USCCB permits contraception in specific rape circumstance

[Tony11]

I long ago e-mailed the USCCB asking how this can be permitted. Am I wrong thinking there is no method of preventing conception that would not cause an abortion if conception has already occurred? I believe that “no evidence” is not sufficient. This is directive 36 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

1. 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 22 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. 19

usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/health-care/upload/Ethical-Religious-Directives-Catholic-Health-Care-Services-fifth-edition-2009.pdf

Hmm, I did a search and found this…
religiousconsultation.org/News_Tracker/emergency_contraception_prevents_fertilization_not_implantation.htm

 

[PeterJohn]

I believe there are ways to rid a female body of the mans seed that do not include killing a fertilized egg. Perhaps a google search of these methods would help you. The gynecologists have a cleaning method I believe that fairly effective.

 

[Corki]

I long ago e-mailed the USCCB asking how this can be permitted. Am I wrong thinking there is no method of preventing conception that would not cause an abortion if conception has already occurred? I believe that “no evidence” is not sufficient. This is directive 36 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

That’s why the clarification of ovulation not having occurred. If ovulaion has not occured there is no chance that conception could already have occured.

 

[Allegra]

There are tests that can determine if the woman has ovulated or not. If she hasn’t ovulated yet, the doctor can be sure that an abortion will not occur. This might be a little preemptive now, but given the fact that more and more women are creating a market for natural family planning methods, this technology is likely to get more and more attention from researches and become even more accurate in the near future.

 

[allhers]

I long ago e-mailed the USCCB asking how this can be permitted. Am I wrong thinking there is no method of preventing conception that would not cause an abortion if conception has already occurred? I believe that “no evidence” is not sufficient. This is directive 36 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

1. 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 22 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. 19
   http://
   usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/health-care/upload/Ethical-Religious-Directives-Catholic-Health-Care-Services-fifth-edition-2009.pdf

Hmm, I did a search and found this…
religiousconsultation.org/News_Tracker/emergency_contraception_prevents_fertilization_not_implantation.htm

Instead of that last link, the religiousconsulation one, you ought to check out this site:
all.org
It would be much more helpful and you would get Catholic Church teaching there, not just some group giving their opinion.

 

[Corki]

Instead of that last link, the religiousconsulation one, you ought to check out this site:
all.org
It would be much more helpful and you would get Catholic Church teaching there, not just some group giving their opinion.

Oh my! I clicked the “About Us” tab and found this:

The Religious Consultation (TRC) is an international, multi-faith network of progressive feminist religious scholars and leaders.

Not exactly who I would trust to comment on anything Catholic.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

I long ago e-mailed the USCCB asking how this can be permitted. Am I wrong thinking there is no method of preventing conception that would not cause an abortion if conception has already occurred? I believe that “no evidence” is not sufficient. This is directive 36 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

1. 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 22 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. 19

usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/health-care/upload/Ethical-Religious-Directives-Catholic-Health-Care-Services-fifth-edition-2009.pdf

Hmm, I did a search and found this…
religiousconsultation.org/News_Tracker/emergency_contraception_prevents_fertilization_not_implantation.htm

Well, that is all very complicated. I noticed that the USCCB didn’t mention any particular form of " preventative " medicine that was appropriate. Who decides that ? Linus2nd

 

[_Abyssinia]

I do not understand why there is lack of consistency among Bishops in regards to the pill beign given to rape victims. US, German and Swiss Bishops accept its use, but I have not heard of any other country’s Bishops accepting it. I have not heard of any official document from the Vatican which says of the allowance of the pill for rape victims.

Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, current president of the Pontifical academy for Life said the German Bishops approval for the morning after pill for rape victims is supported by him, but a 2000 document from the Pontifical Academy for Life said:

the absolute unlawfulness of abortifacient procedures also applies to distributing, prescribing and taking the morning-after pill. All who, whether sharing the intention or not, directly co-operate with this procedure are also morally responsible for it

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

Previous president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Bishop Elio Sgreccia, did not support the morning after pill being given to rape victims which means that the USSCB at least at that time was allowing the pill to be given when that was not in conformity with the then president of the Pontifical academy for Life

The pill under directive 36 is allowed to be given if ovulation has not occured, which means there would be no conception. I question the accuracy of such current ovulation tests

Catholic Dr Just Asznar believes the German bishops have a ‘small, technical ignorance’ on the morning after pill

Spanish Bishop Juan Antonio Martínez Camino said regarding the German Bishops desicion to allow the morning after pills use for rape victims:

“If there is a pill that prevents conception in cases of rape, then it is licit to prevent it,” he told El Mundo. He added, however, "We have no knowledge of a morning-after pill without abortifacient effects … If it did exist, we would be sure to know it.”

The bishop concluded, “all morning-after pills have this possible abortive effect. Therefore, its use is illicit. If it does exist in Germany, we are not aware of it. It is not known to us that this technical possibility exists."

lifesitenews.com/news/spanish-bishops-doctors-question-german-bishops-approval-of-morning-after-p

Catholic Medical Association did not accept directive 36 in their annual meeting in 2003, their statement said the morning after pill

cannot be ethically employed by a Catholic physician or administered in a Catholic Hospital in cases of rape

There is much confusion on this. There needs to be clarification

 

[Genesis315]

They did not accept a certain medication as falling within the directive it seems, not that they rejected the directive.

The issue is that a victim of a sexual assault’s right to incapacitate or repel the attacker or to withold herself from him applies also to repelling his sperm or withholding her ovum. For example, who would deny that it would be ok for coitus interruptus to occur as the victim seeks to escape the attacker?

One could not commit and abortion, however, since the new life is an innocent bystander, not an unjust attacker.

The question therefore is distinguishing between which methods of defense, when used at or directly after the assault, would result in an abortion and which would not. All the bishops who have addressed this say it is morally licit if the means would not , and morally prohibited it the means would.

The 2000 PAL document is only addressing the use of the pill as an abortifacient, which, as mentioned above, has also been ruled out by all the bishops who have adopted the approach of the USCCB.

The US, German, and Swiss bishops are all applying good principles. It’s a quesiton of fact as to the effects of certain medications at certain times.

 

[Michael_Allen]

I believe there are ways to rid a female body of the mans seed that do not include killing a fertilized egg. Perhaps a google search of these methods would help you. The gynecologists have a cleaning method I believe that fairly effective.

I imagine that they are talking more about a high dose contraceptive pill to prevent ovulation from occurring during the days that a released egg could be fertilised by remaining sperm.

Sounds reasonable and compassionate to me.

 

[Quicksilver264]

There is now pretty hefty doubt that hormonal contraception interferes with implantation.

If you go back as far as 1994 to some FDA Advisory Committees (for which records are not available anymore), the rationale for including the “implantation” mechanism was convoluted and tortured. Since then, every attempt at removing that mechanism from the Prescribing Information has been left unanswered by the FDA.

From Contraception. Noé G, Croxatto HB, et al. 2011 Nov;84(5):486-92

For the 148 women who had sexual intercourse during the fertile days, the overall accumulated probability of pregnancy was 24.7, while altogether 8 pregnancies were observed. Thus, the overall contraceptive efficacy of LNG-EC was 68%.

Among the 103 women who took LNG-EC before ovulation (days -5 to -1), 16 pregnancies were expected and no pregnancy occurred (p<.0001).

Among the 45 women who took LNG-EC on the day of ovulation (day 0) or thereafter, 8 pregnancies occurred and 8.7 were expected (p=1.00).

These findings are incompatible with the inhibition of implantation by LNG-EC in women.

This study had prespecified its expectations via statistical calculations to achieve the desired power to detect a difference. There is less than 1 chance in 10,000 that the null hypothesis was rejected incorrectly.

Further studies supporting these data are:
Noé G, Croxatto HB, et al. Contraception. 2010 May;81(5):414-20.
Novikova N, Weisberg E et al. Contraception. 2007 Feb;75(2):112-8. Epub 2006 Oct 27.

 

[tomasocarthaigh]

I gather about 66% of fertilisations before implantation never materialise, and are lost without the mother knowing that she was pregnant, and a sililar percentage after implantation.

Be I right or wrong, its not something Id beat myself up about, nor would I fault a woman for preventing the possibility of a pregnancy in a rape situation, with a week of the event anyway.

But that’s just me.

 

[Offdoodykcrn]

How about less outrage against preventing pregnancy after sexual assault, and more towards the criminals committing sexual assault.