As reported last February, “Catholic hospitals in several dioceses in North America are currently administering the pill (Plan B) to patients who claim to be victims of rape….The only Vatican opinion on the subject, absolutely prohibiting the use of the pill, was released by the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2000. Since then, however, the Catholic Health Association, advisor to many bishops conferences, has suggested that there is no moral impediment to using the pill in cases of rape....LifeSiteNews.com asked Bishop Sgreccia if there was an exception in cases of rape. The [then] President of the Pontifical Academy for Life replied, ‘No. It is not able to prevent the rape. But it is able to eliminate the embryo. It is thus the second negative intervention on the woman (the first being the rape itself)'. <www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08022906.html>.
As President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, it is my understanding that Bishop Sgreccia was involved with the preparation of Dignitas Persona. Once and for all, Section 23 (at least to me) appears to close the door on ANY suggestion that Plan B (aka, the "morning-after pill", so-called emergency "contraception") could be "morally" used in Catholic hospitals:
- "Alongside methods of preventing pregnancy which are, properly speaking, contraceptive, that is, which prevent conception following from a sexual act, there are other technical means which act after fertilization, when the embryo is already constituted, either before or after implantation in the uterine wall. Such methods are interceptive if they interfere with the embryo before implantation and contragestative if they cause the elimination of the embryo once implanted.
- "In order to promote wider use of interceptive methods, it is sometimes stated that the way in which they function is not sufficiently understood. It is true that there is not always complete knowledge of the way that different pharmaceuticals operate, but scientific studies indicate that the effect of inhibiting implantation is certainly present, even if this does not mean that such interceptives cause an abortion every time they are used, also because conception does not occur after every act of sexual intercourse. It must be noted, however, that anyone who seeks to prevent the implantation of an embryo which may possibly have been conceived and who therefore either requests or prescribes such a pharmaceutical, generally intends abortion.
- "When there is a delay in menstruation, a contragestative is used, usually one or two weeks after the non-occurrence of the monthly period. The stated aim is to re-establish menstruation, but what takes place in reality is the abortion of an embryo which has just implanted.
- "As is known, abortion is 'the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth'. Therefore, the use of means of interception and contragestation fall within the sin of abortion and are gravely immoral. Furthermore, when there is certainty that an abortion has resulted, there are serious penalties in canon law."
- So, Dignitas Personae reminds us that so-called contraceptives are "interceptive if they interfere with the embryo before implantation and contragestative if they cause the elimination of the embryo once implanted...the use of means of interception and contragestation fall within the sin of abortion and are gravely immoral."
This certainly appears to require change at Catholic hospitals regarding treatment of individuals identifying themselves as victims of sexual assault. No guidelines are offered for supposed "moral" use of Plan B.
