FIDELIS, 09-28-2007

CHICAGO – A new Connecticut state law scheduled to go into effect October 1 will require Catholic hospitals to dispense the controversial Plan B ‘emergency contraceptive’ drug to rape victims.

Fidelis, a lay-run national Catholic-based advocacy group, believes the new law raises serious concerns about the coercive efforts of the state to impose burdens on the Catholic Church and other religiously affiliated charities.

Fidelis President Brian Burch commented: “Connecticut lawmakers have knowingly placed the Catholic Church in the very precarious position of providing healthcare while carefully avoiding any circumstance that may destroy human life.

“This new law comes dangerously close, and in fact may already violate the religious freedom of the Church. Catholic hospitals in America have the constitutionally-protected right to exercise their charitable service in accord with their own freely-held belief system, which includes certain inviolable moral norms. Any attempt by the state or federal government to contravene this right would result in a serious violation of religious liberty, and potentially place at risk the health care of thousands of people who currently rely on Catholic hospitals for their health care needs,” said Burch.

Current Connecticut law allows Catholic hospitals to administer both a pregnancy test and an ovulation test to determine if a rape victim has become pregnant, or is capable of becoming pregnant at the time. The new law forbids Catholic hospitals from administering an ovulation test.

The Catholic Bishops of Connecticut have issued a carefully-worded statement agreeing to comply with the law because of the current scientific uncertainty over precisely how the Plan B drug works, and because of the ‘current impossibility of knowing from the ovulation test whether a new life is present.’ The Bishops left open the possibility that their position would change ‘if it becomes clear that Plan B pills would lead to an early chemical abortion in some instances.’

“Catholic hospitals in Connecticut may soon face the same dilemma of Catholic Charities in Boston , which ended their 100 year old adoption program after they were forced to place children in the homes of homosexual couples, in violation of Church teaching,” said Burch.

Fidelis is a Catholic-based organization working with people of faith across the country to defend and promote the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and the right to religious liberty by electing pro-life, pro-family and pro-religious liberty candidates, supporting the confirmation of judges, and promoting and defending laws faithful to the Constitution of the United States.