vatican threatens excommunication to doctors who prescribe abortion pill RU486

[demoleft]

here we go again.

"Italy's drug regulation agency has approved the use of the abortion pill RU486, also known as mifepristone, prompting protests from the Vatican.

The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) ruled late on Thursday that the drug would not be sold in pharmacies and only be administered by doctors.

...

On Thursday, the Vatican said it would excommunicate doctors who prescribed the drug and patients who used it.

"First abortion was legalised to stop it being clandestine, but now doctors are washing their hands of it and transferring the burden of conscience to women," said Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life."

i consider this last sentence by the Vatican almost a crime against women.
really again and again - the threat for the women to be dispossed of mastery over their own body and conscience.

a growing surge here in Italy.

the pill can be taken within the 7th week of pregnancy, says the prescription. it won't be sold in pharmacies.

source: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8178152.stm

ciao DUers

[havocmom]

1. Enough! ENOUGH of the middlemen between people and their healthcare providers

Insurance bean counters and greed CEO

Pols working for lobbyists instead of citizens

Now the vatican

Enough already.

[Eyerish]

2. Fuck the Pope & Fuck the Vatican...

You don't get a say in what a woman & her doctor decide!

Shit like this is why I am no longer a catholic...

[TommyO]

3. The Catholic Church continues its long, slow decline into irrelevance.

[ensho]

4. why doesn't he excommunicate his sexual abuser priests?

nt

[demoleft]

6. some of them here...

...have been simply moved from one community to another, to hush the matter probably.
or to keep guilty ones "far" from temptation. as if it was a matter of temptation.

they have an obsession with the body of a woman.
maybe, her natural gift of creation scares them all, sons to a male trinity.

[TexasObserver]

5. A former Nazi runs the world's largest Ponzi scheme. Moralizes anyway.

You can't make this shit up.

[Walk away]

10. You forgot "wears a dress and velvet ballet flats but...

....tells other people how to live their personal lives"

[TexasObserver]

11. Cardinal Woolsey from The Tudors represented them well.

Sam Neill's portrayal of the shady Cardinal exemplified the corruption and quest for wealth and power that has been the hallmark of the RCC for the past 1600 years.

[ljm2002]

7. Right on!!!

Next, they should excommunicate all those who sell or use birth control pills, condoms or IUDs.

Pretty soon they'll have precious few Catholics left, which can only be a good thing. **

**Note: long-lapsed Catholic here :-)

[doc03]

8. They want to insure a steady supply

of young boys.

[Union Yes]

9. Women, PLEASE LEAVE THE SEXIST CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Ain't no religion worth giving away your human rights.

There are other denominations that don't believe in denial of your personal rights.

I personally recommend Atheism but it's your own choice.

[Joe Fields]

12. I work with a fundie, who is going to pharmacy school, and I asked

him if he would fill prescriptions for birth control pills or the morning after pill, and he said emphatically that he would not.

We got into a heated discussion, and I ended up telling him that he had no business getting into the health care field, if that was his philosophy.

[demoleft]

15. in italy we pay for a public health care system.

so imagine the anger when a doctor just objects because of the vatican threat or conscience.
he can keep his good catholic conscience for himself, and i respect it. but i can't see how a doctor, paid with public money, should make objections to a patient request.

and the vatican aims to this. pressure.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

13. Undercover Nuns!!!! Coming to a doctor's office near you!

[demoleft]

14. here's the position of the government...

...and the shield of the vatican.

"Italian Health Ministry: 29 Killed by RU-486

ROME, JULY 30, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Italian health ministry has reported that 29 women have died because of "the morning after pill," also known in various forms as emergency contraception, Plan B, and RU-486.
...
The drug has continued to cause controversy across the globe, with some governments moving to make it more widely available and with less professional supervision.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration this month approved over-the-counter (without prescription) purchase of Plan B One-Step to adolescents as young as 17."

the ministry will discuss the matter with the Italian Agency of Pharmaceutics.

source: zenit news. found it here: http://www.catholic.net/index.php?option=zenit&id=26592

[SoCalDem]

16. BFD.. do they check ID at church and compare it to a list somewhere?

If people are excommunicated, they can still attend church..(they may have to go to a church where they are not "known", but I have never seen a priest even look up when communion time comes around..

[demoleft]

17. the problem is for the patients though. as to the doctors and their sunday mass...

...i am not much worried.

[demoleft]

18. FUNNY UPDATE: "Catholic bank owned pill shares", BBC august 2

in the LBN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3997557