Abortion is largely accepted by Catholic scholars if there is, otherwise, a high risk of death. That doesn't mean all Catholic medical practitioners would carry out such an operation. I don't think the respect is misplaced.
That is absolutely false and made clear in the Catechism (though abortion is, fundamentally, not a matter of faith, but of ethics, contrary to popular misconception). Abortion understood as the intentional killing of the unborn child, even in the case of high risk of death, is always gravely morally illicit and falls under murder. Even in the given circumstance, it would violate the principle of double effect.
Now, what is morally licit is not abortion, but also by virtue of the principle of double effect, a procedure intended to save the mother's life that unintentionally and as a side effect results in the child's death. For example, it is morally licit to extract the affected tissue with the implanted embryo during an ectopic pregnancy. This extraction will result in the death of the child, but the death was neither intended nor was the death of the child the means by which the mother's life was saved nor is saving the life of the mother a lesser good than the life of the child (though in this case, both would very likely have perished if this condition had been allowed to continue). Note that the situation must be proportionally grave, meaning you could not licitly perform such a procedure if the risk to the mother was not proportional (like experiencing headaches because of the pregnancy). In those cases, proportional care is permissible.
> That is absolutely false and made clear in the Catechism (though abortion is, fundamentally, not a matter of faith, but of ethics, contrary to popular misconception).
A bit nit-picky, but while all authoritative documents (like the catechism) unequivocally condemns abortion, there is no shortage of Catholic scholars who are pro-abortion. Just like the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control. The scholars gave it the green light, but not even having “Pontifical” in the name made it remotely authoritative.