"36.
Compassionate and understanding care should be given to a person who is the
victim of sexual assault. Health care providers should cooperate with law
enforcement officials and offer the person psychological and spiritual support
as well as accurate medical information. A female who has been raped should be
able to defend herself against a potential conception from the sexual assault.
If, after appropriate testing, there is no evidence that conception has
occurred already, she may be treated with medications that would prevent
ovulation, sperm capacitation, or fertilization. It is not permissible, however,
to initiate or to recommend treatments that have as their purpose or direct
effect the removal, destruction, or interference with the implantation of a
fertilized ovum."
The Vatican's 2000 ''Statement on the so-called 'Morning After Pill''' and 2008 "Dignitas Personae" (i.e., Section 23) seemed to indicate that any use of hormonal (so-called) contraceptives would be illicit in a Catholic hospital. Dignitas Personae certainly provided no guidelines for any supposed "moral" use of either an interceptive or a contragestative. Yet even the possibility of interpreting Dignitas Personae as calling for discontinuing all use of hormonal (so-called) contraceptives for treating victims of sexual assault was hastily dismissed by powerful forces, such as the Catholic Health Association of the USA in its "Talking Points on Dignitas Personae":
"Comments
in S 23 may raise some questions....implementation of
Directive 36 of the Ethical and Religious Directives remains unchanged.
Plan B, the medication of choice for emergency contraception does not appear to
have a post-fertilization effect, given the results of repeated scientific
studies" (A condensed version of "Talking Points on Dignitas Persona"
can be found on pages 6 and 7 of the January 2009 newsletter of the Catholic
Health Association of Minnesota.).
We can no longer ignore that the use of hormonal (so-called) contraceptives has apparently continued at Catholic hospitals, despite scholarly criticism and objections from physicians:
- Fr. Juan Vélez is an Opus Dei priest with a doctorate in dogmatic theology and an M.D. Along with Rebecca Peck, M.D., Fr. Juan writes that "the Peoria Protocol, and other rape-based protocols should be abandoned, as use of Plan B during the critical fertile period, would not be expected to prevent ovulations in a majority of cases, and in fact, would lead to a significant possibility of post-fertilization effect" (Plan B’s Main Mechanism of Action: The Case for a Post-Fertilization Effect, Human Life International, 2013).
- Patrick Yeung Jr., M.D. and Donna Harrison, M.D. also maintain that use of Plan B in Catholic hospitals should cease (The State of the Science: Why Catholic Hospitals Should Not Dispense Plan B, Human Life International, 2013).
- As per Chris Kahlenborn, MD, Rebecca Peck, MD, CCD, and Walter B. Severs, Ph.D, FCP, "current Catholic rape protocols that allow for the dispensation of LNG-EC if the woman is determined to be in the preovulatory period, appear to be faulty and should be revised. Since the most recent medical data clearly note that LNG-EC does not effectively stop ovulation and has high potential to work via abortion when given prior to ovulation, these protocols would no longer be in compliance with Catholic teaching" (Mechanism of Action of Levonorgestral Contraception, Linacre Quarterly, 2015).
Isn't the use of potentially abortifacient drugs absolutely inconsistent with the life-affirming care, which should characterize Catholic health care facilities and Catholic health care professionals?
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