Human Reproduction, Catholic
Morality, and The “Plan B” Morass
The main topic of this, the 35th
offering of our Point and
Counterpoint series, is the action taken by the Catholic Bishops
of Connecticut several months ago in response to the passage by the
State of Connecticut in 2007 of a law requiring all hospitals,
including the four Catholic hospitals, to offer the Plan B
abortificient to their patients… and without a screening ovulation test
beforehand…as required by the Peoria Protocol. We believe that
this action was taken in error and requires rescission by the
Bishops.
The Bishops issued a Statement on the subject on September
27, 2007 which states in part the following: “The Bishops and other Catholic health
care leaders believe that this law is seriously flawed, but not
sufficiently to bar compliance with it at the present time. We
continue to believe this law should be changed. Nonetheless, to
administer Plan B pills in Catholic hospitals to victims of rape a
pregnancy test to determine that the woman has not conceived is
sufficient. An ovulation test will not be required. The
administration of Plan B pills in this instance cannot be judged to be
the commission of an abortion because of such doubt about how Plan B
pills and similar drugs work and because of the current impossibility
of knowing from the ovulation test whether a new life is present.
To administer Plan B pills without an ovulation test is not an
intrinsically evil act. Since the teaching authority of the
Church has not definitively resolved this matter and since there is
serious doubt about how Plan B pills work, the Catholic Bishops of
Connecticut have stated that Catholic hospitals in the State may follow
protocols that do not require an ovulation test in the treatment of
victims of rape.”
We, the undersigned, consider these assertions to be wrong
medically, legally, and ethically. We can quote numerous medical
sources which establish that Plan B acts as an abortifacient by
interfering with implantation of a then-living human embryo onto the
lining of the uterus, and by failing to prevent ovulation
predictably. The Catholic Medical Association has long taken this
position. And the following is a quotation from Rosen’s Emergency
Medicine, sixth edition, under the section: Pregnancy Prophylaxis: “There is a 2% to 4% risk of pregnancy
from random unprotected intercourse; this figure reaches nearly 50% in
women 19 to 26 years old, who are at their most fertile period, when
combined with mid-cycle exposure.” Legally, this law
should be challenged in Court as unconstitutional under the safeguards
of Freedom of Religion. Ethically and morally, the status of a
fertilized ovum as a complete human being deserving of all the rights
accorded to all other human beings is well resolved within the teaching
authority of the Catholic Church…and is the bedrock position of the
Catholic Laity, the Body of the Church. Furthermore, to open the
actions of Catholic medical personnel to the prospect of participating
in an abortion in up to 50% of such cases is untenable.
Therefore, we respectfully ask the Catholic Bishops of
Connecticut to rescind their action in this matter, and to pursue the
approach expected of them by their flock.