Morning-after pill is not medicine and does not cure illness, says Chilean cardinal

Santiago, Chile, Nov 21, 2007 / 11:32 am

The former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, said this week the morning-after pill “is not medicine because it does not cure any illness,” since “pregnancy is not a disease.”

In a recent seminar on public policy and the defense of life in Chile, the cardinal criticized the decision of that government to punish pharmacies that refuse to sell the pill.  “To force a company to sell a product is a highly undemocratic act, especially when we are not talking about medicine,” as “the pill is not medicine, because it does not cure any illness,” he said.

Cardinal Medina said he has sent scientific documentation to Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on two occasions showing that the pill has an abortifacient mechanism which can prevent the implantation of an embryo in the uterus.  “I am certain that she received one of the letters, and I suppose she received the second one as well.  In any case, I never received an answer,” he stated.

Cardinal Medina expressed his regret that Bachelet has not kept her promise that her administration would not support any proposal to liberalize abortion, and called the president inconsistent for “telling Cardinal Errazuriz the government would not pass new laws on abortion” on the one hand, and ‘ordering the distribution of the morning-after pill without any legal mandate’ on the other.”

He also questioned the sex-ed programs promoted the government and said they only “teach girls how to avoid getting pregnant, but that everything else is okay.”  For this reason, he said, true education in sexuality does exist in the country.