Lima, Peru, Feb 16, 2006 / 22:00 pm
In response to statements by some congressional and presidential candidates in Peru regarding the distribution of the morning after pill, Bishop Miguel Irizar of Callao said this week that up to now there has been no scientific study disproving the abortifacient nature of the drug.
“The Church in the world has sufficient reasons for affirming that this pill can attack the life of a newly-conceived human being because the risk exists that the drug will not allow the embryo to become implanted in the uterine wall,” the bishop said.
Gynecologist Paul Ramos, who is an advisor to the Peruvian bishops on health issues, noted that it has always been clear to the Church and to science that life begins at conception, and he noted that “scientists have not disproved the potential abortifacient effect of the so-called emergency oral contraceptive.”
“From the scientific point of view, the morning after pill has one clear purpose and therefore its distribution is not feasible,” he maintained.