Emergency Contraception and Rape:  A Catholic Perspective

from "Notes from the Hill", occasional reflections on legislative developments in Massachusetts, March 9, 2003

Massachusetts Catholic Conference, www.macathconf.org

The Boston Globe reported recently on a bill filed in the Massachusetts legislature that would add to the state "patients rights act" a new mandate requiring sexually assaulted women to receive information about and access to "emergency contraception". The February 28 article by Liz Kowalczyk, headlined "Wider Use Promoted for ‘Morning After’ Pill," raises a topic about which some Catholics might be confused.

Senate bill 546 (the House has not assigned a bill number yet) is entitled "An Act to Provide Timely Access to Emergency Contraception". It would require all medical facilities "to promptly offer emergency contraception at the facility to each female rape victim of childbearing age, and to initiate emergency contraception upon her request." For reasons described below, the Massachusetts Catholic Conference opposes the bill as currently drafted.

The Globe article reported, accurately, that Catholic hospitals provide contraceptives to some but not all rape victims. After the article was published, a few upset readers called the Massachusetts Catholic Conference and other church agencies. Some were concerned that contraceptives were being distributed by Catholic institutions. Other callers were angry that contraceptives were not given to all rape victims.

The Catholic Church affirms that "marriage and married love are by their character ordained to the procreation and the bringing up of children" (Humanae Vitae, no. 9). However, "to force the use of marriage on one’s partner without regard to his or her condition or personal and reasonable wishes in that matter, is no true act of love, and therefore offends the moral order" (Humanae Vitae, no. 13).

Likewise, as the Catholic Catechism recognizes when discussing offenses against the 6th commandment, rape "is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person" and "an intrinsically evil act" (no. 2356). By implication, sexual assault cannot be considered ordered to the unitive and procreative functions.

Thus, according to the U.S. Catholic Bishops in their Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, a woman "who has been raped should be able to defend herself against a potential conception from the sexual assault" (Directive 36). She is not obliged when raped, as would be the case in consensual relations, to accommodate the natural potential for conception. The forced introduction of sperm is an act of aggression she may resist even through means that prevent the creation of new life. That explains why Catholic hospitals may distribute contraceptives in some rape cases, particularly within 24 hours after the assault.  Immediate care is essential as well to address issues related to the transmission of venereal disease and for appropriate and compassionate trauma counseling.

However, if it is determined that a particular rape treatment would "have as [its] purpose or direct effect the removal, destruction, or interference with the implantation" of an embryo (Directive 36), a Catholic facility cannot offer it. A human life conceived by rape is not an act of aggression but a new person innocent of any wrongdoing. Some contraceptives may act as abortifacients by preventing implantation. Forcing Catholic hospitals to offer contraceptives in rape cases when an early abortion may result conflicts with the religious and ethical duty to do no harm. That explains why Catholic hospitals cannot offer or distribute contraceptives in every rape case and why S. 546 is objectionable.