DISPUTE ON THE DAY AFTER PILL - Concerns about the increased risk of contracting diseases of Father John Flynn, LC
ROME, Sunday, March 13, 2011 (ZENIT . org) .- In recent years, in one country after another has spread permission to sell the so-called morning-after pill. It is often justified as a way of reducing pregnancies and high birth rates among teenage girls.
Japan is one of the last countries to have authorized what is also referred to the emergency contraceptive. The Ministry of Health has given the green light to the sale of NorLevo from May, as reported by the Japan Times on February 24.
According to the article, it is hoped that this initiative will help to reduce the number of abortions. The abortion rate in Japan in 2008 stood on the 8, 8 per thousand, slightly above half that of the United States.
One of the main issues relating to the sale of morning-after pill is whether it can be allowed without a doctor's prescription. In Ireland, pharmaceutical chain Boots has proposed the sale over the counter, hoping to exploit a loophole in the legislation. Surprisingly, the Irish Medicines Board announced it would allow the sale of NorLevo without prescription, according to the Irish Times on February 22.
Consequently, not only will be sold without prescription, but also no age limit buyer. The absence of any age limit came as a surprise to the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, which issued a statement recommending to pharmacists to refer to your doctor or clinic girls under 16 years may apply to the pill, because under the age of consent.
Meanwhile, the U.S. will put pressure to abolish the age limit to buy the morning-after pill Plan B. The manufacturers of the pill, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, have applied to the Food and Drug Administration to allow children under 17 years of being able to buy, as reported by ABC News on February 25. Currently, Plan B is available without prescription for those over 17 years.
irresponsible
Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, said it would be irresponsible to make the pill available to children so young and warned that this could create incommunicative between girls and their parents and doctors. He also said that those who take the pill Plan B needs to be followed by the doctor because the very act that led to the fear of being pregnant may have also caused an infection with sexually transmitted diseases.
On the other hand, age is no barrier to get contraceptives in England. More than 1,000 girls aged 11 to 12 years was prescribed the contraceptive pill by family doctors, according to the Sunday Times on 1 August. In addition, another 200 girls between 11 and 13 have been injected or implanted contraceptive devices.
Most of these prescriptions were given to girls or information without parental consent, according to the article because physicians are required to maintain confidentiality, unless there is evidence of sexual abuse or other pressures.
On the issue of underage, the information published not long ago by the British Department of Health confirmed the fears expressed by Wendy Wright. Give the pill the day after the girls under the age of 16 years in fact encourages them to take more risks in their sexual life, reported the Sunday Times of 30 January.
This information is contained in a study by two professors at Nottingham University, Sourafel Girma and David Paton. In recent years the authorities have distributed free on the pill in some areas, in the hope that it might reduce teenage pregnancies.
The study compared the areas where the pill has been distributed to the minors with those that have not been distributed, making sure the levels of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The professors found that the free distribution of the pill in pharmacies did not reduce the pregnancy rate, but instead had increased levels of STDs by about 12%.
International research has consistently failed to demonstrate that the programs of birth control will get a reduction of the rates of teenage pregnancy and abortion, said Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust.
Cheryl Wetzstein had raised the same issue in an article published on March 25, 2010 Washington Times. The Wetzstein cited an article in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants in 2007 in which it was alleged that the emergency contraceptive could consistently reduce unwanted pregnancies.
Studies show, however, that these pills have not reduced the rates of pregnancy or abortion, he said.
The Wetzstein drew the March edition of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, published by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which recognizes the need to develop new strategies to reduce rates of abortion as birth control pills the next day did not help at all to reach our goal.
Conscientious objection
The spread of the morning-after pill raises serious concerns regarding the risk of contracting STDs and to develop health problems in women who regularly use high doses the pill.
Other concerns relate to the issue of conscientious objection.
Irish newspaper The Irish Catholic also deplored the fact that, following the decision to allow la vendita della pillola del giorno dopo come farmaco da banco, i farmacisti saranno obbligati a venderla.
L'articolo del 24 febbraio ha sottolineato che i contraccettivi di emergenza possono avere anche un effetto abortivo e che per questo motivo alcuni farmacisti non li vogliono vendere.
Il Codice di condotta dei farmacisti non prevede la possibilità dell'obiezione di coscienza per i cattolici o per chiunque possa avere difficoltà etiche nella vendita dei farmaci.
In risposta ad una domanda posta dall'Irish Catholic, la Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland has confirmed that under the Code of Conduct, pharmacists should take the morning-after pill, and that if they did not have the availability to take reasonable steps to ensure that such drugs or services are provided.
In the United States will discuss the issue on the right to conscientious objection, following the recent decision by the Obama Administration to repeal the regulation enacted by the previous President Bush.
The initiative was considered "disappointing" by Deirdre McQuade, the Secretariat pro-life della Conferenza Episcopale USA, in un comunicato stampa del 18 febbraio.
Il 23 febbraio, il National Catholic Register ha spiegato in un articolo che la normativa del dicembre 2008 rafforza il diritto degli operatori sanitari di non partecipare a una serie di interventi medici che si pongono in violazione dei propri principi religiosi o morali. Questi interventi comprendono non solo l'aborto e la sterilizzazione, ma anche i contraccettivi.
Sempre di più, gli operatori sanitari vengono costretti a violare la propria coscienza in una miriade di modi, come nel dover dispensare o amministrare la cosiddetta pillola del next day, told the Register Marie Hilliard, director of bioethics and public policy at the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
Giving testimony
The need to defend the right of conscience was the theme addressed by the Archbishop of Vancouver, J. Michael Miller, delivered a homily during Mass in January for health professionals.
In some passages, published by the BC Catholic diocesan newspaper in its edition of February 4, Bishop Miller insists that Catholics working in the field healthcare should be free to live the message of Christ in their lives.
The archbishop also denounced an increasingly aggressive secularism, which seeks to prevent religion from having any kind of influence in the public sphere.
"Forcing people of faith to keep their opinions to themselves is to think of it, in itself an undemocratic to impose harmony among citizens of a free society," he said.
"It's a finely veiled restrict freedom of expression of believers, "he added.
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