Theologian Oks Pill For Mentally Handicapped

It is morally acceptable to give birth-control pills to mentally handicapped women who could be “induced or forced” into sex, a Roman Catholic theologian said Wednesday.

But use of the pill should be kept to a minimum in such cases because “it would be administered without their consent,” said the Rev. Gonzalo Miranda, who teaches at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy “Regina Apostolorum.”

Some church figures in the past have said exceptions could be made to the Vatican’s total ban on artificial contraception. They have cited nuns working in dangerous areas or women who are subject to a high risk of rape, such as those who lived through Bosnia’s ethnic terror and mass rapes three years ago.

Miranda’s comments appear to extend the exceptions for the first time to mentally handicapped women.

The health director of Italy’s muscular dystrophy association, Fortunato Mangiola, called Miranda’s position “the usual hypocrisy of the clergy.”