Articles about Emergency Contraception
May 6th, 2010 • Contributed by Dino Corvino
This comes to us from our friend Jon O’Brien, the President of Catholics for Choice. It first appeared in the Huffington Post.
Catholics Call on Pope Benedict to Reconsider Vatican’s Ban on Contraceptive Pill
Fifty years ago this week, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the contraceptive pill. The man most prominently associated with the development and introduction of the pill, John Rock, was an Irish Catholic doctor from Boston. Dr. Rock didn’t set out to make waves with the Vatican; in fact, he was sure that his invention would gain approval from the Vatican and finally allow Catholics to practice safe and effective family planning. He was successful on both counts. Three different layers of a Vatican commission approved the pill back in 1965. But Pope Paul VI decided to ignore the findings of those panels and condemned Catholic women to a variety of unreliable methods if they were to follow the Vatican’s dictates. To this day, most Catholic women ignore the Vatican’s decree, and many millions of them have safer and more reliable family planning thanks to Dr. Rock’s pill.
The story of the pill’s genesis is a fascinating one. John Rock was an infertility expert who was a pioneer behind many modern methods of assisting couples to conceive. In the course of his work, he also met many fertile Catholic women who wanted to space the births of their children, and sometimes to avoid having children. The Vatican’s ban on artificial methods of contraception meant that they had to rely on so-called natural methods, when a couple can only have sexual intercourse during the time each month when a woman is infertile if they want to avoid pregnancy. This was unacceptable to many, unworkable for those who have unreliable cycles and impossible for women who could not negotiate their sexual relationship with their partners.
Rock, who worked with biologist Gregory Pincus to develop the pill, was convinced “that every couple should be able to choose freely the number of children they could afford — materially and emotionally — to bring into the world.”
Rock figured that he could invent a hormonal pill that suppressed ovulation and therefore extend the safe period for sex as long as a woman stayed on the pill. He reasoned that the Vatican would accept this, and Catholic women who did not want to go against the Vatican would be able to have a healthy sex life.
Contraception was an issue the Vatican had addressed before, and the advent of the pill raised new questions about Catholics and family planning. The Vatican had imposed a ban on “artificial” methods of contraception, such as condoms and diaphragms, in the1930 encyclical Casti Connubii. There was growing debate in the church about whether this ban should be continued, and if so, whether it should be broadened to include the new pill.
This was a huge issue for the Catholic church, and not long after the introduction of the pill, in 1963, Pope John XXIII convened a panel to study the matter. The papal commission on birth control was composed of bishops, priests and lay people, including married Catholic women. They considered Catholic theology, modern science and the lives that married Catholics lead. The commission voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the church rescind its ban on contraception. The pope, concerned that overturning the ban would call all of the hierarchy’s teachings into question, appointed a second commission, made up of 15 bishops, which also voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the church rescind its ban on contraception.
The results of these votes were leaked, and there was widespread rejoicing among Catholics. It was therefore a significant shock to Catholics — and indeed most of the world — when the encyclical Humanae Vitae was finally released by Pope Paul VI on July 29, 1968, proclaiming the teaching on contraception unchanged and unchangeable.
The pope had completely ignored the work and recommendations of his own commission, despite five meetings over three years and a vote by 30 of the 35 commission’s lay members, 15 of the 19 theologians and 9 of 12 bishops that the teaching be changed (three bishops abstained).
There is little need to reconvene a commission to study this issue. Not much has changed to negate the findings of the majority votes in the commission. Indeed, we have learned so much more about safe reproductive health that supports the real world application of the commission’s findings. It makes no sense to continue the Vatican’s wrong-headed approach to family planning. Even without the twin scourges of maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS, there are billions of good reasons to allow women to plan their families and to allow them to decide when and whether to have children: namely the 3.5 billion women in the world, of whom about 600 million are Catholic.
It would be a lasting and wholly positive legacy if the current pope got behind the majority report of the 1963-68 commission and lifted the ban on the use of contraceptives to allow Catholics to plan their families. Given the fact that today, in the United States, 97 percent of sexually active Catholic women above the age of 18 have used some form of contraception banned by the Vatican, it makes little sense to continue the ban. In fact, the ban does more harm to the Vatican and its teaching authority than would changing it.
Dr. Rock was a Catholic champion of women’s health. If the Vatican wants to regain some relevance and respect on this issue, it’s time to join him in his support for contraception.
Jon O’Brien is the president of Catholics for Choice
No Comments • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
February 16th, 2010 • Contributed by Lon Newman
“A defender of the church,” proclaimed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline for an extensive story about the new Archbishop-designate, Jerome Listecki. The subtitle for the article was: “Archbishop designate Listecki vows collaboration, but unafraid of debate.” The subtitle was probably derived from the bishop’s description of how he planned to participate in the political process. He said: “If we don’t challenge one another’s statements, then we’re relinquishing our responsibility to the common good.”
The following month, young Catholics for Choice (yCFC – a Washington D.C. based organization) and Family Planning Health Services (FPHS – an agency with family planning clinics in eight Wisconsin counties) formed a unique sectarian-secular advertising partnership, produced informational ads for broadcast, and then embarked on a two-day Wisconsin “road-trip” to draw media attention to their campaign and to build public (including the Catholic public) awareness and knowledge about emergency contraception.
The purpose of the joint media campaign was two-fold; 1) to inform the public about how Plan B works so they would have it on hand in advance of need and, 2) to inform Catholic women of reproductive age that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops health care directives permit the use of emergency contraception to prevent pregnancies resulting from rape.
In the January 2010 issue of the Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, Ron Hamel, Ph.D., makes it very clear that the ethics of access to emergency contraception for Catholics needs to be fully examined and explained. Professor Hamel’s article and the YCFC/FPHS EC campaign are an effort to fulfill that responsibility when there is significant resistance.
The campaign succeeded in getting a response from the Archbishop-designate and thus succeeded in its secondary purpose. The headline on the Christmas Eve edition of the La Crosse Diocesan newspaper is: “Bishop Rejects Young Catholics for Choice Message.” The front page column ran adjacent to the departing bishop’s message. But what he rejected so prominently: “ . . . that Catholics can disregard Church teaching on contraception, abortion, and human sexuality in general and remain Catholics in good standing,” was only weakly connected to the message that yCFC and Family Planning Health Services (FPHS) were promoting.
Bishop Listecki, like most of the Catholic protestors in front of the FPHS clinic, will allow “no room for interpretation,” once the bishop’s authority has been invoked. Many within the church see the bishop’s pattern of authoritarian rebukes, condemnations, and admonitions as futile efforts to suppress dissent and they understand they are not the views of other Catholics or even the other American bishops. Just as importantly, the denials and condemnations are not solely inflicted on the faithful. The prayer vigil protestors’ and Bishop Listecki’s efforts to eliminate access to emergency contraception, if they succeed, would apply to women regardless of their faith.
Erik Cieslewicz and Brooke Sperry have produced a documentary about the joint campaign that will be released February 17th, 2010. The web-posting will occur on the same day that another Lenten prayer vigil outside an FPHS clinic (which does not provide abortion services) begins in central Wisconsin. The video shows the challenge as well as the fun of the effort to educate the public in the face of consistent efforts to suppress and to misinform. Earlier, “40 Days for Life” prayer vigils played a large part in motivating FPHS and yCFC to cooperate in the advertising effort to correct misinformation being spread by their opponents.
Enjoy the video!
No Comments • Posted in: Action, Birth Control, Emergency Contraception, Family Planning, Policy
January 18th, 2010 • Contributed by Sue Kettner
During these days as we wait for what Congress will do in the area of Health Insurance Reform, we found a good resource that may help many people understand Plan B or Emergency Contraception. The following article is written and nicely documented by Ron Hamel, Ph.D. in the Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States.
2 Comments • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
November 30th, 2009 • Contributed by Lon Newman
The belief that contraception is intrinsically evil, though sincere, does not make it true. The belief that it is “written in everyone’s heart as “natural law” is no more persuasive. If true, it seems there would be no disagreement.
Catholic leaders know they have not persuaded one another, the public, or their own laity, to agree that contraception is evil. So when it comes to public policy, rather than engage in dialogue and debate, they seem to make a statement and end it with a “Dixi” (Latin for “I have spoken”) as though that is all that should be necessary.
Continue reading this article »
No Comments • Posted in: Birth Control, Emergency Contraception, Policy
October 27th, 2009 • Contributed by Dino Corvino
from our friend Elizabeth Westley at ICEC
Please find below my summary and interpretation of a recent decision in Peru. My thanks to our colleagues at the Center for Reproductive Rights for helping me understand the implications of this case. Any errors are mine alone!
Peru’s Highest Court Rules Against EC
Peru’s Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional) has stopped the Ministry of Health’s free distribution of EC in a decision issued on October 22nd. In addition, this decision requires local distributors of EC to add a warning to the package insert stating that this product could cause an abortion.
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No Comments • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
April 22nd, 2009 • Contributed by Dahlia Ward
The Associated Press is reporting that Plan B (emergency contraception) will soon be available without a prescription for teens 17 and under. We expect the FDA to shortly announce its compliance with the court decision we reported on last month that slammed the FDA for its politically driven decision to impose an age restriction. We hope that this is the first step in making Plan B accessible and affordable for all women who need it.
No Comments • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
February 26th, 2009 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Neither Do I Condemn You
A young mother visiting our Women Infants and Children’s nutrition clinic in Central Wisconsin was frightened by a male picketer as she came into our clinic a few weeks ago. Other women, sometimes our patients, sometimes our employees, have felt threatened by the “40 Days for Life” anti-birth control demonstrators leading a Lenten protest that began yesterday in front of our clinic in Central Wisconsin and in 131 other communities across the nation.
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1 Comment • Posted in: Birth Control, Emergency Contraception, Family Planning, Sex Ed
December 30th, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
As the fable goes, an eagle is brought to earth by an arrow fletched with his own feathers.
Listening to the spokesperson for Pro-Life Wisconsin as he defended the new ‘right of conscience’ regulations on Wisconsin Public Radio last week reminded me of the wisdom of the tale.
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1 Comment • Posted in: Abortion, Abstinence, Action, Birth Control, Emergency Contraception, Policy, Sex Ed
November 12th, 2008 • Contributed by Dino Corvino
[At Below The Waist, we think it is important to support people all over the world who work in reproductive health. We found this blog post on a Seattle area blog. Their clinic is suffering with a budget, and as a result services could possibly be lost. We think it is important to support these folks, and we would hope you write to the people in charge and remind them just how important reproductive health is.]
King County wants to ax family planning services for poor women & teens in Rainier Valley, White Center, etc. Can you help?
Many of you already know that King County is facing a major budget crisis. What you may not know is that the budget currently being deliberated by the King County Council eliminates no less than FIVE family planning clinics – including the valley’s own Columbia Public Health Center in the Genessee Business District – as well as family planning and STD services for teens in juvenile detention. The clinics on the chopping block could close as early as the end of 2008.
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No Comments • Posted in: Action, Emergency Contraception, Policy
October 29th, 2008 • Contributed by Dino Corvino
[From the Guttmacher Institute]
A Range of Concerns Would Need to Be Addressed
To Ensure that All Women Benefit
A growing number of women’s health advocates are urging bolder and potentially transformative steps toward greater “contraceptive convenience,” with the aim of making contraceptive use easier and more sustainable for women, according to a new Guttmacher policy analysis. These advocates argue that many of the ways in which contraceptives are made available in the United States are no longer grounded in the reality of current scientific advancements or modern women’s lives.
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1 Comment • Posted in: Emergency Contraception, STIs
