BERLIN: Germany’s bishops have ruled that Catholic hospitals should provide the “morning- after pill” to rape victims, on the grounds that the pill does not cause abortions.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, the president of the German bishops’ conference, said that the “morning-after pill” could be used “as long as this has a prophylactic and not an abortive effect.” He said that the Church would remain firmly opposed to the use of any drugs that cause abortions.

After discussing the matter during a meeting of their episcopal conference, the German bishops concluded that the scientific evidence shows the “morning-after pill” does not cause abortions. The pill is already dispensed at some Catholic hospitals in the US, where authorities have reached the same conclusion. -- CWN