Catholic News 2

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By Simon Caldwell

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- The Catholic Church has predicted that British pharmacists could be forced to dispense lethal drugs under plans to prohibit conscientious objection on the grounds of religion.

Proposals by the General Pharmaceutical Council, the regulatory body that sets professional standards for the industry throughout Britain, were criticized by the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, a Catholic institute serving the Catholic Church in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The pharmaceutical council announced in December that it wished to change "the expectations of pharmacy professionals when their religion, personal values or beliefs might ... impact on their ability to provide services, and shift the balance in favor of the needs and rights of the person in their care."

It intends to order pharmacists to "take responsibility for ensuring that person-centered care is not compromised because of personal values and beliefs."

"We understand the importance of a pharmacy professional's religion, personal values or beliefs, but we want to make sure people can access the advice, care and services they need from a pharmacy, when they need them," said Duncan Rudkin, chief executive of the General Pharmaceutical Council. "We recognize that this represents a significant change."

Interested parties were given until March 7 to express their views on the proposed changes.

In an undated submission, Anscombe director David Jones suggested that the changes would force pharmacists to dispense the morning-after pill, which in some cases acts by preventing a fertilized ovum from implanting into the uterus.

"In relation to termination of pregnancy, most abortions are now medical rather than surgical, and the drugs which cause an abortion are dispensed by pharmacists," Jones said in a paper posted on the Anscombe website.

He also warned the regulator that if assisted suicide laws were changed in the United Kingdom to permit the practice, then pharmacists would have no right to object to dispensing lethal drugs to customers who wished to kill themselves.

"In the future, requests could even include requests to dispense drugs for assisted suicide: requests with which many pharmacists will rightly be reluctant to comply," Jones said. "Having conceded so much in terms of the wishes of the person using the pharmacy, the council may find it difficult to retrace its steps and re-establish professional control centered on the person's genuine health interests."

The proposals, he continued, risked "eviscerating the profession of concern for the genuine health interests of people using the pharmacy."

A change could also "create an atmosphere that is hostile to religious people in particular," Jones added.

Auxiliary Bishop Paul Mason of Southwark, responding March 7 on behalf of the English and Welsh bishops, told the pharmaceutical council that its proposal "seems to imply that conscientious objection, whether motivated by religious or other concerns, is an obstacle to ensuring patient-centered care."

"It appears to suggest that having a moral conscience and patient-centered care are not compatible facets of a pharmacist's profession," he said in an excerpt emailed to Catholic News Service March 7. "However, we contend that being a person of conscience is, in fact, a requirement of any health care professional."

Rosemary Baker, a retired Catholic pharmacist from Wirral, England, told CNS in a March 7 email that during her career, she had occasionally refused to dispense the morning-after pill, but had always explained her reasons with "understanding and respect."

"Such a refusal under the proposed standard would be very likely to be considered as a breach of the patient's rights to care and place the pharmacist in breach of the professional standards," said Baker, a former lecturer in pharmacy law and health care ethics at Liverpool John Moores University.

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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Calling health care "a vital concern for nearly every person in the country," the U.S. Catholic bishops said March 8 they will be reviewing closely a measure introduced in the House March 6 to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

"Discussions on health care reform have reached a level of intensity which is making open and fruitful dialogue difficult, even while most people recognize that improvements to the health care system are needed to ensure a life-giving and sustainable model for both the present and future," said a letter to House members signed by the chairmen of four U.S. bishops' committees.

"Given the magnitude and importance of the task before us, we call for a new spirit of cooperation for the sake of the common good," they wrote.

The letter was signed by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman, Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, chairman, Committee on Migration.

Main provisions of the new House bill include: eliminating the mandate that most individuals have health insurance and putting in its place a new system of tax credits; expanding Health Savings Accounts; repealing Medicaid expansion and transitioning to a "per capita allotment"; prohibiting health insurers from denying coverage or charging more money to patients based on pre-existing conditions; and cutting off funds to Planned Parenthood clinics.

The Catholic Health Association in a March 7 statement said it "strongly opposed" the House repeal and replace measure, saying it "asks the low-income and most vulnerable in our country to bear the brunt of the cuts to our health system." It pointed to the proposal to cap federal financing of Medicaid, which is a state-federal program; to eliminate cost-sharing subsidies for low-income people and create "barriers to initial and continuing Medicaid enrollment."

CHA said the provision on pre-existing conditions would come with a 30 percent monthly premium surcharge for a year "should they have a lapse in coverage." Its vision for health care in the U.S. "calls for health care to be available and accessible to everyone, paying special attention to poor and vulnerable individuals," the CHA statement said.

In their letter, the Catholic bishops called on lawmakers to consider moral criteria as they debate the measure, including: respect for life and dignity; honoring conscience rights; access for all; a plan that is "truly affordable ... comprehensive and high quality."

"Any modification of the Medicaid system as part of health care reform should prioritize improvement and access to quality care over cost savings," they said.

The U.S. Catholic Church, the bishops said, "remains committed to the ideals of universal and affordable health care, and to the pursuit of those ideals in a manner that honors" the moral criteria they outlined.

Health care is not just another issue, but a "fundamental issue of human life and dignity" and "a critical component of the Catholic Church's ministry," they added.

The U.S. bishops have advocated for universal and affordable health care for decades and they supported the general goal of the Affordable Care Act, which was passed in 2010, but the bishops ultimately opposed the law because it expanded the federal role in abortion and failed to expand health care protections to immigrants.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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(Vatican Radio) Bringing the voices of Catholic women leaders from around the world to the heart of the Vatican is the goal of an event taking place on Wednesday to mark international women’s day.

The annual ‘Voices of Faith’ event is jointly organised this year by the Fidel Gotz Foundation and by Jesuit Refugee Services, focusing on women working for justice and peacemaking in countries across the globe.

Flavia Agnes is one of those who has been on the front line of this struggle in her native India. She’s a lawyer and co-founder of the Majlis Legal Centre in Mumbai for marginalized women and children. A survivor of domestic violence herself, Flavia has campaigned tirelessly to bring women’s rights to the forefront of her country’s legal system.

She told Philippa Hitchen about the work of her Centre, saying that while women to continue to suffer from the invisible scourges of domestic and sexual violence, her country has seen much progress for women at the political and economic level…

Listen: 

Flavia say the Centre was started 25 years ago, with the main aim of giving access to justice for women. She says India has many laws protecting women’s rights, but “accessing those laws is very difficult, many women don’t know how to find a lawyer, which can be very expensive, and whole the legal process can be very exploitative”. Much of this is beyond the reach of vulnerable and marginalized women, she says, “so we aimed to improve this access, especially in the cases of those who are victims of domestic and sexual violence.

Personal experience of domestic violence

Flavia Agnes explains that this work grew out of her own experience of domestic violence, at the hands of her husband. She explains how, aged 20, she had an arranged marriage with a man who, very quickly, began to beat her.

The violence continued for 13 years and, despite her attempts to get help, she says she was amazed at her community’s attitude towards domestic violence, even the attitudes of those within the Church. “Everyone said ‘this is your destiny, you’re supposed to adjust, this is what the church teaches,” she says.

“But I felt that the violence was so severe and so humiliating, this cannot really be what our religion is teaching,” Flavia says. She adds that “the violence was very degrading, not just to me, but I thought that this is not the environment in which to bring up children. What sort of message does this send to them?”

Eventually, Flavia managed to escape from her husband, taking her two daughters with her, though she wasn’t able to bring her son as well. She soon joined the women’s movement, which was in its early stages in Mumbai. “Even in that group, nobody knew about domestic violence, that it happens in ordinary middle class homes,” she says. “Today there is much better realisation of what happens.”

Progress in women's rights

Despite her experience, Flavia is adamant that the situation for Indian women has improved a lot, thanks to the efforts of women like her who have worked with both the Church and the State. In 2005 the government passed a law which specifically forbids domestic violence and forbids the husband to leave his wife homeless by throwing her out of his house.

Progress in the workplace has also been good, she says, with women taking roles in education, economics and politics, though not to the high levels that some had hoped. There is still much work to be done though, in the rural communities, she says.

“Accessing the law is still very difficult, especially for the working classes, the litigation process is still very challenging in the courts. The law promises many things but they aren’t delivered on the ground. So the work of my organisation is twofold, firstly to provide the access to the law for women and secondly to look at the causes of the problems, why it isn’t working and bring it to the notice of the state policy level.”

Changing a culture of complicity

A major key to success, Flavia says, will be changing attitudes in her part of the world . “The whole south Asian culture is profoundly anti-women,” she says. “The culture of abuse is part of everyday life” and the scale of it is only coming out now that there is mandatory reporting.

Speaking of the Voices of Faith event, Flavia says: “The waters must be stirred or else there is a whole passive complacency in the Church. It is necessary to bring in changes and awareness to local issues, so that the Church can be relevant.”

“The Church needs to be much more vocal to speak for justice, speaking much more for the people, for the marginalised, for the women. Our Church needs to support our work much more strongly and much more vocally.”

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(Vatican Radio) ‘Stirring the Waters: making the impossible possible’ is the theme for an event taking place in the Vatican on Wednesday to mark international women’s day.

The annual ‘Voices of Faith’ event is jointly organised this year by the Fidel Gotz Foundation and by Jesuit Refugee Services. It features the voices of Catholic women working to build leadership for justice and peacemaking in many different countries and cultural contexts.

Among those taking part this year is American Sister Simone Campbell, better known as ‘the nun on the bus’.  A member of the Benedictine-inspired Sisters of Social Service, she’s a lawyer, serving as executive director of Network, the Washington DC based National Catholic Social Justice Lobby.

In 2012, she and some of the sisters in her community toured parts of the United States on a bus to draw attention to their work with the poor and to protest planned aid cuts.

She talked to Philippa Hitchen about her message for this international women’s day and about the intersection of religious and political concerns in her campaign work…

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