German Bishops Change Tune on Morning-After Pill

German Bishops Change Tune on Morning-After Pill The case of a young woman who was denied treatment by Catholic hospitals after she may have been raped has sparked a debate among German Catholics. At …More
German Bishops Change Tune on Morning-After Pill
The case of a young woman who was denied treatment by Catholic hospitals after she may have been raped has sparked a debate among German Catholics. At its heart is whether the Church should allow emergency contraceptive pills, or whether such drugs are equivalent to abortion.
Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne changed course on the issue in a statement released last week, saying he had consulted with medical professionals on the precise effects of emergency contraceptive pills. He said he had concluded that the most recent forms of those medications prevent ovulation and fertilization.
They do not, he concluded, prevent the implantation of an already-fertilized egg, which he said would still constitute an abortion and therefore be forbidden by Catholic doctrine.
Meisner's most recent statement on the morning-after pill was praised by the German Catholic Hospitals' Association, which said it clarified a previously murky policy on what …More
Holy Cannoli
The Catholic Church teaches that it's wrong to use contraception during a conjugal act. But it also teaches that rape is a violation of the person - Rape is not a conjugal act and therefoer it is a violation of the conjugal act.
It is a crime and an attack, an act of force. A person may repel an attack using whatever force is necessary.
While not an official teaching of the Catholic Church, the …More
The Catholic Church teaches that it's wrong to use contraception during a conjugal act. But it also teaches that rape is a violation of the person - Rape is not a conjugal act and therefoer it is a violation of the conjugal act.

It is a crime and an attack, an act of force. A person may repel an attack using whatever force is necessary.

While not an official teaching of the Catholic Church, the US Counsel of Catholic bishops have said the following (directive 36 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services): www.ncbcenter.org/document.doc

"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 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"

While not specific on this topic, it would support the idea of a victim being able to ask her attacker to use a condom.

The USCCB does not discuss an even more effective means to prevent rape, conception and the physical/psychological suffering and shame to the woman...The Mozambique Drill.
PeterCanisius
Even if the morning after pill wasn't an abortifacent, the catechsim of the catholic church teaches that contraception is "intrinsically evil" that is, no matter what the circumstances, it cannot be used. So is saying contraception is ok??? The Twit!!!
Gloria.TV – News Briefs
From the article:
They do not, he (Cardinal Meisner) concluded, prevent the implantation of an already-fertilized egg, which he said would still constitute an abortion and therefore be forbidden by Catholic doctrine.
Provide your sources for this astounding comment and the research that shows it is medically true. If you are unable to do so, dear German bishops and especially Cardinal Meisner, then …More
From the article:

They do not, he (Cardinal Meisner) concluded, prevent the implantation of an already-fertilized egg, which he said would still constitute an abortion and therefore be forbidden by Catholic doctrine.

Provide your sources for this astounding comment and the research that shows it is medically true. If you are unable to do so, dear German bishops and especially Cardinal Meisner, then the statement is false, it misleads and misinforms Catholics and it is yet another scandal for the German Catholic Church.

Read the following from the experts:

It is true that the morning-after pill may act as a contraceptive; if it is taken before ovulation, it may act to prevent conception. But if the pill is taken during or after ovulation, conception may and frequently does occur and then, the makers of the morning-after pill freely admit, it acts by preventing implantation of the newly-formed embryo into the uterine wall. This mode of action is not contraceptive because it does not prevent conception, but rather, this aborts the life of a week-old human being. Prescribing or consuming this pill, therefore, is a reckless disregard for human life, all of its contraceptive potential notwithstanding. Pro-Life Physicians and the Morning After Pill

Did you read it, Cardinal Meisner? Again, Prescribing or consuming this pill, therefore, is a reckless disregard for human life, all of its contraceptive potential notwithstanding.

There is clearly a disconnect with what Cardinal Meisner is now preaching to German Catholics and the actual truth.

Let see how long it takes before Bishop Müller, the New Prefect of CDF(Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), corrects his fellow German for proffering an untruth?

However, perhaps Bishop Müller is too busy formulating his next public criticism of the SSPX to interfere with hereesy and the scandal originating from his fellow German bishop Cardinal Meisner?
Gloria.TV – News Briefs
Dear Cardinal Joachim Meisner,
Who are your experts?
The most recent scientific study on Levonorgestrel, the essential component of the “morning-after pill” or “emergency contraceptive,” confirms that the drug does indeed have a third effect on users, which consists in preventing the implantation of a fertilized ovum in the womb of the mother.
...the most recent study (2007) by Doctors Mikolajczyk …More
Dear Cardinal Joachim Meisner,

Who are your experts?

The most recent scientific study on Levonorgestrel, the essential component of the “morning-after pill” or “emergency contraceptive,” confirms that the drug does indeed have a third effect on users, which consists in preventing the implantation of a fertilized ovum in the womb of the mother.

...the most recent study (2007) by Doctors Mikolajczyk and Stanford of the Department of Medicine in Public Health of the University of Bielefeld (Germany) clearly indicates that the pill’s “real effect” includes mechanisms that prevent implantation.

Published by the magazine Fertility and Sterility, the study used data from multiple clinical studies with advanced mathematical models and concluded that if emergency contraception only inhibited ovulation its true effectiveness would only be in a range of 8-49 percent.

If it acted before ovulation and if it inhibited ovulation completely, its true effectiveness would be between 16-90 percent.

The rest of the pill’s effectiveness consists in its anti-implantation mechanisms, which cause an abortion.

Catholic News Agency