Posted on 03/20/2006 8:50:18 PM PST by right-wingin_It
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Legislation that would have required all hospitals, including Catholic facilities, to prescribe rape victims the so-called morning after pill, was allowed to die Monday.
The Public Health Committee, which took up the bill 15 minutes before its deadline, ran out of time to act on a possible compromise that would have allowed Catholic hospitals to use private nurses to administer the pill. The medication helps prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of intercourse.
It's questionable whether the idea will be brought up as an amendment to another bill sometime before the session ends in May.
The state's four Catholic hospitals opposed the compromise offered by rape victim advocates, arguing it still interfered with the church's religious freedoms.
"It was something that couldn't be acceptable to the hospitals, because, to do that would have involved the hospitals cooperating in actions the hospitals believe are immoral," said Barry Feldman, general counsel for St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford. Feldman has testified on behalf of the Connecticut Catholic Hospitals Council.
Catholic officials have been opposed to any legislation that requires them to prescribe the pill, also known as Plan B. Hartford Archbishop Henry J. Mansell has said emergency contraception should not be given if a woman is ovulating or one of her eggs is fertilized. Catholics believe life begins at conception.
snip
Lawmakers were also looking into requiring the state Department of Public Health to develop protocols for ambulance drivers and police officers who pick up rape victims. They would be trained to talk with the women and ask which hospital they preferred given the Catholic Church's stance on the morning after pill.
Sayers said she's still willing to keep working on the issue this session.
(Excerpt) Read more at stamfordadvocate.com ...
FYI - The "compromise" (aka Peoria protocol) mentioned in the article apears to be a cop-out, since the Catholic hospitals would still refer the women to the abortion services. This is also about religious freedom -- People need to take a stand and take this as far as it will go in court. 'Compromises with the state' are solutions from the myopic. They'll do us in I tell ya
I'm not really sure I understand the controversy surrounding the "morning after pill". It's basicly just a triple dose of birth control pills, which I'm pretty sure the institutions in question already prescribe on a regular basis. So if they don't give out morning after pills, the women in question will just get a prescription for birth control pills and take a triple dose. Same difference.
I'm all for religious freedom, but it's simply dishonest to pretend that the Morning After Pill is anything other than a simple contraceptive. It prevents pregnancy, but it doesn't cause an abortion.
In any case, the Catholic church strongly disapproves the use of ANY contraceptive/abortificant, and so the state is meddling in our religious freedoms.
Plan B surely does cause abortions...It specifically disrupts implantation of the newly formed embryo. Hence the phrase "morning after". What makes Plan B different from other progesterone contraceptives (besides a tripple dose) is that it enjoys an "on-label" use as an abortificant. Other contraceptives, if they are prescribed as abortificants, are being used "off label".
Connecticut ping!
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