Madison, Wis., Jan 15, 2008 / 17:06 pm
A dispute over a proposed Wisconsin law mandating emergency contraceptive coverage for rape victims has resulted in a clash between a group calling itself Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) and Bishops Robert Morlino and Jerome Listecki. The pro-abortion organization is calling opposition to the bill a violation of patients’ rights, while the bishops assert that the bill violates the rights of doctors and the freedom of conscience.
At issue is whether the emergency contraception law will include conscience clauses exempting Catholic hospitals and medical practitioners with objections to such treatment, because it could endanger the life of a newly conceived child.
In a January 11 letter to a member of the Wisconsin legislature, Catholics for a Free Choice president Jon O’Brien attacked Catholic support for exemptions given to conscientious objectors and lobbied for the bill to be passed without conscience clauses.
O’Brien cited the stance of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC), which originally took a neutral view of the law, and contrasted this neutrality with the opposition of two Wisconsin Catholic bishops, Bishop Robert Morlino and Bishop Jerome Listecki of the Diocese of Lacrosse.
Calling the two bishops’ protests an “opposition tactic,” O’Brien wrote, “Under the guise of protecting religious freedom, opponents of contraception and abortion aggressively use the political process to allow health-care professionals, including emergency room doctors, nurses, and even pharmacists to opt out of providing essential reproductive health-care services and medications.”