Plan B

The Pope paragraph 14:

“Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. (14) Equally to be condemned, as the magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary.

Consequently, it is a serious error to think that a whole married life of otherwise normal relations can justify sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive and so intrinsically wrong.

Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.”

In the above paragraph, the Pope has stated many things. It’s pretty obvious that he is against abortion from what he said in the first paragraph—“…all direction abortion, even for therapeutic reasons are absolutely excluded as lawful”. Then he goes to say his beliefs on birth control—“…equally condemned is direct sterilization”. Along with what he said in the second little paragraph, he is certainly against birth control, as well. What I really noticed, though, is what he said in the bottom section about excluding any action taken before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse. Here it seems like without directly saying so, the Pope is surely against any use of the Plan B pill. He feels that this is another violation to procreation and life, so it should be seen as unlawful.

To me, what the pope is saying really takes away from people’s (especially women’s) freedoms. It’s a woman’s choice whether she wants to take the Plan B pill or not. She could have had intercourse in unwanted circumstances, such as being raped. What would the pope say about that situation? I feel like when he describes what is lawful against what is sinful, he basically only looks at married couples and situations within marriage. What if the woman is not married and doesn’t want to give birth to a child that came about in a bad situation or that wasn’t with a man she loved. Besides these conditions, sometimes mistakes happen. So if a woman believes what she did was a mistake and she shouldn’t have a child at the moment then she should be allowed to make that choice. Our society is moving forward with new technologies, and what the pope is saying is very limiting. From his point of view, Plan B can be seen as evil, but to many others today it can be seen as a life saver. As we said in class, our lives have changed due to the creation of new technologies, and not everyone will be accepting of them, but every person should be allowed to make their own choices.