Canadian bishop says abortive potential of drug being ignored

Published: 2004-07-09

OTTAWA (CNS) -- The abortive potential of the morning-after pill is being ignored by those promoting widespread use of the drug, said a Canadian bishop. Bishop Pierre Morissette of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, chairman of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family, said the pill operates in one of two ways: by preventing ovulation or inhibiting implantation. In the later case, the pill in effect acts as an abortifacient because science "demonstrates clearly that human life begins at conception, not implantation," the bishop said in a letter to the president of the Canadian Pharmacists Association, Garth McCutcheon. The Catholic Organization for Life and Family released the letter July 7. In addition, the bishop said it was impossible to determine whether the pill prevents conception or implantation. "Women who accept that life begins at conception would refuse to take this pill if informed of its abortive potential," Bishop Morissette said. "One can only imagine the impact if they learned of the pill's abortive potential after the fact."

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