Column

Don't view neutrality stance as waffling on life issues

By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan

	Related article: from February 1, 2008 issue: • Assembly passes bill opposed by two state bishops     Madison, La Crosse bishops reject emergency     contraception bill; citing current law, WCC takes     neutral stance

You may have been following the controversy about the proposed legislation now close to final vote in Madison concerning emergency contraception for victims of rape.

When the bishops of Wisconsin met last spring, we discussed what stance we should take on the proposed bill, and unanimously decided that we would neither support nor oppose it. In other words, we adopted a neutral position.

Why? For one, our competent staff at the Wisconsin Catholic Conference advised us that, as a matter of fact, the bill was unnecessary, as it would change nothing that Catholic hospitals were already doing. Two, the conscience clause enshrined in our state law would protect any physician, health care worker, or Catholic hospital from ever acting against his/her conscience or clear church teaching.

What is church teaching on this delicate topic? What help can a Catholic hospital provide a woman who has been tragically violated by rape?

Two values are held up by the church. First, we want to provide the traumatized woman with all the care and compassion we can, as Catholic hospitals have been doing for a long time. As long as there is no evidence of pregnancy, the woman can and should be provided with proper emergency assistance to prevent conception. This is clear church praxis.

Secondly, though, if a baby has been conceived, even by the horror of rape, that baby deserves care and compassion as well. Contraception that could cause an abortion then could not be used.

The legislation, we concluded after careful review, would protect the above two values.

Thus, our neutral position.

At our November meeting, we bishops unanimously reaffirmed our neutral position.

As the vote in Madison neared, though, we bishops began to receive some thoughtful reservations expressed by people whose expertise we respected, especially sincere Catholic physicians and pro-life advocates.

These good people worried that the legislation could lead to problems, and that the conscience clause might not withstand attacks from the powerful abortion lobby. Their anxiety was heightened after the assembly defeated an amendment to the bill that would have explicitly protected the right of conscience.

We bishops took this apprehension seriously, and asked our diocesan attorneys to weigh in on the durability of the conscience clause. The attorneys unanimously concluded that the right of conscience was secure.

What did bother us bishops was that two aggressive pro-abortion lobbies -- Planned Parenthood and the so-called "Catholics for Choice" - an oxymoron if ever there was one - were maliciously pointing to us as favoring the bill, a distortion for sure of what neutral means.

No one should interpret our neutrality as waffling on our consistent, indefatigable stand promoting the Culture of Life. Biology, human reason, our American civil rights tradition, and, yes, our Catholic morality, will never allow us to approve of or accept abortion, or to have our Catholic hospitals coerced to perform one.

	Web link: •Bishops' February 25, 2008 letter to Wisconsin legislators (PDF file)

I hope this clarification helps. And I want to share with you a copy of a recent letter to our legislators [see link in green box at right] explaining to them what I just did to you, because some of them have asked about our stance.

Thank you, pro-life apostles! We bishops have been with you from the beginning, and will continue to be so!