Health and health care

The Missouri House of Representatives on March 12 passed HCS HB 457, which contains broad conscience clause protections for workers in health care and research.

The bill specifies that anyone providing or participating in a medical procedure or research cannot be required to participate or provide services that violate his or her religious, moral or ethical principles that are adherent to a sincere and meaningful belief in God or in relation to a supreme being.

The bill now moves to the state senate for consideration.

WASHINGTON — The Catholic Health Association, Our Sunday Visitor newsweekly and others have joined other Catholic leaders and institutions in weighing in on new proposed rules governing the contraceptive mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Deacon Del Leonardo carries three pagers and a cell phone on him at all times.

It's a necessity in his work as a full-time evening and overnight chaplain at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, but Deacon Leonardo doesn't mind all of the buzzing and beeping coming from his hip. Rather, he sees those as opportunities to be with patients "in the moment" who are critically ill or close to death.

The 72-year-old never imagined that he would become a permanent deacon, or a chaplain for that matter, but he knows in his heart that this is exactly what he's supposed to be doing.

This is the first story in a two-part series on recent statements made by medical organizations on contraception.

Providing emergency contraception to adolescent girls isn't good health care, according to several Catholic health care professionals and professional organizations.

Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement encouraging pediatricians to provide advance prescriptions for emergency contraception to teens. The statement was published in the December issue of the academy's online journal.

Numbness was one of the initial reactions to the Dec. 14 shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that took the lives of 20 children and six adults.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, hit on a key point when he spoke out against the culture of violence infecting our country. All of us, he noted, are called to work for peace in our homes, in our streets and our world, now more than ever.

He also noted that the shattering of a peaceful preparation for Christmas "wrenches the hearts of all people."

This is the second story in a two-part series on recent statements made by medical organizations on contraception.

A recent statement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is calling for over-the-counter access to oral contraceptives. But some in the Catholic medical community are questioning how this can be good health care for women.

Last month, ACOG published the committee opinion in its December journal, calling on non-prescription access to oral contraceptives as a way to improve contraceptive use and possibly decrease unintended pregnancy rates."