Morning-After Pill

[Elizabeth502]

If you’ve gotten yourself into a bad situation to begin with – where you shouldn’t be – & you’ve had unprotected sex & are at high risk for pregnancy, I am presuming it is additionally sinful to take a morning-after pill, even if you consider it more responsible than taking a chance on consequent pregnancy?

I’m asking because this question comes up both in relation to pre-marital sex and in relation to married sex where the couple is not in a good position to have a child, for any number of reasons.

Is it always grave, and always a mortal sin?

 

[saieditor]

If you’ve gotten yourself into a bad situation to begin with – where you shouldn’t be – and you’ve had unprotected sex and are at high risk for pregnancy,

You will always experience the consequences of your actions. Master the mind, manage the desires and there will be no suffering, no evil, no consequences.

There is a simple truth in that. Say NO.

I am presuming it is additionally sinful to take a morning-after pill, even if you consider it more responsible than taking a chance on consequent pregnancy?

Sin is that which separates you from your right relationship with God. God invites you to a relationship of love with him. Turn to God with love for God. This is what will redeem your life.

Escaping the consequences of your actions with a pill does not change your fundamental option to satisfy desire. In fact, you may begin to feel that you can satisfy your or another persons desire because there is a “tiny little pill” which frees you from the consequences.

But think about it. Where is all that in your life with God, your love of God, your turning to God with love for God? Where is your love for God in all of this?

I’m asking because this question comes up both in relation to pre-marital sex

You have pre-marital sex and any subsequent relationship will be broken. Statement of fact. Look at all the divorces…

and in relation to married sex where the couple is not in a good position to have a child

You can responsibly plan your family and its time, but you do not plan children. Children are a gift from Godl, a divine responsibility bestowed upon you in trust. Consider.

Is it always grave, and always a mortal sin?

Grave and mortal are about what severs you from the love of God. Grave and mortal occasions are all those occasions which add up to a general selfishness and a choice to take responsibility for your life and to leave God out. (Moral Theology made plain)

Consider.

 

[als10062008]

Yes, it is a grave and mortal sin to use the morning after pill, condoms, birth control pills, etc. They prevent new life from developing the way God designed the body to carry children. For the married couple, there is Natural Family Planning (NFP) which is in communion with God’s plan for families.

The pill shouldn’t be seen as responsible. Hopefully the widespread opinion that birth control is responsible fades away. God takes care of those who turn to Him. The feelings of nervousness and anxiety are not a surprise to Him. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, you can turn to God knowing that He knows our anxiety, He has a plan for us, and those who follow His will will endure.

 

[1ke]

Is it always grave, and always a mortal sin?

Yes.

Contraception is intrinsically disordered and is a violaiton of the Sixth Commandment.

 

[Seatuck]

vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdlife/documents/rc_pa_acdlife_doc_20001031_pillola-giorno-dopo_en.html

Vatican statement on MAP

 

[Cristiano]

…Is it always grave, and always a mortal sin?

No! It is always grave matter and so that meets the first of three conditions necessary for incurring into mortal sin. However, to be mortal sin two more conditions must be met: knowledge of the gravity, and free consent.

 

[steve975]

The use of the morning after pill, and possible resultant abortion, is not more responsible than facing a consequent pregnancy. Potentially causing an abortion is never responsible.

 

[Elizabeth502]

Escaping the consequences of your actions with a pill does not change your fundamental option to satisfy desire.

Can’t agree with that more. (You may have misunderstood my meaning or my tone. One action was not meant as an excuse for another, or to diminish or cancel another.)

 

[Elizabeth502]

You have pre-marital sex and any subsequent relationship will be broken. Statement of fact. Look at all the divorces…

I don’t know that God intends, or looks upon, all subsequent relationships with others – after a willful, foolish mistake – as permanently “broken.” That’s pretty harsh. If you’re saying that our mistakes and sins stay with us, I agree both with the subjecive & objective reality of that. However, if one’s moral life cannot be renewed & transfigured, then there is not much point or power to transformative grace. I don’t buy into God’s grace as being so impotent, & his judgment of our previous errors as being so final.

 

[coco2]

I have heard that it is standard practice at hospitals to give rape victims the morning-after pill. I could see how a traumatized woman would take it without thinking about it at all. I don’t really know the percentage of women who get pregnant from rape, but my guess it is miniscule due to the trauma. Pro choicers always use this scenario to prove their point, but I haven’t seen data.

In saying that, I still believe it is wrong.

 

[brandymmiller]

If you’ve gotten yourself into a bad situation to begin with – where you shouldn’t be – & you’ve had unprotected sex & are at high risk for pregnancy, I am presuming it is additionally sinful to take a morning-after pill, even if you consider it more responsible than taking a chance on consequent pregnancy?

I’m asking because this question comes up both in relation to pre-marital sex and in relation to married sex where the couple is not in a good position to have a child, for any number of reasons.

Is it always grave, and always a mortal sin?

To take another human life is always grave mater, but not always a mortal sin. If the human in the scenario had broken into your home and threatened your life, for instance, it would not be a mortal sin. However, taking of an innocent life is ALWAYS a mortal sin. You may not have planned for that child, but God did. That child is a gift to the parents, and to the world. Within that child is a solution to a problem that exists or that will exist. No one else can fulfill that child’s destiny. To chose the morning after pill robs not only you and your partner of the gift that God had intended for you both, but robs the world as well.

Furthermore, because you have been raised to know that life comes from God and that all life is sacred, while your concious mind may choose to ignore it you can expect that there will be guilt which you carry. It will impact your life in ways you cannot predict. You may go to confession seeking forgiveness, but you will most likely be unable to forgive yourself. You will hold onto your grief for years, because that is all you have of the child that might have been. In a way, you will envy those mothers who went to abortion clinics because they will know for certain their guilt but you will not know for sure how guilty you are. You think you can escape the consequences, but taking that pill only introduces consequences and burdens which are unbelievable and unrelenting. Think carefully, choose wisely. God doesn’t set laws over us to control us. He sets them over us because He loves us and wants us not to have to suffer.

 

[Elizabeth502]

My understanding of the moral law on this is that using it contraceptively is less serious than using it with a known pregnancy.

 

[jfoges]

Yes.

Contraception is intrinsically disordered and is a violaiton of the Sixth Commandment.

the morning after pill is not contraception, it is abortion. Using the morning after pill falls under the realm of homicide, and is always gravely wrong.

 

[maryjk]

Okay, lets play the “what if” game.

Let’s say:
I am married, using NFP to prevent.
I have not ovulated, but based on past months, I will soon. In fact, I am just waiting for my temp to go up. All of the other signs are there.
I am raped. At this point I DON’T want to ovulate.
I take the Morning after pill to stop **ovulation.
**
There is no abortion. I haven’t ovulated.
This isn’t premarital sex, I am married, just not to the rapist.

It is a contraceptive.

I wonder what the teaching would be on this.

 

[adelore]

Okay, lets play the “what if” game.

Let’s say:
I am married, using NFP to prevent.
I have not ovulated, but based on past months, I will soon. In fact, I am just waiting for my temp to go up. All of the other signs are there.
I am raped. At this point I DON’T want to ovulate.
I take the Morning after pill to stop **ovulation.
**
There is no abortion. I haven’t ovulated.
This isn’t premarital sex, I am married, just not to the rapist.

It is a contraceptive.

I wonder what the teaching would be on this.

First the Morning After Pill Won’t stop Ovulation.

The Ovulation period/ or time frame isn’t just an evening or day. The egg comes out of the overy and then goes into the tube and travels down the tube and into the uterus.

If the egg is not fertilized while in the tube (along its travel at some point in time) it will then proceed into the uterus. (again if not fertilized) it won’t be able to implant it’s self on the wall of the uterus, thus when a women has her monthly cycle the wall of the uterus is shed and will flush the Unfertilized egg out of the body.

Now lets say the egg is fertilized while traveling down the tube it then goes to the uterus and implants it’s self on the wall of the uterus…9 months later we have a baby born.

Now the “Morning After Pill” does not, I repeat, does **not stop **the sperm (which was already on it’s way, before the pill was ever taken) to swim up the tube and fertilize an egg. Once the sperm and egg meet, a new life has been started.

What the Morning After Pill does do is cause a Chemical Abortion. The Morning After Pill when taken causes a women to have her monthly period, only induced by a chemical reaction, caused by the pill. Of course hospitals and such “claim” this will keep the woman from getting pregnant by the rappiest. Not true, what it causes is the woman to have a Chemical Abortion in the very eary stages of her pregnancy

mayoclinic.com/health/morning-after-pill/AN00592
The active ingredients in morning-after pills are similar to those in birth control pills, except in higher doses. Some morning-after pills contain only one hormone, levonorgestrel (Plan B), and others contain two, progestin and estrogen. Progestin prevents the sperm from reaching the egg and** keeps a fertilized egg from attaching to the wall of the uterus (implantation). **Estrogen stops the ovaries from releasing eggs (ovulation) that can be fertilized by sperm.

You can read the whole article on the website I pasted here.

Ovulation: More about it at this article, you can even watch a video about how it works. Ovulation is more than a one day process.

mayoclinic.com/health/ovulation-signs/AN01521
**Changes in basal body temperature. Ovulation may cause a slight increase in temperature. You will be most fertile during the two to three days before your temperature rises. **

I hope this information helps.

 

[Seatuck]

I have heard that it is standard practice at hospitals to give rape victims the morning-after pill. I could see how a traumatized woman would take it without thinking about it at all. I don’t really know the percentage of women who get pregnant from rape, but my guess it is miniscule due to the trauma. Pro choicers always use this scenario to prove their point, but I haven’t seen data.

In saying that, I still believe it is wrong.

It isn’t standard practice at all Catholic Hospitals. For some it might be but for many it isn’t . Recently the Connecticut Bishop’s approved it’s use in case of rape and made it more of a standard. A pregnancy test is done in those hospitals. There is a protocol in other places to do a test for ovulation.
According to Catholic Moral Law a woman is entitled to defend herself against conception by an unjust aggressor.

 

[jfoges]

It isn’t standard practice at all Catholic Hospitals. For some it might be but for many it isn’t . Recently the Connecticut Bishop’s approved it’s use in case of rape and made it more of a standard. A pregnancy test is done in those hospitals. There is a protocol in other places to do a test for ovulation.
According to Catholic Moral Law a woman is entitled to defend herself against conception by an unjust aggressor.

But the morning after pill is not a defense against conception. The morning after pill is taken after conception has already taken place.

 

[Elizabeth502]

But the morning after pill is not a defense against conception. The morning after pill is taken after conception has already taken place.

This is incorrect. The MAP is often taken as an emergency contraception after a sexual act, whether forced or not forced, quite before a known pregnancy. Not every sexual act results in conception; most do not.

 

[Seatuck]

But the morning after pill is not a defense against conception. The morning after pill is taken after conception has already taken place.

The emergency contraceptive/morning-after pill has three modes of action (as does the regular birth control pill); that is, it can work in one of three ways:

1. 
   *]The normal menstrual cycle is altered, delaying ovulation; or
   *]Ovulation is inhibited, meaning the egg will not be released from the ovary;
   *]It can irritate the lining of the uterus (endometrium) so as to inhibit implantation.

1. 
   The MAP is only permitted for Catholics in case of rape.

 

[jfoges]

This is incorrect. The MAP is often taken as an emergency contraception after a sexual act, whether forced or not forced, quite before a known pregnancy. Not every sexual act results in conception; most do not.

Yes it can be taken before a known pregnancy. But since there can be a pregnancy, it would be immoral to take this pill which might cause the death of a human person. One would have to know for sure that there was not a pregnancy before taking it.