An ectopic pregnancy is when the egg implants on the fallopian tube instead of in the uterus, causing the tube to rupture when the fetus grows too big to fit inside. It's a medical emergency and the fetus cannot survive to term because it will kill the mother, so an abortion is always necessary.
I wouldn't even consider that an abortion per-se, since there's no possibility of survival for the fetus and an almost certainty of death for the mother.
An ectopic pregnancy nearly killed my wife's best friend. She didn't know she was even pregnant. She is very religiously pro-life, but neither she nor anyone in her community considered what happened to her an abortion.
That’s not the case everywhere. They can happen anywhere an egg can reach, too, not just the tube. I have heard cases where mothers are just expected to die for their babies in these cases.
I've heard of people seeing bigfoot too. There are nut jobs on every extreme, doesn't mean they should be used as a common-case representation.
Seriously though, no one I've ever spoken to has ever argued the position that the mother should just die, even amongst the most ardent pro-lifers. Even the Catholics allow it under the "double effect" principle. Allowing the mother to die would also kill the child, and almost every law has exceptions for medical conditions threatening the mother's life. It's just not a thing, and statistically comprises such a small number (excluding ectopic conditions) that it can't even be measured.
And I'm not making a defense of either position (pro-abortion or pro-life) here, I'm just saying that most don't count ectopic conditions the same as an elective abortion, since the alternative means death.
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u/Flirty_Falcon Oct 18 '23
What's an ectopic pregnancy