Posted on 05/06/2005 6:23:19 AM PDT by St. Johann Tetzel
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study funded by the radically pro-abortion organizations, the John Merck foundation and Catholics for a Free Choice, surveyed staff at all 597 Catholic hospitals in the United States and found that only 55% of them refused to dispense the abortifacient morning after pill.
Despite the deceptive name, “emergency contraceptive” works in many cases by stopping an already formed unborn child from attaching to the uterine wall. This effect is disputed by no reputable scientists. Catholic medical ethics is clear that abortion is, in all cases, and at all stages of development, the moral equivalent to murder and can never be condoned.
There could be trouble ahead for those Catholic hospitals who still adhere to Catholic teaching moreover. Washington State, Illinois and California have laws requiring emergency rooms to provide rape victims with information about the drug.
“What Catholic hospitals do is based on religious directives,” says Sister Sharon Park, executive director of the Washington State Catholic Conference. “They follow the teachings of our religious beliefs, which are protected under the First Amendment.”
The question remains, however, if Catholic hospitals adhere to Catholic moral teaching. The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services which are supposed to be followed by Catholic hospitals in the US contain some serious ambiguities. One clause says, that a woman who has been raped “should be able to defend herself against a potential conception from the sexual assault.”
The rules say, “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.” The use of testing to determine pregnancy is, however, extremely unreliable before some time has elapsed in a pregnancy. The morning after pill requires that no more than 72 hours has passed to be effective. Even a blood test cannot determine pregnancy within 72 hours of conception. Sister Sharon Park said that the use of ‘emergency contraception’ could be allowed in some cases because the drug does not in every case cause an abortion.
This ambiguity is rapidly becoming par for the course in modern Catholic hospitals. The erosion of Catholic medical ethics can be seen in the widespread support among Catholic bioethicists for pre-term inducement of pregnancy with handicapped children and passive euthanasia.
Read Interim article on the prevalence of euthanasia support among Catholic bioethicists:
http://www.theinterim.com/2004/jan/03priestargues....
Trust me, I, too, have greater feelings for well-washed smiling babies than eggs, fertilized or not. But I also have a brain, which permits me to do what is right rather than what feelings I or others have. And so do you.
We can't have that.. what? No compromise? No waffling? No empty sentimentality?
Why that's positively un-American....
Believe it or not, the lack of feelings toward eggs argument is used by serious people under serious circumstances. I saw a professional ethicist from someplace like Harvard clinching his argument for human embrio expendability on national TV thus: -- Imagine there is a fire in the clinic; who are you going to rescue first, a child or a freezer with eggs?
As another poster pointed out, the zygote is multi-cellular at this point.
Much more importantly, those who abort the fetus at this stage will have to convince God that the fetus is NOT a baby.
You are going to reconsider your opposition to abortion because I alienated you?
I can only speak the truth if you don't like it there's not much that can be done.
What is, is
It's not "truth", it's your OPINION.
Other people have em too.
Most pro-lifers realize that progress can only be incremental, because many people, like you, relate their opposition to abortion to the gestational age of the baby. Others relate it to the circumstances of the conception, yet others to the health of the baby. Where you support us, thank you, and where you don't, please examine your conscience and reconsider.
I believe in capital punishment for rape.
Well that's what it comes down to isn't it, we all want to make our own truth - we been doing it since the whole apple fiasco in the garden.
One simple statement
Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. Matthew 14:6
and we just can't listen. We have to keep doing it our way.
He gives us the great gift of a teacher
16 Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. Matthew 16:16-19
but like spoiled children we won't listen to him even when he speaks with the voice of Him that has all authority.
Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is reaffirmed by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. Evangelium Vitae, 57
John Paul II, 1995
That is ridiculous, as if non-abortificent contraception can't be effective!
"Good luck convincing God that it isn't."
Bada bing!
(Celestial rimshot)
Your complaints seem to be against nature itself. A situation imposed upon you by men is different from an imposition dictated by nature. Howl at the moon and piss in the wind if you like. I will continue to oppose the murder. Besides you assume no one would say yes to the situation you have invented. I would be pissed but I am not sure I would say "let him die" I am not sure you would either, but I just might be mistaken about that. After all you would kill a baby but can you when a man is next to you and looking at you as you make that decision?
What you do not realize is Someone is looking when you abort that child.
Natural pregnancy in humans begins in the fallopian tube.
I do wish someone would do the research necessary to determine whether or not the post-coital formulations interfere with implantation or whether the corpus luteum overrides the hormones of the pills.
Shut'em down or fire the administrator.
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