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October 1, 2007
CT Catholic Hospitals to Dispense EC to All Rape Victims
Connecticut Roman Catholic bishops softened their opposition Thursday to a new state law requiring hospitals to dispense emergency contraception (EC) to all rape victims. Previously, the Bishops had refused to allow Catholic hospitals to provide EC without first performing an ovulation test.
"Our efforts had only one goal, to protect the victims of rape," Sen. Jonathan Harris, a Hartford legislator who worked with the church to negotiate a compromise told the Associated Press. "There was no other agenda. It was started to just do that."
The church fought legislation for two years, arguing that it would force Catholic employees at the hospitals to behave immorally, according to the Associated Press. In a recent statement however, the bishops conceded that the use of Plan B cannot be judged as an abortion. "To administer Plan B pills without an ovulation test is not an intrinsically evil act," the statement read.
During the first half of 2006, 40 percent of rape victims treated at Connecticut hospitals either were not offered EC or received an incomplete dose of it, Connecticut Sexual Assault Services Inc. told the AP.
Media Resources: Associated Press 9/27; Catholic Bishops of Connecticut statement 9/27
3 comments:
The article is not exactly correct. If you go the Connecticut Catholic Bishops Website you will find that they will only administer Plan B if it cannot have an abortive effect. Plan B can be used to prevent ovulation from occuring (which would prevent a sperm from meeting egg and thus a life being created). However, the Connecticut Catholic Hospitals will not dispense Plan B if the woman is in the ovulation stage of her cycle because that is when it can act as an abortifacient.
http://www.connecticut.nasccd.org/bins/connecticut/templates/default.asp?_resolutionfile=templatespathdefault.asp&area_2=Plan%20B%20QA
Actually, I think that the statement speaks for itself: "...an ovulation test will not be required." I just typed in the Catholic Bishops of Connecticut statement into Google, but I'm thinking they have to follow the law. Also, I went to your link and couldn't find when they'd last updated the site so maybe it's just out of date? I'm sure the Associated Press got the details correct, but I'll keep looking.
Connecticut Bishops Statement On
Plan B and Catholic Hospitals
Issued September 27, 2007
The Catholic Bishops of Connecticut, joined by the leaders of the Catholic hospitals in the State, issue the following statement regarding the administration of Plan B in Catholic hospitals to victims of rape:
The four Catholic hospitals in the State of Connecticut remain committed to providing competent and compassionate care to victims of rape. In accordance with Catholic moral teaching, these hospitals provide emergency contraception after appropriate testing. Under the existing hospital protocols, this includes a pregnancy test and an ovulation test. Catholic moral teaching is adamantly opposed to abortion, but not to emergency contraception for victims of rape.
This past spring the Governor signed into a law “An Act Concerning Compassionate Care for Victims of Sexual Assault,” passed by the State Legislature. It does not allow medical professionals to take into account the results of the ovulation test. The Bishops and other Catholic health care leaders believe that this law is seriously flawed, but not sufficiently to bar compliance with it at the present time. We continue to believe this law should be changed.
Nonetheless, to administer Plan B pills in Catholic hospitals to victims of rape a pregnancy test to determine that the woman has not conceived is sufficient. An ovulation test will not be required. The administration of Plan B pills in this instance cannot be judged to be the commission of an abortion because of such doubt about how Plan B pills and similar drugs work and because of the current impossibility of knowing from the ovulation test whether a new life is present. To administer Plan B pills without an ovulation test is not an intrinsically evil act.
Since the teaching authority of the Church has not definitively resolved this matter and since there is serious doubt about how Plan B pills work, the Catholic Bishops of Connecticut have stated that Catholic hospitals in the State may follow protocols that do not require an ovulation test in the treatment of victims of rape. A pregnancy test approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration suffices. If it becomes clear that Plan B pills would lead to an early chemical abortion in some instances, this matter would have to be reopened.
www.connecticut.nasccd.org/.../ Statement%20re%20Plan%20B%209%2027%2007%20(2).doc
Here's another link to the ABC news story...
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3660613
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