P.S. Since writing last week, a friend called to my attention last month's powerful "
HLI Position on Administration of “Plan B” Contraceptives to Victims of Rape":
"Given the findings of the latest science that Plan B may very well have an abortifacient or embryocidal effect, it is Human Life International’s position that all use of Plan B in Catholic hospitals should be discontinued. We respectfully request that all bishops and those who advise bishops on these matters reconsider as soon as possible the approval of Plan B for use in Catholic hospitals....
1. Recent large and robust studies indicate that Levonorgestrel-only contraceptives such as Plan B rarely block ovulation, and most likely do result in the death of the embryo if administered during the first 4-5 days of the fertile window.*
2.
A Luteinizing Hormone (LH) protocol – a test whose outcome has been understood to determine whether a drug can be administered based on where the victim is in her cycle – cannot in fact detect that a woman is in these first days of her fertile window. Therefore a negative LH test may well encourage administration of Plan B precisely when it is most likely to cause an early direct abortion.**
3. Because recent scientific studies have provided very strong data that indicates Plan B rarely has any contraceptive effects and is likely to have embryocidal effects, a medical practitioner cannot attain moral certainty that administration will not lead to early abortion.
4.
Since one cannot attain moral certainty that abortion will be avoided, protocols and policies that currently permit Catholic health care providers to administer Plan B need to be reconsidered by the appropriate diocesan authorities and hospital administrators. Nations in which abortion is illegal should be aware of this potential abortion-inducing effect and should prohibit the administration of
these drugs....
"The urgency of addressing this matter comes to light when one considers
the Church’s teaching regarding abortion expressed most recently in Dignitas personae:
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. … Therefore the use of means of
interception…fall within the sin of abortion and are gravely immoral.
(23)"
I am praying that my own Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the USCCB, and the National Catholic Bioethics Center will demand that Catholic hospitals immediately cease use of Plan B.
