Many Young Catholics Say Follow Your Conscience on Contraception

Two representatives from the Washington, D.C.-based YCFC—Jessica Nieblas and Marissa Valeri—were barnstorming Wisconsin last week with Lon Newman, executive director of Family Planning Health Services of Wausau, to let Catholic women know that they should make informed, conscientious decisions about their health. That means using contraception—including emergency contraception (EC)—when it’s appropriate. That contrasts with the position held by the highest levels of the church hierarchy, which continues to support the ban on modern contraceptives.

The group stressed that emergency contraception—or the “morning-after pill”—is not an abortion pill, because it prevents a pregnancy from occurring if taken within a 72-hour window after unprotected sex. EC does not terminate an existing pregnancy.

“[Emergency contraception pills] are not effective once the process of implantation has begun, and will not cause abortion,” states the World Health Organization fact sheet on emergency contraception.

Catholics for Choice and Family Planning Health Services have developed a TV ad and radio ads to stress the need for women to have EC on hand just in case they need it.

“As a Catholic, I need to follow my conscience,” the ad concludes.

The Wausau clinic operates the statewide EC hotline (www.ezec.org or 1-866-323-4778) and refers to emergency contraception as the “get it before you need it pill.”

What’s Compassionate?

The group’s embrace of modern contraceptives and EC appears to represent the opinion of the majority of American Catholics.

Valeri said that 90% of American Catholic women have rejected the church’s ban on modern contraception, and they should continue to make decisions based on their “informed conscience.”

American Catholics also seem to support emergency contraception for rape victims. A survey sponsored by Catholics for a Free Choice found that 76% of American Catholic women want a community hospital to offer emergency contraception to rape victims, while 57% want hospitals to offer emergency contraception to women who want to prevent a pregnancy.

But that view isn’t shared by Milwaukee Archbishop-designate Jerome Listecki.

In 2008, the Wisconsin Legislature passed the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims bill, which requires all hospitals to inform rape victims of emergency contraception and provide it upon request.

The Wisconsin Catholic Conference maintained a neutral position on the bill, as did the pro-life organization Wisconsin Right to Life.

Kim Wadas of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference testified before the Legislature that Catholic health care workers could administer emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault.

“A female who has been raped should be able to defend herself against a potential conception from the sexual assault,” Wadas quoted from Ethical and Religious Directive No. 36 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

She said that before dispensing emergency contraception, Catholic hospitals routinely administer a pregnancy test to establish that the woman was not pregnant prior to the rape.

An early version of the Compassionate Care bill allowed hospitals and caregivers to “opt out” of dispensing emergency contraception to rape victims if tests determined that the woman was already pregnant—even though emergency contraception does not terminate an existing pregnancy. Critics say the tests are a stalling tactic, and the delay could weaken the effectiveness of EC.

The final version of the bill did not include that opt-out provision.

That deletion prompted Listecki, then the bishop of La Crosse, along with Madison Bishop Robert Morlino, to break with the Wisconsin Catholic Conference and urge lawmakers to oppose the bill, known as Assembly Bill 377.

“As written, Assembly Bill 377 would force all hospitals in Wisconsin, including Catholic and other religious hospitals, to treat victims of rape with contraceptives in a manner that could destroy innocent human life in certain circumstances,” Listecki had written in a statement urging Catholics to call their lawmakers to voice their opposition to the bill. “Not only would this constitute a violation of Catholic conscience, but it would also intrude on the right of doctors to treat patients in the manner they see as appropriate.”