Mexican Church Attacks Pill Use

[CShine]

Mexico's Catholic Church leaders have criticised a government decision to allow the so-called morning-after pill. Use of the emergency contraceptive was approved last week in an amendment to family-planning guidelines.

But some Church figures have said that the Church cannot remain silent on the issue, saying use of the contraceptive pill is comparable to murder. Health Department statistics show that around 40% of Mexico's 2.1 million pregnancies a year are unplanned.

One of the leading opponents of the measure is the Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera. "Although they may be called contraceptives, when they produce an abortion, it is called murder. It is forbidden to kill the innocent," he said.

Other Church leaders have gone as far as to suggest women who take the pill will face effective excommunication from the Church. Among them is Jorge Palencia, a priest in charge of health in the First Archdiocese of Mexico. "The Church cannot stay silent faced with genocide of the magnitude which is on its way," the Spanish news agency Efe quotes him as saying.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3435571.stm

[baby_bear]

1. So, it's okay to kill the guilty? I don't get it.

from the above article:

<snip>One of the leading opponents of the measure is the Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera. "Although they may be called contraceptives, when they produce an abortion, it is called murder. It is forbidden to kill the innocent," he said.
</snip>

As a Catholic, I don't understand. It's okay for Texans to kill teenagers and adults who are deemed to have committed capital crimes. But a teenager who is assaulted or makes a mistake and wants to avoid abortion cannot take a pill that will hopefully prevent fertilization or implantation of a fertilized egg.

Should I be excommunicated for taking the pill on a regular basis?

My priest never told me that.

s_m