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April 2, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Reports that the Swiss bishops have approved the morning after pill in cases of rape are incorrect, according to the Swiss bishops conference.

Last month, Swiss newspapers had widely reported that the country’s bishops had followed the lead of German bishops in approving so-called “emergency contraception” in cases of rape. The newspapers quoted a spokesman for the Swiss bishops, Walter Müller, who was reported as saying that the drug may be used, but only when it will have a contraceptive effect and not when it “induces an abortion.”

“The medicine should not contribute in any way to the end of a human life, which begins with fertilization and must be protected,” he reportedly said.

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But shortly afterwards, the Swiss bishops conference issued a clarification saying that, while the issue of the morning after pill was under consideration, the bishops had made no final decision.

Reports that they had approved the drug arose from a “misunderstanding” and were “regrettable,” said the bishops conference.

Dr. Nikolaus Zwicky-Aeberhard., M.D., who is president of the Swiss Association of Catholic Doctors, told LifeSiteNews.com that the Bioethics Committee of the Swiss Bishops Conference will be studying the issue in April and then counseling the bishops conference.

“No declaration of the Swiss Bishop's Conference can be expected before,” he said. 

The Catholic physician described the original news reports as a “hoax” and accused the newspaper Tages Anzeiger of spreading misinformation by reporting Muller’s statement “falsely.” 

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“The Bishop's Conference did not give any statement at all on the occasion of their plenary assembly of March 4, 2013,” he said. “They only discussed the matter preliminarily and wait now for the final observations of the Bioethics Committee.”

According to the Swiss bishops conference, the decision to study the morning after pill was made after the endorsement given by the German bishops. In February, the German bishops had said that the morning after pill can be used for rape victims, albeit only when the drug will act as a contraceptive and not as an abortifacient. 

The German bishops said that the decision was made in light of information about “new formulations” of the morning after pill that do not cause abortions. 

This endorsement was criticized by some Catholic medical experts and prelates, who said that there are no such “new formulations,” and that using the morning after pill always runs the risk of causing an early abortion. At the same time, the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, appeared to approve of the decision of the German bishops in an interview with Vatican Insider. 

This is not the first time that the mainstream press has incorrectly reported that a bishops conference has approved the morning after pill. 

In early March numerous outlets reported that the Spanish bishops had also approved of the morning after pill in case of rape, based upon a statement by Spanish Bishop Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, secretary for the Spanish Bishops’ Conference.

“If there is a pill that prevents conception in cases of rape, then it is licit to prevent it,” the bishop had said, speaking in reaction to the decision of the German bishops.

However, the bishop had added a crucial clarification, saying, “We have no knowledge of a morning-after pill without abortifacient effects…If it did exist, we would be sure to know it.”  

Much of the coverage of the Spanish bishop's statement focused only on the first half, ignoring his critical qualification. The misreporting in the Swiss case may have arisen from a similarly selective reading of  the remarks of the Swiss bishops' spokesman. In its original report, the newspaper Tages Anzeiger had said that spokesman Muller had admitted that the separation between the contraceptive and abortifacient effects of the morning after pill is “not always clear.”

In an e-mail to LifeSiteNews.com, Dr. Nikolaus Zwicky-Aeberhard gave some hint of the direction the Swiss bishops' deliberations may take, observing that “there is evidence that no morning after pill with exclusively contraceptive effect does exist so far.”

For the Catholic Church, the question of the licitness of the use of the morning after pill in rape cases hinges on the issue of its mechanism. Most Catholic theologians agree that while it is acceptable to take steps to prevent conception in cases where sexual intercourse was forced, it is never acceptable to take measures that might end a human life, even in its earliest stages. 

As LifeSiteNews.com reported previously, Dr. James Trussell, regarded as the lead researcher on the subject of the morning after pill, recently said women should be warned about the possible abortifacient effects of so-called “emergency contraceptive.” 

Trussell, a senior fellow at the Guttmacher Institute, a member of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s national medical committee, and a board member of the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, has published more than 50 academic articles on the morning-after pill and runs a popular website and hotline to promote its use. As an avid proponent of the morning after pill, he has good reason to wish that the pill were not abortifacient, but has concluded otherwise based on the science.

In his February 2013 paper discussing the morning after pill, he warns: “To make an informed choice, women must know that [emergency contraceptive pills]…prevent pregnancy primarily by delaying or inhibiting ovulation and inhibiting fertilization, but may at times inhibit implantation of a fertilized egg in the endometrium.”  

An e-mail sent by LifeSiteNews.com to the Swiss bishops conference was not responded to by press time.