Morning After Pills

A reader writes:

Jimmy,

I am wondering what your thoughts on the "morning after pill" are?

It’s evil.

First, it’s contraception, and contraception is evil.

Second, it frequently works (or is thought to work) by preventing the unborn baby from being able to implant in the mother’s womb, which makes it abortifacient.

Either way, it’s evil.

Which evil a person using it is guilty of depends on her knowledge of its effects and which effect is willed.

Objectively, though, it’s evil in that it’s contraception that also has a strong likelihood of causing abortion.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

5 thoughts on “Morning After Pills”

  1. I’m not sure which drugs you are including in “morning after” pills. Are you speaking just about RU 486?
    The U.S. bishops consider the use of some drugs (Ovral) that would prevent “ovulation, sperm capacitation, or fertilization” to be licit in at least one case—a woman who has been raped and who has not yet conceived.
    “36. Compassionate and understanding care should be given to a person who is the victim of sexual assault. Health care providers should cooperate with law enforcement officials and offer the person psychological and spiritual support as well as accurate medical information. A female who has been raped should be able to defend herself against a potential conception from the sexual assault. If, after appropriate testing, there is no evidence that conception has occurred already, she may be treated with medications that would prevent ovulation, sperm capacitation, or fertilization. It is not permissible, however, to initiate or to recommend treatments that have as their purpose or direct effect the removal, destruction, or interference with the implantation of a fertilized ovum.”
    http://www.usccb.org/bishops/directives.htm

  2. I’d also balk at saying that all MA pills are themselves evil. They’re just chemical substances. Rather, what’s evil is when human beings use these substances for illicit ends.
    Can’t some of these drugs be used for licit ends (as factors in treatments of various diseases, like cancer)?

  3. 1) My comments were directed to the generalized use of the Morning-After Pill rather than to situations of rape (where the issue may still be debated).
    2) If you hang around the blog long enough, you’ll note that I often refer to things as as if they are evil when, in actuality, it is the use of the thing that is evil. Such assertions are not meant to be taken literally.

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