I suspect that the vast majority of Catholics - including faithful Catholics involved with pro life concerns - would be flabbergasted to learn that the use of potential abortifacients is allowed in some Catholic hospitals, under certain circumstances. God bless those patient physicians, such as Patrick Yeung Jr., M.D. and Donna Harrison, M.D, who have patiently explained "Why Catholic Hospitals Should Not Dispense Plan B." And as Dr. Peck and Father Juan Vélez, MD previously reminded us:
"Physicians and health care institutions, especially Catholic ones, have a duty to reexamine the available scientific information on LNG-EC. They have an obligation to offer the Holy See and episcopal conferences accurate information regarding this subject to guide their statements. The use of LNG-EC and associated rape protocols should be abandoned, because there is no safe period to give LNC-EC during a woman’s cycle when it may be efficacious to prevent pregnancy without significant likelihood that it will have an abortifacient effect" (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Winter 2013).
Thank you for your courageous, magnificent, patient, and respectful current call to bring practice into line with the Truth:
"Emergency contraception (also known as postcoital contraception or the morning after pill) refers to the use of drugs or devices as an emergency measure to prevent pregnancy (Zieman 2014)....In 1999, the Food and Drug Administration approved Plan B (levonorgestrel emergency contraception, LNG-EC) as the first progestin-only type of EC....Plan B is often given in both secular and Catholic hospitals (under certain conditions) in order to attempt to prevent pregnancy.... levonorgestrel emergency contraception has garnered the most attention as it is the most widely used EC in the world (Trussell and Raymond 2013).....
"In light of the most recent scientific and medical data noted in this paper, the claim of moral certitude in regard to a non-abortifacient action of LNG-EC is not justifiable....
"current Catholic rape protocols that allow for the dispensation of LNG-EC if the woman is determined to be in the preovulatory period, appear to be faulty and should be revised. Since the most recent medical data clearly note that LNG-EC does not effectively stop ovulation and has high potential to work via abortion when given prior to ovulation, these protocols would no longer be in compliance with Catholic teaching" (Linacre Quarterly, February 2015).
I believe that the Catholic Medical Association and the National Catholic Bioethics Center should be tirelessly urging the USCCB to demand that the practices of all CHAUSA-affiliated facilites be brought into line with Truth.
Thank you.
