Peruvian bishops: Morning after pill ends a human life

Lima, Peru, Jun 15, 2004 / 22:00 pm

The Secretary General of the Peruvian Bishops Conference, Bishop Juan Jose Larrañeta, dismissed comments by Minister of Health Pilar Mazzetti and stated the morning after pill does attack a new human life.

In statements to reporters, Bishop Larrañeta explained that “the morning after pill is a drug that does not cure, it kills.”

Bishop Larrañeta was responding to statements made by the Health Minister to justify her decision to distribute the drug free of charge at family planning centers, alleging that it does not prevent implantation of a fertilized ovum.

“There is no evidence of neither an anti-implantation effect or of any other effect on the product (the fertilized ovum – editor) which has not been implanted.  Moreover this is a product that has been used since the 1980s,” said Mazzetti.

Bishop Larrañeta argued that there are studies that prove its abortifacient nature—starting with the studies done by the drug’s own producer—but he emphasized that it is not the role of the Church to take part in legal actions against Mazzetti.

In fact a group of lawmakers want to pill to be declared unconstitutional because the Peruvian Constitution protects the unborn from the moment of conception.

Concerning the doctors who have aligned themselves with the Ministry of Health and are defending the use of the drug, Bishop Larrañeta said that “the Church is defending life and it is sad that there are doctors who have the opposite opinion and do not defend life.”