work with the hospital to help them fulfill requirements of self-identified Catholic institutions. In order to return to full communion with the Catholic Church, McBride would need to admit and confess her sin to a priest through the Rite of Confession.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Olmsted
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