![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2013\/02\/r.jpeg\" "\\"Archbishop_Zollitsch_Trier\\"")
<\/a>As best as I can make out between two years of high school German and Google Translate, the bishops in Germany basically said\u00a0that this decision was made in consultation with\u00a0the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Academy for Life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The German Bishops have decided that emergency contraception may be used by women seeking treatment in Catholic hospitals \u00a0in the case of rape.\u00a0The Assembly reaffirms that women in Catholic hospitals, who are victims\u00a0of rape, should be given all proper human, medical,\u00a0psychological, \u00a0and pastoral assistance, as needed. \u00a0This may include the administration of a pill to prevent pregnancy,\u00a0insofar as it has a contraceptive, and not an abortifacient, effect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For the entire statement (in German), see item #8 (Moraltheologische Fragen im Zusammenhang von Vergewaltigung (\u201ePille danach\u201c)<\/a>) on the Conference press release. Recall that the news that the German bishops were going to discuss use of emergency contraception<\/a> was reported a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Stephen Brown of Reuters<\/em> has more, and thankfully with a better translation.<\/p>\n
(Reuters) \u2013 The Roman Catholic Church in\u00a0Germany\u00a0said on Thursday it would permit certain types of \u201cmorning-after pill\u201d for raped women, after two hospitals provoked an outcry for refusing to treat a rape victim.<\/p>\n
The German Bishops\u2019 Conference said church-run hospitals would now ensure proper medical, psychological and emotional care for rape victims \u2013 including administering pills that prevent pregnancy without inducing an abortion.<\/p>\n
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch said a four-day meeting of German bishops in the western town of Trier had \u201cconfirmed that women who have been victims of rape will get the proper human, medical, psychological and pastoral care\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat can include medication with a \u2018morning-after pill\u2019 as long as this has a prophylactic and not an abortive effect,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cMedical and pharmaceutical methods that induce the death of an embryo may still not be used.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means there is no change to the Catholic Church\u2019s ban on the so-called abortion pill based on the drug mifepristone or RU-486, and marketed as Mifegyne or Mifeprex.<\/p>\n
The Church remains firmly opposed to abortion and artificial birth control, but in Germany it will now differentiate between pills that prevent sperm from fertilizing an egg in the womb and pills that induce an abortion, in cases of rape.<\/p>\n
The German church, which has already faced mass desertions over cases of sexual abuse of children by priests, had been expected to change its position on the morning-after pill after apologizing about an incident involving two hospitals in Cologne last month.<\/p>\n
The critical German lay movement \u201cWir sind Kirche\u201d (We are the Church) said bishops took the decision because they feared losing state subsidies for church hospitals. The Catholic Church runs 25 percent of German hospitals and half of those in North Rhine-Westphalia state, which includes Cologne, it said.<\/p>\n
Cologne\u2019s Cardinal Joachim Meisner, an ally of the outgoing German-born Pope Benedict, has already apologized for the church hospitals\u2019 treatment of the woman. He said it \u201cshames us deeply because it contradicts our Christian mission and our purpose.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read the rest<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
It will be interesting to hear how the USCCB<\/a> \u00a0reacts to this decision, especially in light of the news that more women are using the \u201cmorning after\u201d pill<\/a> these days. Clearly the German Bishops stand against the use of the \u201cmorning after\u201d pill in cases that are not a result of sexual assault. Clearly the German Bishops stand against the use of the \u201cmorning after\u201d pill in cases that are not a result of sexual assault. Sorry NPR.<\/p>\n
UPDATE:<\/p>\n
From the National Catholic Bioethics Center: Getting It Right \u201cThe Morning-After.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
Some have argued that it may be immoral for Catholics to provide any contraceptive measures at all to a woman who has been raped. Such a view is incorrect, however, because a woman who has been sexually assaulted is clearly entitled to protect herself from the attacker\u2019s sperm. The Church teaches that rape is not a unitive act that requires openness to procreation. It is rather an act of violence against another person, and the woman is allowed to take steps to prevent the possible fertilization of her own egg(s). It is permissible, then, for Catholic hospitals to provide their patients with morning-after pills if the following four conditions are met:<\/p>\n
1. The woman is not already pregnant from prior, freely-chosen sexual activity.
\n2. The woman has been sexually assaulted.
\n3. The woman has not yet ovulated (i.e. has not released an egg from her ovary into the fallopian tube where it could be fertilized by the attacker\u2019s sperm).
\n4. The morning-after pill can reasonably be expected to prevent her from ovulating.<\/p>\nWhen a woman arrives to an emergency room following a sexual assault, a simple urine test for leutinizing hormone (LH) can be used to gain information about whether she is ovulating. If it is determined that her LH levels have spiked and she is ovulating, the morning-after pill will not be able to block the egg\u2019s release from her ovary. If it were to be administered under these circumstances, the morning-after pill might function to prevent the implantation of any newly conceived embryo(s), which would be the moral equivalent of an abortion. Under these conditions, therefore, the morning-after pill should not be administered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n