Bishops of Paraguay denounce morning after pill

Asunción, Paraguay, Sep 1, 2004 / 22:00 pm

The Bishops Conference of Paraguay denounced this week the abortifacient nature of the morning after pill and the decision by the county’s Minister of Health to authorize the sale and use of the drug, in defiance of Paraguay’s laws protecting the unborn.

In an official statement, the bishops recall that the pill in question has three mechanisms: the inhibiting of ovulation, the thickening of cervical mucous to prevent the movement of sperm, and the preventing of implantation of a fertilized ovum by altering the lining of the uterus.

According to the bishops, this third mechanism is the most serious “because with conception having taken place, implantation will not occur, and the embryo will die.”

Likewise, they warned that starting with the country’s Constitution, the principal national laws and international agreements protect human life from the moment of conception.  In this sense, he said, “a resolution by the Health Ministry can never subjugate an entire legal system at the national and international level.”

The bishops also recalled that “doctors, nurses, obstetricians, pharmacists and also teachers should firmly morally object to these hidden forms of aggression against the weakest and most indefensible of individuals, as is the case with human embryos, giving valiant witness by their actions to the inalienable value of human life.”

The bishops exhorted “everyone to respect the scientific principle of the beginning of human life, from conception until natural death.  Fertilization should be considered as the beginning and not implantation in the uterus.  The fertilized ovum already has the complete genetic structure of a new being.  It is a human life.”