So a particular action can be an objective evil (whatever that weird phrase means), but you can do it if it's not as bad as another evil - you decide - and you can follow your conscience. Well I remember all that classroom talk of conscience too, Joe Offer, and as I recall there are several types of conscience, and unless you have the correct type it isn't OK to circumvent your "objective evils." And making sure you have the correct conscience type is no piece of cake, I seem to remember. A priest might help you...

So the ordinary Catholic has all that to tussle with. On top of that, the ordinary Catholic pregnant woman has to face a large number of physical obstacles (no clinics nearby, expense, time delays, two doctors, compulsory scans or "counselling" - pick 'n' mix) as well as emotional obstacles (blinkered family members, priests, bigots outside clinics, not least her own dilemma). But your Church decides what she is contemplating to be an objective evil. That's as far as it goes. And you're pretending that it's a simple, rational choice with the Church allowing her to be the final arbiter. Well after all that emotional wrangling, let's hope she doesn't google the bit that I did that says you are excommunicated for having an abortion. An honest Church that officially opposes abortion but which allows the woman to be the final arbiter would work its socks off to oppose and remove those obstacles. But it doesn't. It connives in them. And you've just made a saint of a woman who told women having abortions that they were murderers and the greatest threat to world peace. If that's your idea of answering Steve, my idea is that you have a long way to go.