- "According to a new statement by the German Bishops’ Conference,
Catholic physicians and hospitals can now prescribe and administer the
morning-after pill (MAP) in cases where a woman is a victim of sexual
assault as long as it does not cause an abortion.
"The trouble with this declaration is that the morning-after pill is a known abortifacient....
"no MAP pill exists, whatever its chemical formula, that does not prevent implantation at least part of the time....
"We hope the German Bishops’ Conference will reconsider its statement as soon as possible" (German Bishops “Approve” a Morning-After Pill that Does Not Exist).
As per the USCCB's Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,
- "36. Compassionate and understanding care should be given to a person who is the victim of sexual assault. Health care providers should cooperate with law enforcement officials and offer the person psychological and spiritual support as well as accurate medical information. A female who has been raped should be able to defend herself against a potential conception from the sexual assault. If, after appropriate testing, there is no evidence that conception has occurred already, she may be treated with medications that would prevent ovulation, sperm capacitation, or fertilization. It is not permissible, however, to initiate or to recommend treatments that have as their purpose or direct effect the removal, destruction, or interference with the implantation of a fertilized ovum."
The USCCB's Directive 36 appears to have been modeled on the Pennsylvania Catholic Bishops' Guidelines for Catholic Hospitals Treating Victims of Sexual Assault:
- "appropriate means may be used in treating the rape victim to prevent conception....These guidelines include a sample protocol to use to determine if contraceptive intervention is clinically indicated and which protocol is designed to determine that such intervention would be truly contraceptive, and not abortifacient."
- In “Breast Cancer : Its Link to Abortion and the Birth Control Pill,” Pennsylvania's own Dr. Chris Kahlenborn cited the abortifacient potential of emergency so-called “contraception” and emphatically maintained that ”informed practicing Christian physicians will not give the ‘post-rape pill’ in any circumstances.”
- In The "Morning After" Pill, John B. Shea, MD, notes that “Catholic hospitals are not free to prescribe or provide anything with abortifacient properties without contradicting their witness . . . this witness given by Catholic hospitals affects not only the patients and caregivers in Catholic institutions, but those in secular institutions, putting pressure on them to violate their consciences or lose their jobs.”
- As per the Catholic Medical Association, “'emergency contraception' is a misnomer as it does not consistently prevent fertilization....as 'emergency contraception' has the potential to prevent implantation whether given in the pre-ovulatory, ovulatory, or post-ovulatory phase, ...it cannot be ethically employed by a Catholic physician or administered in a Catholic hospital in cases of rape. (A Resolution in favor of prohibiting all ‘emergencycontraception’ in Catholic Hospitals)
