Lima, Peru, Jun 20, 2004 / 22:00 pm
On Sunday Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, Archbishop of Lima, Peru, chided Peruvian Minister of Health, Pilar Mazzetti, warning her “not to play with life” by denying the abortifacient nature of the morning after pill.
In reaction to Mazzetti’s decision to distribute the morning after pill through the country’s family planning services, the Cardinal warned in his Sunday homily that the country has entered a discussion “full of half-lies and half-truths.”
Although Mazzetti and promoters of the drug in Peru claim it only prevents ovulation and not implantation of a fertilized ovum, the manufacturer of the drug as well as the Food and Drug Administration in the US recognize the existence of a “third mechanism” of the drug which can prevent implantation of the embryo in the wall of the uterus, thus causing an abortion.
The Cardinal lamented the public comments of the Health Minister that she would have to have “the proof in her hands” in order to acknowledge the pill’s abortifacient nature.