Excommunicated : a framing theory analysis of Sister Margaret McBride's and a Catholic hospital's decision to authorize a life-saving abortion
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This study analyzed media framing of one of the most publicized instances of emergency abortions in Catholic hospitals coming into conflict with church teaching. This case, which took place in Phoenix, Arizona in 2009, involved Sister Margaret McBride, who was excommunicated for authorizing an emergency abortion to save the life of a mother, and St. Joseph Hospital, which was stripped of its Catholic status for allowing the procedure. Using framing theory and a qualitative textual analysis based on Entman's five framing functions (1993), the study investigated how news outlets constructed narratives about the case and how framing differed across general, Catholic, and health care audiences. Three dominant frames emerged from the analysis. These include moral showdown, which was most prevalent in outlets for general audiences and emphasized the dramatic conflict between church hierarchy and hospital administrators; conflicting interpretations, which dominated Catholic-oriented coverage and focused on theological and ethical debate within the church; and caught-in-the-middle, which appeared most often in health care publications and portrayed Catholic hospitals as struggling to square their faith tradition with emergency clinical care. In comparing how the narrative was constructed for each audience, this thesis advances scholarship on framing theory by highlighting the distinct frames used for different audiences. Additionally, the study offers practical insights for communicators in Catholic hospitals, emphasizing the need for clear, transparent communication about what the public can expect from their local Catholic hospital when it comes to emergency care for pregnant patients. Following a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that reversed Roe v. Wade, these findings are increasingly relevant, as debates over access to emergency abortion care in Catholic hospitals have come under heightened scrutiny and remain unresolved today.
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M.A.