Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 5, 2007 / 08:46 am
The Philadelphia-based National Catholic Bioethics Center(NCBC) has released a statement to help clarify the Connecticut Catholic Bishops' decision on the Connecticut legislation mandating contraceptive treatment for rape victims. Meanwhile, Human Life International has also weighed in on the deicison saying it contains "extremely egregious errors" and has asked the bishops to reverse their resolution.
The legislation has been controversial because the state's Catholic bishops have allowed the use of the "Plan B" contraceptive as required by the law. "Plan B" works by preventing ovulation, but may also render a woman's womb hostile to a fertilized egg if she has already ovulated.
The center's statement describes the situation as "a complex moral matter" which "does not lend itself to brief explanation." It notes that Catholic hospitals have always provided emergency contraception for the victims of sexual assault. However, to protect any newly conceived children from unintentionally being aborted, medical staff administered ovulation tests to confirm whether or not a embryo could be present.
An Unethical Law