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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Abortive Contraceptives and Pro-Life Rhetoric


by Brian Simboli
for Crisis Magazine


An unforeseen, positive effect of the HHS mandate’s dramatic affront to religious liberty is to have brought renewed attention to the abortive effects of contraception. But there still needs to be far more discussion of their full moral import—for social policy, institutional behavior, conscience rights, voting behavior—and, ultimately, pro-life rhetoric.
This essay makes two points. First, the Catholic tradition holds that even when there is medical dispute about whether contraceptives act as abortifacients, morality requires that one should treat them as having these effects.  Second, the pro-life community, on balance, has hardly yet addressed the serious implications of this principle.
What does medical science say about the abortive effects of contraceptives?
Brian Simboli graduated from Swarthmore College, received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, and a Masters in economics from Lehigh University. He has contributed to Lifenews, American Spectator, and Catholic Social Science Review and does research and writing at the interface of economics, ethics, and philosophy.

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