I will preface my letter with Bob Dylan's famous line: "You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." I am neither a priest nor a physician, but I do know how to read.As per my below email to John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, I take great exception to your assertion in Talking Points on Dignitas Personae, that "Plan B, the medication of choice for emergency contraception, does not appear to have a post-fertilization effect, given the results of repeated scientific studies." With all due respect, do you fail to understand the Food and Drug Administration has already and readily acknowledged that "If fertilization does occur, Plan B may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb (implantation)"? Have you adopted a Brave New World definition of "conception", which differs from the understanding of the Catholic Church?
As per an 11/1/07 statement on emergency so-called contraception from the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), "scientific evidence supports the conclusion that all these formulations have some potential to prevent the implantation of a newly conceived human being....The crime of sexual assault should not be compounded by an action, the intent or direct effect of which causes the death of a human being in the first days of gestation" <www.cathmed.org/pressreleases/PlanB_and_CCC3.pdf>.
Clearly, Plan B is an "interceptive", as defined by Dignitas Personae. Abortifacients are absolutely excluded by Dignitas Personae, as they have always been.
