Plan B Or Not Plan B (Feature Article) (Use of the Morning-After Pill‪)‬

On October 2 of 2001, the Pontifical Academy for Life taught that "from an ethical standpoint, the same absolute unlawfulness of abortifacient procedures also applies to distributing, prescribing, and taking the morning-after pill." Though strictly forbidden by Catholic Church teaching, the use of the morning-after pill, levonorgestrel (also known as Plan B) in cases of alleged rape is allowed in many Catholic hospitals in the U.S.A. Morally speaking, that use is strictly analogous to the example given by St. Thomas Aquinas, of a hunter shooting at something in the forest when not really sure that what he sees is an animal or a human being. If the hunter is not certain that a human being is not involved, it is gravely immoral to shoot. Response to Church teaching