Quito, Ecuador, Feb 3, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Parishes throughout Ecuador are distributing a letter from the executive committee of the Bishops Conference of Ecuador, which warns that science has not negated the abortifacient nature of the so-called morning-after pill.
In their letter, the bishops write that, based on serious medical and scientific data, the Church “holds that life begins at the moment the ovum is fertilized: that is when the life a new human being begins. There is no room for discrimination in the respect for life, for it is not the case that some lives deserve respect while others deserve none.”
The bishops also state that, “Scientific medical research must prove that the ‘morning-after pill’ does not prevent implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterus, that is, it needs to prove that it does not take a human life. Scientific research has not provided such evidence, and it could be that it never will.”
“Existing medical and biological data in large measure have come from research that is biased in favor of contraception in all its forms. Nevertheless, laboratories that manufacture the pill report that one of its effects could be the preventing of implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus, thus resulting in the destruction of a human life,” the bishops said.