They attempt to deflect criticism by pointing to the many admirable efforts the Vatican makes on the part of all refugees. This, however, demonstrates the blind spot most church leaders have when it comes to women. And with Vatican leadership, the Roman Catholic church is among the harshest and most punishing of religions when it comes to understanding and respecting women s rights and needs. No more graphic example of that lack of understanding can be found than the message Pope John Paul II sent to Bosnian Muslim women who had been raped during the 1993 conflict. And, rather than giving raped women inaccurate information about what constitutes a pregnancy or characterizing aid workers as perpetrators of violence for offering voluntary emergency contraception, the church would do better if it respected both the conscience and moral capacity of women, including women who have been raped.
Women can and do make good decisions about when and whether to bring new life into the world.
Moreover, moral and policy discourse would be advanced if the church were able to acknowledge that these situations are morally complex, rife with respectable but differing views on reproductive biology and moral rights and responsibilities. There is no quick cure, medical or otherwise, for the devastation experienced by women who have been raped. Emotional recovery is long and painful, if ever fully achieved. Few women, even those in stable and supportive circumstances, feel they have the emotional resources to continue such a pregnancy. Let us not mince words, denying emergency contraception to women who have been raped is as coercive as the practice of forced abortion reported in China which church leaders criticize so vehemently.