CARDINAL Griffin, in a statement
issued on Monday, gives an authoritative translation of the Holy Father's words concerning the mother and child when he spoke to the congress of the Italian Catholic Union of Midwives.
His Eminence adds a passage from a speech he himself made to Catholic doctors on July 1. 1948, in Cambridge, when he said :
" In many cases, in order to preserve the life of the mother. a doctor or surgeon will prescribe an abortion or an evacuation of the womb and the result is the destruction of the life of the child.
" Ethics teaches that the child in the womb shares with the mother an equal right to life and the best medical practice would prescribe a remedy which would save the life of both mother and child."