The Assault Against Conscience and Religious Freedom

by Fr. Roger J. Landry - December 16, 2005

Historians of the abortion debate in our country have long noted how abortion advocates have manipulated the extreme cases of rape, incest and life-endangering circumstances to the mother as means to achieve unrestricted access to abortion for the more than ninety-eight percent of cases that do not fall into those categories.

Abortion advocates in our Commonwealth have now manipulated the plight of rape victims to achieve something not just evil but tyrannical: compelling emergency room medical personnel against their conscience to participate in a chemical abortion and forcing Catholic hospitals, in violation of Catholic teaching and religious freedom, to do the same.

Such are the consequences of the law that went into effect on Wednesday. It mandates that all "facilities that provide emergency care shall promptly offer emergency contraception at the facility to each female rape victim of childbearing age and shall initiate emergency contraception upon her request." The emergency contraception to which it refers is a pill called Plan B, which is a high dose of hormones that not only stops ovulation but prevents the implantation of a previously fertilized egg in the uterine wall. The latter effect aborts any child conceived but not yet implanted prior to the administration of the pill.

Catholic hospitals have long been in the forefront of the sympathetic and holistic care of women who have been sexually violated. They have been guided by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services of the U.S. Bishops' Conference, which state, in directive 36, that "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, offer the person psychological and spiritual support and 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."

The six Catholic hospitals that pertain to the Caritas Christi network (including St. Anne's Hospital in Fall River) have courageously announced that they are going to continue to follow the protocol given in the Directives, and not provide the abortifacient pill to those victims whose pregnancy tests return positive. They have obvious moral reasons for doing so, but they also have legal basis: a 1975 law that bars the commonwealth from forcing private hospitals to dispense contraceptive devices or participate in abortions.

The Catholic protocol is not satisfactory to those who want to force Catholic hospitals and Catholics in public hospitals to dispense the abortifacient pills. They have announced that they may resort to lawsuits to try to compel Catholics and Catholic hospitals to implement the law without a pregnancy test.

Planned Parenthood spokesman Angus McQuilken, who with other abortion activists hovered over Attorney General Tom Reilly at his press conference on the measure last week, has betrayed in public comments what this effort is really all about. "Rape victims should never have to worry about the affiliation of a hospital before they go there seeking their care, or are brought there in an ambulance." In other words, no one should have to worry about Catholic hospitals being Catholic. That is a clear violation of the principle of religious freedom. McQuilkin maintains that it isn't, "because Catholic hospitals are not places of worship." McQuilkin fails to understand, however, that Catholics are obliged to obey God not just in church but in daily life.

If this law is able to stand and lawsuits uphold it, it will establish a truly draconian precedent: that others can be forced, against their conscience and principles, to participate in the ghastly practice of the taking of innocent human life through abortion. On the basis of past history, it would be hard to imagine that abortion advocates would not try to take advantage of that principle and apply it to other circumstances. Their colleagues in the state of Illinois have already succeeded in mandating that all pharmacists distribute Plan B to anyone who asks for it for any reason.

Rape crisis counselors have often stressed that rape is driven more by a lust for power and control over others than a hunger for sex: someone with greater strength uses his might to violate another's body against her will. Is it any less evil when those with political power use their might to violate another's conscience and force that person to help kill an innocent child?

Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.