Press Room

For immediate release
December 10, 2007

Contact: Matt Sande, Director of Legislation, (262) 352-0890
or Virginia Zignego, Communications Director, (262) 796-1111

State Assembly to Vote on Chemical Abortion Hospital Mandate
Legislation threatens unborn children and violates freedom of conscience

The Wisconsin State Assembly is scheduled to vote tomorrow on Assembly Bill (AB) 377 and Senate Bill (SB) 129, companion legislation that would force all Wisconsin hospitals, regardless of religious affiliation, to inform an alleged victim of sexual assault about “emergency contraception (EC)” and provide it upon her request.

“So-called ‘emergency contraception’ will often act to cause a chemical abortion by preventing a tiny embryonic child from implanting in his or her mother’s womb should fertilization occur, and Pro-Life Wisconsin strongly opposes legislation that mandates Wisconsin hospitals to provide it,” said Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin.

“The bill would force hospital personnel to violate their consciences or contradict their medical judgment by requiring them to provide the morning-after pill, a known abortion-causing drug, or other forms of EC to rape victims. Let there be no doubt that this is an abortion bill, and we strongly urge the State Assembly to reject it,” said Hamill.

The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life has publicly opposed the use of the morning-after pill for any reason. At its Annual Meeting in 2003, the National Catholic Medical Association passed a resolution stating that the term “emergency contraception” is "a misnomer as it does not consistently prevent fertilization.” The resolution concludes since the drug "has the potential to prevent implantation whether given in the pre-ovulatory, ovulatory, or post-ovulatory phase that it cannot be ethically employed by a Catholic physician or administered in a Catholic hospital in cases of rape.” All four Wisconsin Guilds of the Catholic Medical Association (Milwaukee, La Crosse, Chippewa Valley & Central Wisconsin) specifically oppose AB 377 and SB 129. Their legislative memo concludes that “the law will mandate the use of medication that actually causes early abortions by preventing embryos from implanting on the wall of the uterus.”

“The pro-life community sympathizes with rape victims who have a right to defend themselves against conception,” said Matt Sande, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin. “It is impossible, however, to determine whether or not fertilization has occurred at the time EC is directed to be taken. We must act with restraint in protecting newly conceived human life.”

Wisconsin law protects the right of hospitals to refuse to participate in morally objectionable practices such as abortion and sterilization. The proposed legislation appears to be in conflict with Wisconsin Statutes 253.09(1) because of the abortion causing effect of so-called emergency contraceptive drugs, as well as with the Wisconsin Constitution that expressly protects the rights of conscience. Under Article 1, Section 18 of the state constitution “any control of, or interference with, the rights of conscience” shall not be permitted. The legislation also violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees the right to freely exercise one’s religious convictions.

“The authors of AB 377 and SB 129 brazenly and arrogantly shove aside the conscience rights of hospitals and their employees,” said Sande. “These conscience rights are enshrined in our state law, state constitution, and federal constitution for good reason – to secure liberty in a free nation. Whether or not legislators agree or disagree with specific moral objections, their sworn oaths to the state and federal constitutions command them to respect and protect them. They can’t pick and choose which conscience rights to protect or reject. This legislation pushes us down the slippery slope which ultimately ends in the obliteration of any and all conscience rights.”

“Respect for individual conscience rights is a bedrock American principle. We don’t force people to take up arms who conscientiously oppose war. Why then would we force physicians, who swear an oath to do no harm, to participate in the killing of preborn children? AB 377 is anti-life, anti-choice, and undemocratic,” concluded Sande.

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