Young Catholics for Choice want Catholic women to know that they can be faithful and make their reproductive health decisions based on their own conscience, not doctrine.
Two representatives from the Washington, D.C.-based YCFCJessica Nieblas and Marissa Valeriwere barnstorming Wisconsin on Wednesday with Lon Newman, executive director of Family Planning Health Services of Wausau, to let Catholic women know that they should make informed decisions about their health. That means using contraceptionincluding emergency contraception (EC)when it’s appropriate.
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.” She said there are a variety of opinions within the Catholic community about the use of contraception, even though the highest levels of the hierarchy continue to support the ban.
The group hoped to clear up misinformation about the contraception in general and emergency contraception in particular. They stressed that emergency contraception is not an abortion pill, because it prevents a pregnancy, and doesn’t terminate one. They’ve developed a TV ad and radio ads to stress the need for women to have EC on hand just in case they need it, likening it to a seat belt.
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“As a Catholic, I have a right and a responsibility to follow my conscience, to protect my health,” the ad says.
A survey of 1,000 women in 2000 found that 76% of 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’s Archbishop-Designate Jerome Listecki.
While the Wisconsin Catholic Conference maintained a neutral position on the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims bill when it was debated in the state Legislature, Listecki, then the bishop of La Crosse, along with Madison Bishop Robert Morlino urged lawmakers to oppose the bill, which requires all hospitals to offer EC to victims of rape. (It eventually passed with bipartisan support.)
“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.”
The church routinely refers to EC as an “abortifacient” or “abortion pill” even though the pillessentially a high dose of hormonal contraception, which prevents ovulationdoes not terminate a 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.
Newman, Valeri and Nieblas also decried the role played by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in turning abortion into the make-it-or-break-it issue in the health care reform package being debated in Congress. According to the bishop-instigated Stupak Amendment passed in the House of Representatives, anyone who received a federal subsidy for private insurance would not be able to purchase a plan that covers elective abortion; it would also prohibit the public plan from offering abortion coverage. The amendment goes beyond current prohibitions in federal law.
Newman stressed the need for womenespecially low-income womento have access to affordable, comprehensive health care to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
“It’s important to have access to the full range of contraception,” Newman said.
Catholics for Choice took out an ad in Wednesday’s Washington Post to show the full impact of the bishops’ influence on health care. If the bishops got their way, the group stated, there would be no access to abortion even in cases of rape or incest, no in-vitro fertilization, no contraception, no treatment for ectopic pregnancy, no embryonic stem cell research, and no respect for your advance medical directives.
“Your healthcare will contain nothing that doesn’t meet the myriad litmus tests prescribed by a small group of men who don’t represent American Catholics, let alone the American people,” the ad states.
The group also released a survey of Catholic registered voters showing strong support for health care reform, including support for health insurance coverage of sexual and reproductive health care servicesincluding contraception (63%) and abortion (84% when the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother, and 50% when the woman and doctor decide it is appropriate). A full 68% stated disapproval of the bishops’ position that all Catholics should oppose the entire health care reform plan if it includes abortion.
Family Planning Health Services operates the statewide hotline for emergency contraception (1-866-ECFIRST or www.ezec.org).
