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American Life League Urges Connecticut Bishops to Rethink Plan B at Catholic Hospitals

WASHINGTON, October 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "The actions of the Connecticut Catholic Conference are an outrage and a crime," said Judie Brown, president of American Life League (ALL) reacting to the news that the Connecticut Bishops have given permission for the use of the so-called "emergency contraceptive" Plan B for rape victims at Catholic hospitals.

"It's bad enough to allow so-called emergency contraception in Catholic hospitals, but to claim that the Church has never officially ruled on such matters is completely untrue," added Brown.

The Connecticut Catholic Conference released a statement that allows personnel at Catholic hospitals to give the Plan B pill regimen to rape victims. The statement said, "in accordance with Catholic moral teaching, these hospitals provide emergency contraception after appropriate testing."

"We must point out that there is no foolproof test that will assure that the victim of rape has not already conceived a child," Brown said. "The CCC further claims that the teaching authority of the Church has not definitively resolved this matter and that there is serious doubt about how Plan B pills work," said Brown. "However the fact is that the Church is very clear on this matter as is the manufacturer of Plan B, Duramed, which states that the pill can prevent implantation. This means that the pill could cause a chemical abortion."

Demonstrating the Catholic Church's opposition to the administration of Plan B the ALL president pointed to Paragraph 14 of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humane Vitae.  The segment reads: "the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children ... Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation-whether as an end or as a means."

"Pregnancy tests detect the presence of human chorionic gonadotrophin, which is only secreted after implantation," added Brown. "Because a pregnancy test won't tell you if fertilization has taken place prior to implantation, and Plan B prevents implantation after fertilization, the caveat for 'appropriate testing' in the CCC's statement is scientifically meaningless."

"The Connecticut Catholic Conference is acting recklessly by allowing the use of this abortifacient," concluded Brown, "and we strongly encourage it to rethink its position."

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