Two types of American hospital have been expanding in recent years – the Catholic-affiliated and the for-profit. One in ten acute-care hospital beds are now in Catholic hospitals, and in many cases they are the only hospitals it is geographically practical to use for care of any kind, including reproductive health care. The American Civil Liberties Union says that these hospitals are violating a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care and are discriminating against women. Advocates for the hospitals reply that the ACLU is trying to force religious hospitals and doctors to destroy babies in the womb and deprive women of the right to go to hospitals that share their religious views. The fact is that the Catholic bishops prohibit treatment that would destroy a fertilised egg or prevent it from implanting. They ban abortion and sterilization in Catholic hospitals, and egg donations from anyone other than a husband.

I have no doubt that there are women who might treat an abortion as a casual incident, but on the whole it is more likely that a decision to abort is a traumatic and excruciating one, not to be undertaken lightly. I believe that to be made to carry a child who will be unloved, unwanted and poorly cared for is a great and unpardonable sin. We have enough maladjusted, resentful and alienated young people in the world already without the unmarried and socially disassociated bishops adding to them. Epicureans care for the real lives of real people.