To be eligible to sell the emergency contraceptive pill, commonly referred to as the morning-after pill, pharmacists have to complete a course.

Owner Elsa Norvil says she will not do this, for personal reasons.

"I am not prepared to supply the pill over the counter, as I see conception as a potential life, with a soul, so I will not sell it as I consider this as ending another's life."

"I am prepared to dispense it on doctors' instructions and believe this acknowledges other's rights to access this service."

"There are alternatives in place and it is an ethical right whether or not one chooses to stock or dispense the emergency contraceptive pill," Norvil said.

Wairoa people say they respect Norvil's views but because hers is the only pharmacy in town, other options need to be offered.

Some residents are concerned that limited local access could be contributing to Wairoa's high teenage pregnancy rate.

Wairoa has no family planning facilities so the morning-after pill can be obtained only by doctor's prescription or from school-based health services.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: www.cfah.org

But some Catholic doctors, who say the bishops relied on inaccurate medical information, question the assertion that this pill can function solely as a contraceptive.

The bishops came to their decision during a meeting of their episcopal conference just one month after two Catholic hospitals had been criticised for refusing to treat a victim of sexual assault.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, the president of the conference, said the Church would remain firmly opposed to the use of any drugs that cause abortions.

In Spain, Dr Justo Aznar said he would write to the German bishops "to give them some scientific light about this topic".

"One could use the morning-after pill if we had the certainty that it was just a contraceptive, because in the case of rape that would be a positive thing," said Dr Aznar, head of pathobiology at La Fe Hospital, Valencia.

But he said there is scientific evidence that the pill also has an anti-implantation effect and is therefore also abortifacient. "I would say that approximately in half of the cases it acts as a contraceptive and the other half it has an anti-implantation effect."

Dr Simon Castellvi, president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, said that "the morning-after pill works as an anti-implantation product in 70 per cent of the cases where the woman is fertile".

Dr Catherine Vierling, who studied medicine at the Universities of Paris and Strasbourg, said: "There is absolutely no such pill with a 100 per cent guarantee that it will not cause an abortion."

But Dr John Haas, a bioethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center and a permanent member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said the morning-after pill could be used ethically if it was first determined that the woman had not ovulated.

Once it was determined that ovulation had not taken place — and that pregnancy could not have occurred — the standard morning-after pill could be used for its contraceptive effects.

Sources:

Spiegel Online

Catholic News Agency

Catholic News Agency

Image: Spiegel Online

Though a spokeswoman for the German cardinal said he had consulted the Vatican, the president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, Dr Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, said he had been misinformed about the effects of the pill.

Dr Simon said "the morning-after pill works as an anti-implantation product in 70 per cent of the cases where the woman is fertile".

Cardinal Meisner was drawn into the discussion about the morning-after pill after a story surfaced in the local press about a 25-year-old woman who walked into an emergency room and told the attending physician that she thought she was drugged and possibly sexually assaulted at a party the night before.

The doctor on call said she called two different Catholic hospitals and asked if they would admit the woman, but both refused because the prescribed course of treatment would involve using the morning-after pill.

Cardinal Meisner subsequently met medical experts who told him the latest research on the morning-after pill indicated the drug does not have anti-implantation effects.

He then issued a statement saying that if "a medication that hinders conception is used after a rape with the purpose of avoiding fertilisation, then this is acceptable in my view".

His statement was widely interpreted by the media as giving permission for Catholic hospitals to dispense the morning-after pill to rape victims.

The head of Germany's Association of Gynaecologists, Dr Christian Albring, said there were two pills with exclusively contraceptive (and not abortive) effects available in Germany.

But the president of the Catholic doctors' federation, Dr Simon, pointed out that the manufacturer of the morning-after pill says the drug may prevent an embryo from implanting on the uterine wall.

"So, we cannot accept it, since even a microscopic human embryo is a person with rights, dignity and a son of God," Dr Simon insisted.

Sources:

EWTN News

Reuters

The Tablet

Image: Yahoo! Noticias

District health board portfolio manager Jenny James said the teenage birth, termination of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates are higher than many other parts of the country.

Ways to combat these alarming statistics as set out in the strategy are providing the morning after pill for free at pharmacies, reducing the costs of contraception at general practices and encouraging and educating youth about healthy sexuality.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Scoop
• Image: UPI.com