The Connecticut state senate approved a bill Wednesday that would require all hospitals — including the four Catholic hospitals in the state — to provide the Plan B emergency contraceptive to rape victims.
The Connecticut Catholic Bishops claim to oppose this law, but stated in a letter that "Catholic hospitals provide emergency contraception to rape victims in the vast majority of cases. In fact, it is an extreme rarity when this medication would not be provided."
Now contrast this with the following statement, also in the same letter, "This bill is a violation of the separation of church and state. The Catholic bishops of Connecticut are responsible for establishing and determining what moral guidelines Catholic institutions should follow; not the Connecticut General Assembly."
And the bishops complain that this law would require the administration of Plan B when the "medication cannot act solely as a contraceptive."
What? First of all, the Catholic Church condemns all use of contraception as a grave and illicit practice. Secondly, in the case of a rape victim, Catholic doctors opine, and have insisted in many instances, that:
“since the medical evidences shows that EC has the potential to adversely alter the endometrial lining and that it does not consistently stop ovulation when given in the preovulatory phase, there is a definite potential for EC to abort a newly conceived child when given in the preovulatory phase…
"EC has the potential to abort a newly conceived child in the preovulatory, ovulatory and postovulatory phases. Because the potential for abortion exists, it cannot be ethically given to rape victims in any stage of the menstrual cycle.”
It seems to me that the Connecticut bishops need to address this matter with consistency.
