Contraceptives and Substandard Catholic Healthcare.

Craig Bernthal has a nice round-up of videos on the Obama HHS mandate.

His post attracted this comment:

Joshua SteinJune 20, 2012 9:06 AM
The Father totally misses the point. Is the Catholic Church allowed to offer sub-standard care to those they ensure based on their moral position? Contraception is part of standard care, for a number of reasons.

First is that oral contraceptives are part of a standard regimen of treatment in women's health that includes treatment of polycystic ovaries, reducing risk of ovarian cancer, and the reduction of pain and discomfort during the menstrual cycle.

Second is that the position on "religious liberty" that the Father is taking is one often used to advance a failure to meet standard of care requirements by a number of religious organizations, including the Jehovah's Witnesses and various New Age groups who oppose vaccinations. It is important to acknowledge that as an entailment of the position.

What's my point? Well, as the bioethics guy I feel obligated to point out that he's strawmanning the issue. I was the beneficiary of a Catholic education and, as a young Jewish person, have deep misgivings about some of the things that the Church chooses to care about. But I really have no stomach for failing to recognize the issue.

If you believe that the Church is allowed to offer substandard care, then the argument needs to be a justification for that; the argument presented in the videos, while perhaps in part true, is a strawman so long as it neglects that acknowledgement.

My comment in reply:

Joshua,

Reading your comment, I note the following issues.

First, you assume that the Catholic position on contraception necessarily means "substandard" treatment. In fact, the tendency toward using contraception without giving due considerations to alternatives for conditions other than birth control may be substandard. While Catholicism for providing "substandard treatment,” people with a pro-contraception mentality tend to forget the injury done to women by contraceptives. Bio-ethicist Janet Smith points out:

"Now, let us review some of the bad health effects of contraception on women. One news report tells us:

'Johnson and Johnson spent at least $68.7 million to settle hundreds of lawsuits filed by women who suffer blood clots, heart attacks, or strokes after using the company’s Ortho-evra birth control patch, court records show. Johnson and Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health-care products, avoided trials through confidential settlements and hasn’t released the financial details to investors.31'

About thirty women using the patch died of heart attacks and strokes. They were young, many in their early twenties. These are not the usual causes of death for a woman in her twenties."

Second, Catholicism does not teach that contraceptives are “unclean” or “taboo” eo ipso. It teaches that contraception is a departure from natural law.

It tends to be modernists, who lack the intellect and patience for nuance, who create strawmen consisting of black and white, not the Catholic Church.

Third, consistent with the second point, consistent with if you look at basic church documents on contraception, you see that contraceptives are permitted for reasons other than contraception. Thus, Paul VI in Humanae Vitae wrote:

"Lawful Therapeutic Means

15. On the other hand, the Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from—provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever. (19)"

Fourth, your comparison of Catholicism’s position to the JW position on blood transfusion is accordingly a strawman or begs the question. Insofar as contraception is used to “treat” fertility, it is in no way comparable to using blood transfusions to treat a medical condition. Fertility is not a disease; it is not defective function of the human condition; it is in fact a sign of health. In contrast, blood transfusions are used to treat illness, trauma and disease.