The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly

Volume 18, Issue 2, Summer 2018

Employed Health Care Providers and the Provision of Direct Contraception

This March 2018 document replaces an earlier template policy, “Model Clinical Practice Ethics Guidelines for Affiliated Health Care Professionals with Respect to Prescription of Contraceptives,” drafted by The National Catholic Bioethics Center in the 1990s. Instead of a template policy, the new document provides definitions and principles to help health care institutions apply Catholic moral teachings if, for whatever reason, they happen to employ providers who prescribe contraception. The three basic principles are (1) distinguishing responsible agents and maintaining organizational integrity, (2) avoiding immoral cooperation, and (3) avoiding and resolving theological scandal.