In survey, Caritas hospitals gave illegal answer
No morning-after pill for rape victim
The researcher posed as a rape crisis counselor and phoned 70 hospital emergency rooms statewide asking if they could provide emergency contraception to a rape victim, as required by a 2005 Massachusetts law.
Almost all said yes, but staffers at two - Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton and Caritas Holy Family Hospital in Methuen - said no, according to NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, the abortion rights group that conducted the survey this past summer and shared its results with the Globe yesterday.
Both hospitals are part of Caritas Christi Health Care, which issued a statement yesterday stating that all six of its hospitals, including the two mentioned by NARAL, remain in full compliance with the 2005 law - meaning they dispense emergency contraception to rape victims.
Caritas is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and the church has long opposed contraception, including emergency contraception, or the "morning-after pill." Last week, the Vatican issued a document reiterating its opposition to use of the morning-after pill, which it said is a form of abortion and therefore "gravely immoral."
In its statement, Caritas said it trains staff to abide by the Massachusetts law and "in all cases, clinical staff follow established protocol while treating each patient with dignity and compassion."
The Caritas statement questioned whether the NARAL researcher had actually spoken with a member of the emergency department staff at the two hospitals.
Andrea Miller, executive director of NARAL, said that the researcher asked to be transferred to the emergency department at each hospital. At the two Caritas facilities, she said, when the researcher asked for emergency contraception for the rape victim, "One of the things they each said is, 'No, we don't do that, you know we're a Catholic hospital.' "
"Our hope," Miller said, "is that all hospitals will be in compliance with the law and that this research will encourage every hospital emergency department to ensure that their staff is aware of the law and trained to provide compassionate care to rape survivors."
Michael Paulson of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Carey Goldberg can be reached at goldberg@globe.com. 