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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Contraception controversy overshadows amazing work of Catholic hospitals --- Vital part of US healthcare in every state

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Contraception controversy overshadows amazing work of Catholic hospitals --- Vital part of US healthcare in every state

Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 at 03:12 PM

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GLENBEIGHNATIVE | Mar 05, 2012, 11:04 PM EST

all they want is to make it all about "womens Health".......it's all bogus .... sandra is part of the realelection campaign

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Nicoletta | Mar 05, 2012, 03:47 PM EST

Mr O'Dowd "the harsh social teaching" you speak of is actually Catholic teaching. Despite the Church's many great social endeavors the bald fact is that Catholic institutions must comply with Catholic doctrine first; this is why sadly, I believe you will see Catholic hospitals etc becoming Catholic no more or closing as did the Catholic adoption agencies in the UK.

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BishopSean | Mar 04, 2012, 05:40 PM EST

Thanks for sharing this, Eiriamach. Points for agreement here. But according to the CDC, some 98% of abortions in USA are elective, meaning they had nothing to do with rape, incest or life-threatening situation of the mother. I would like to get some stats on pre-teen and early teen pregnancies. I would argue that, for the first time in the USA (other than the 1875(?) Supreme Court decision that stated to Mormons that they had to forego legal polygamy in the USA because it is a Christian nation, President Obama's administration is trying to coerce Churches into an inconscienable (sp) decision. In fact, it seems that the Secular Humanists are overriding the separation of Church and State in the opposite direction, a la USSR. Regards.

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eiriamach | Mar 04, 2012, 03:45 PM EST

Bishop Sean, I agree that parts of Humanae Vitae discuss important dimensions of marital relations. (I would appreciate this encyclical better if it and other Vatican documents were translated into inclusive, contemporary English. Reading such documents, as well as the new Roman Missal, reminds me of a physiology class I took as an undergrad. Lecturing on genetics one day, the prof went on and on for an hour about the calves produced when a brown cow mates with a white cow, with a spotted cow, etc. as we students tried to suppress our giggles. It's the opposite, of course, when the pope talks about sex and "man" and "men": he does not mean to suggest homosexual mating, but that's the effect!) Unless I see statistical evidence, I cannot believe that more liberal forms of marriage objectify women (Hollywood sex goddesses of the 1940s-50s did that; the 1960s went in a different direction). More adultery or government coercion now? Hardly: consider the Roman environment that the early Christians faced-- talk about sexual degeneration and government coercion! Abortion is more necessary now than earlier, when it was rare for children (pre-teens) to become pregnant; the largest share of abortions is among the youngest, often rape and incest victims. As I age I am more and more grateful for the salvific moments when I see my mistakes and can revise, and thus control the consequences of errors. RCC cannot share that saving grace as long as it refuses to revise its teachings in accord with current epistemology and science. Galileo's still under house arrest in HV.

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Gearoid4 | Mar 03, 2012, 07:59 PM EST

Wrong, Eiriamach, the Catholic Church has always been consistent in it's condemnation of contraceptive practices and abortion which prevented or destroyed the life in the womb. Early theories about the reproductive processes about fertilization and conception were speculative due to the absence of sophisticated scanning technology in ancient times. We have the comfort of growing up in a highly-advanced technical era where we know in minute detail about the life journey of sperm on it's way to fertilize an egg etc. But this does not invalidate the truth of the Church's opposition to the the unethical act of preventing or destroying life in the womb. Updated medical knowledge does not render in any meaningful sense this line of argument. Because some theologians at one time or another expressed an alternative view-point is neither here nor there, as it is the official teachings of the Church will eventually counts To reduce it to the subjugation of a woman to the wishes of her husband or partner is typical of a certain type of militant feminist who wants to strike out against any perceived sign of patriarchal dominance. The Church is simply following her biblical principles in promoting the life-giving procreative aspect of the sexual act in unity with the mutual love which it creates between a man and woman in their married state. The contraceptive act cheats them both of that fulfillment and leads to an empty, mechanical view of love-making.

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BishopSean | Mar 03, 2012, 07:53 PM EST

Hi, Eiriamach. Legitimate critiques of the Roman Catholic and other Churches notwithstanding, it behooves us to evaluate if there was a positive side even to Humanae Vitae (HV). The R.C. Church teaches that intimate love, sex, and procreation are all things that belong together in marriage. Isn’t this important? HV warned of the following results if widespread use of contraceptives were accepted: general lowering of moral standards, a rise in infidelity and (paradoxically) illegitimacy; reduction of women to objects used to satisfy men; and Government coercion in reproductive matters. Does this ring true? Things were bad enough in poor communities and sub-cultures where men don’t feel responsible socially for their children; now even some modern educated women chose by abortion to not be physically responsible for their children. Why should society consider this more humanizing, progressive and better? Let’s give credit where credit is due and look hard at mistakes on all sides.

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eiriamach | Mar 03, 2012, 06:40 PM EST

Gearoid4, you claim RCC has always taught with one voice that contraception and abortion were wrong. It has not, and its own tracts on physiology show why it couldn't. The long-lived belief that sperm contained "homunculi," diminutive humans ready to be implanted in wombs to grow until birth, led Aristotelian theologians to condemn both contraception and male masturbation as murder. Physiology has evolved, but not Catholic doctrine, lest the laity lose faith in its apostolicity. Thus Pius XI's 1930 Casti Connubii imposed a false uniformity on the history of RCC teaching; it ignored its theologians' reception of inherited practices of contraception and early abortion. Pius XI, however, would not abandon the phallocentrism of the homunculus theory, so he condemned equality in marriage: "The same false teachers who try to dim the luster of conjugal faith and purity do not scruple to do away with the honorable and trusting obedience which the woman owes to the man. Many even go further and assert that such a subjection ... is unworthy of human dignity, that the rights of husband and wife are equal; wherefore, they boldly proclaim the emancipation of women.... (We have already said that this is not an emancipation but a crime)." One may search such enciclicals in vain for scriptural references besides the OT story of Onan (because of the pre-science that masturbation murders the conceptus). It's better to discard whatever does not serve the moral law: salvation lies in ending misogynist wishful thinking about science and the history of theology.

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Gearoid4 | Mar 03, 2012, 10:41 AM EST

The Church from the earliest times preached against the intended ending of any pregnancy before it came to full term or indeed the prevention of conception. The first century document Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (dated about 94 A.D) condemned the use of "magic or drugs" to procure a contraceptive or abortive outcome to pregnancies. St Clement of Alexandria(150-215), one of the famous early Fathers of the Church, stated in one of his very influential works, The Paidagogas-.."To indulge in intercourse without intending children is to outrage nature, whom should take as our instructor.." (Paedagogues, 2, 10; 95, 3, GCS, 12, 214). As for ensoulment, the ancient Fathers or theologians during the Medieval age, did not have the luxury of ultrascound technology, to give an exact reading of when the foetus would receive the soul. They just knew instinctively that the sacredness of life was inviolate from it's conception. As for the insertion "Research, as well as common sense, shows that abortion rates drop where contraceptives are available", the polar opposite would seem to be the case when one reviews the evidence in countries like the US or GB are reviewed. It is a well known fact in the US that some clinics have resulted 50% of their abortion referrals were for contraceptive failures. Thus the relationship between the two has been well established.

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eiriamach | Mar 03, 2012, 10:20 AM EST

The statistics do not lie. Maternal and infant mortality in the US rose sharply into the 1950s and 60s. The 1973 decision began to reduce both mortality rates and safe, legal abortion, as well as effective contraception and genetic testing, continues that process in the interest of women and children and families. By far the best counter-force to abortion is effective and accessible contraception. RCC's expensive lobbying efforts against mandated insurance coverage of contraception is irrefutable proof of its disregard for maternal and infant health and for the moral capacity of women's free will.

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BishopSean | Mar 03, 2012, 09:55 AM EST

Hi,@Eiriamach. Nurse Midwife is an honored profession. One delivered our third child.The midwife/physician’s Hippocratic oath says (s)he should save both lives; or then at least the life most able to be saved. Contraception and infanticide were known and common among pagans since earliest biblical times, but God’s Word dictates against infanticide/abortion. I will gladly explain if you ask. Term “Back alley abortions” referred historically to licensed medical doctors who would have more private entrance for clients seeking abortions. Pejorative meaning says something about quality of care of MD abortionists. Pregnant Actress Sharon Tate and her 8.5 month old baby had lives ended by Charlie Manson gang. Was that one murder or two—or did that depend only on mother’s subjective disposition?

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eiriamach | Mar 02, 2012, 10:26 PM EST

The irony of the 'pro-life' cause is that it has caused so much avoidable death! For the first half of the 19th century in the US, midwives delivered babies at home as they had done since ancient times. A midwife would also abort pregnancy when a woman's life was endangered by it or the fetus was dead or too deformed to survive. Not until medical schools professionalized medicine and MDs needed licenses did deliveries by male MDs begin. This coincided, not mere coincidence, with RCC's first teaching against abortion. Church overlords supported medical overlords. (At least one canonized saint, Antoninus, approved early abortion; contraception and infanticide were common practice from biblical times; the doctrine of ensoulment at fertilization could not arise before 19th century obstetric science, and current knowledge of molar pregnancies and related anomalies challenges ensoulment at conception.) Before 1860, abortion was legal throughout the USA. But when the states began passing anti-abortion laws to enforce male control of obstetrics by driving out female midwives, back-alley abortions soon accounted for half of all pregnancy deaths. Estimates of illegal abortions by the 1960s range as high as 1.2 million. In '69, 23% of all pregnancy-related hospitalization in NYS resulted from illegal abortions. But deaths of women and infants in childbirth steeply declined after the Supreme Court decided Roe v Wade, 1973. Research, as well as common sense, shows that abortion rates drop where contraceptives are available. The HHS rule would have that result.

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BishopSean | Mar 02, 2012, 07:10 PM EST

Hi,@ciaradexy. The 75% figure was from an American study. Perhaps Americans have a different worldview concerning being law-abiding. I once had a great Irish professor, Fr. George Lawless. The surname makes greater sense in the Irish context. Regards.

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ciaradexy | Mar 02, 2012, 01:22 PM EST

Bishop Sean-you said ''75% said they would not have sought an abortion if it had been illegal.'' Well abortion is illegal in Ireland and over 4000 Irish women had abortions in 2010.

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BishopSean | Mar 02, 2012, 11:46 AM EST

--Continued: We have special ministries to foreign prisoners and parolees here in Peru who are destitute and we stress to them that God will always give them a way out of their crimes and crises, if they trust and obey Him, rather than doing things their own sinful way. Their cynical solutions invariably lead to disasters. There are many personal testimonies of this. I believe this is also true when a lady is faced with an abortion “choice.” Proverbs 3:4-6 says “…Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

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BishopSean | Mar 02, 2012, 11:30 AM EST

Continued--Our Father God gladly forgives all our sins, including multiple abortions. But Truth would compel us to judge the act of abortion as wrong, rather than try to justify. There are complications also for the aborted women: (1) medical: vacuum abortions have an immediate complication rate of 12%, which is very high but less than D&C, etc. Depending on countries, between 17 and 50% of all aborted women suffer long-term complications. (2) Psychological effects. The woman’s ambiguity towards morality of abortion, plus her sense of being forced into it, lead her to guilt, remorse and self-hatred. Many have been driven to alcohol, drug addiction, suicide. In a study of American Journal of Psychiatry, 43% of aborted women had immediate negative response to abortion and in later review, 50%. 10% suffered serious psychiatric complications. 10% were suffering severe mental problems.

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