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Pastoral Letter on "Morning After Pill"
- By SCMO
- Published 20/04/2001
- Pastoral Letters
SCMO
5 St Vincent Place, Glasgow G1 2DH
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Reports that unwanted teenage pregnancies in Scotland are among the highest in Europe are a cause of great concern to all of us.
The Government has a duty to implement policies which promote the common good of society. All of us: families, schools, Churches and Government have our own role to play in making unwanted teenage pregnancy a problem of the past, as far as that is humanly possible.
Recently the Government announced a plan to allow the so-called "morning after pill" to be bought from any pharmacy, by those aged 16 or over, without prescription.
As Bishops we wish to alert you to our concerns over this plan. It is not enough that a particular policy should be effective; it must also be morally acceptable. Catholic teaching is clear in stating that the ends do not justify the means.
Our opposition to the use of the-morning-after pill is not based simply upon well-known opposition of Catholic teaching to contraception as such, but also to our radical opposition to abortion. The fact of the matter is that the morning after pill may prevent ovulation, and therefore the fertilisation of an egg.
However, depending on when it is administered it can also prevent a tiny human being, or embryo, which has come into existence at the moment of conception, from implanting in the mother's womb. This leads to the death of the embryo. In such cases we are dealing with chemically-induced abortion.
The Church cannot remain silent on this issue, given the serious nature of what is being proposed. In stating these simple facts we are not seeking to impose our views on others. Instead, we aim to propose for public consideration the truth about these drugs.
In ethical terms, the Church considers the prescription, supply and consumption of potentially abortifacient drugs to be very wrong. We call on doctors, pharmacists, parents and teenagers to reflect on what is being proposed and to exercise their conscientious right of objection.
Many people have noted that this attempt to cut teenage pregnancy rates may inadvertently push up rates of teenage sexual activity, sexually transmitted disease and early chemically-induced abortion.
We are also deeply concerned that family relationships will be undermined by the Government's approach.
The family is the proper place for discussion and support of our teenagers coming to terms with their sexual development. Families today needs much encouragement and support to carry out their responsibilities in this area.
Instead, they are being sidelined. By offering over-the-counter potentially abortifacient drugs to 16 year olds, parental rights are being undermined and family bonds weakened.
If our teenagers feel that they are so unimportant that we can leave this aspect of their healthcare to a 10-minute chat in a busy pharmacy, with a pharmacist who cannot carry out any physical examination, or consult medical records, we are sending out a regrettable and dangerous message to a highly vulnerable group.
We call on all concerned to work together to produce a new strategy which is respectful of human life at all its stages, which is ordered to the true good of the human person and which is in conformity with the law of God.
The Catholic Church, for its part, remains open to dialogue, in the hope that an approach can be found which gives a proper role to the family and which provides teenagers with accurate information and guidance to allow them to resist peer pressure and make positive moral choices.
With every good wish,
Yours devotedly in Christ,
Thomas J. Cardinal Winning
Archbishop of Glasgow
Keith Patrick O'Brien
Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh
Mario Conti
Bishop of Aberdeen Joseph Devine
Bishop of Motherwell Vincent Logan
Bishop of Dunkeld
Maurice Taylor
Bishop of Galloway John Mone
Bishop of Paisley Ian Murray
Bishop of Argyll and the Isles
Reports that unwanted teenage pregnancies in Scotland are among the highest in Europe are a cause of great concern to all of us.
The Government has a duty to implement policies which promote the common good of society. All of us: families, schools, Churches and Government have our own role to play in making unwanted teenage pregnancy a problem of the past, as far as that is humanly possible.
Recently the Government announced a plan to allow the so-called "morning after pill" to be bought from any pharmacy, by those aged 16 or over, without prescription.
As Bishops we wish to alert you to our concerns over this plan. It is not enough that a particular policy should be effective; it must also be morally acceptable. Catholic teaching is clear in stating that the ends do not justify the means.
Our opposition to the use of the-morning-after pill is not based simply upon well-known opposition of Catholic teaching to contraception as such, but also to our radical opposition to abortion. The fact of the matter is that the morning after pill may prevent ovulation, and therefore the fertilisation of an egg.
However, depending on when it is administered it can also prevent a tiny human being, or embryo, which has come into existence at the moment of conception, from implanting in the mother's womb. This leads to the death of the embryo. In such cases we are dealing with chemically-induced abortion.
The Church cannot remain silent on this issue, given the serious nature of what is being proposed. In stating these simple facts we are not seeking to impose our views on others. Instead, we aim to propose for public consideration the truth about these drugs.
In ethical terms, the Church considers the prescription, supply and consumption of potentially abortifacient drugs to be very wrong. We call on doctors, pharmacists, parents and teenagers to reflect on what is being proposed and to exercise their conscientious right of objection.
Many people have noted that this attempt to cut teenage pregnancy rates may inadvertently push up rates of teenage sexual activity, sexually transmitted disease and early chemically-induced abortion.
We are also deeply concerned that family relationships will be undermined by the Government's approach.
The family is the proper place for discussion and support of our teenagers coming to terms with their sexual development. Families today needs much encouragement and support to carry out their responsibilities in this area.
Instead, they are being sidelined. By offering over-the-counter potentially abortifacient drugs to 16 year olds, parental rights are being undermined and family bonds weakened.
If our teenagers feel that they are so unimportant that we can leave this aspect of their healthcare to a 10-minute chat in a busy pharmacy, with a pharmacist who cannot carry out any physical examination, or consult medical records, we are sending out a regrettable and dangerous message to a highly vulnerable group.
We call on all concerned to work together to produce a new strategy which is respectful of human life at all its stages, which is ordered to the true good of the human person and which is in conformity with the law of God.
The Catholic Church, for its part, remains open to dialogue, in the hope that an approach can be found which gives a proper role to the family and which provides teenagers with accurate information and guidance to allow them to resist peer pressure and make positive moral choices.
With every good wish,
Yours devotedly in Christ,
Thomas J. Cardinal Winning
Archbishop of Glasgow
Keith Patrick O'Brien
Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh
Mario Conti
Bishop of Aberdeen Joseph Devine
Bishop of Motherwell Vincent Logan
Bishop of Dunkeld
Maurice Taylor
Bishop of Galloway John Mone
Bishop of Paisley Ian Murray
Bishop of Argyll and the Isles