Posted on 08/20/2011 1:53:21 PM PDT by wagglebee
I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been asked what my stance is on contraception. It’s not breaking news that many oral contraceptives and some invasive barrier methods (IUD) have been proven to cause abortion, including the highly controversial ella and Plan B drugs, and I stand firmly against the use of anything that destroys a life created at conception. But what about contraception that prevents conception from taking place?
I’m not the only one who has gotten this question; people want to know how the pro-life movement as a whole feels about this.
In fact, the medical students we reach out to face this question on a daily basis.
This question is a hard one to answer, which is why many avoid it: What is the pro-life movement’s stance on contraception, including methods that prevent conception?
As a physician, what is the right decision to make when a woman asks for birth control? What if she is living below the poverty line, has 3 or 4 children, hasn’t obtained a high-school diploma, and is co-habiting with a man who needs to support her financially? Presumably, she’s aware of the possibility of pregnancy and could be afraid of how she will feed and clothe another child.
What do you say? What’s the pragmatic response here?
Here’s how I think that conversation should be started:
1) Birth Control, no matter what form, doesn’t prevent abortions. In fact, it provides a false sense of security.
The Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s own research arm, released study showing that condoms fail 14% of the time. That’s enough to provide some concern, especially when coupled with the Guttmacher’s own numbers showing that over half of all abortions are on women who were using some method of birth control. This is a cry in the face of pro-abortion propaganda claiming that if women had better access to birth control, abortions would become unnecessary.
Well, clearly not.
Contraception gives women a false sense of security, and condoms and birth control clearly can’t be relied on as a fail-proof method of stopping a pregnancy from occurring.
2) Birth control comes with it’s own complications and risks. It some cases, it’s deadly for both the child and mother.
Aside from condoms, oral and invasive methods of birth control come with their own complications. In addition to blood clots and strokes, chemical contraceptives have been proven to end the life of a preborn human mere hours or days after conception by thinning the uterine lining and making implantation more difficult for the developing person. Invasive methods that are implanted into your upper arm or uterus come with the same set of risks to both the mother and child. The most common form of hormonal contraception, the pill, has been categorized by the World Health Organization as a Group I carcinogen. That’s the highest possible ranking; cigarettes are also Group I.
One only has to read the inserts that come with chemical contraception, listen to commercials for hormonal birth control that spew out a long list of side effects, or glance at Facebook ads calling for women who took Yaz birth control pills to contact a law firm to join the lawsuit (google Yaz and lawsuit!) to grasp the unbelievable amount of life-altering consequences of imbibing hormonal birth control.
3) Condoms and birth control are everywhere. You can obtain them for free, yet the abortion and STD rate hasn’t fallen.
Planned Parenthood and county health departments have been giving out free condoms and birth control for years. Yet, the unplanned pregnancy, abortion, and STD rate in America has failed to fall and, in the case of STDs, has significantly increased. Despite this evidence, the Obama Administration just issued a new ruling forcing all health insurance plans to cover birth control with no deductible.
What’s even more scary is that Planned Parenthood knows this. They actually rely on the failure of the contraception they provide to increase their abortion profits.
4) Finally, and most importantly, birth control – in any form – is a Band-Aid.
It seems like the best way to answer the question regarding the pro-life stance on contraception is to emphasize helping women as a whole instead of handing out a temporary “fix”.
Dolling out free condoms isn’t social justice. Handing over a pack of pills to an uneducated mother living in poverty with a man who doesn’t respect her enough to marry her isn’t restoring proper relationships in her life. At the end of the day, what have you accomplished? You’ve just acknowledged her tragic situation by implying, “I don’t know how to help you”, or, “I don’t have time to help you, but here, use these and hope for the best.”
Protecting women from the scarring trauma of abortion and repairing broken relationships in her life seem to be the best way the pro-life movement can restore true social justice – Christian justice – to this woman’s life.
These are my thoughts on how we can make a real impact, but the pro-life movement needs to come together and agree on one answer to this question. Unity will only help us protect more women and the pre-born from the injustice of abortion.
I'm sure you would
Do you want someone raising a child, who did not want them in the first place? -- if they do not want them, then give them up for adoption, there are childless couples who would be happy. But also think -- why did they have the children? If they don't want them, these are just a mistake?
i agree what you say that However,some people, who do not want children, would be terrible parents. but as Mother Teresa said - adoption, not abortion
Saying to these people -- ok, treat sex as just for fun and children as a mistake leads to what I was saying that it ends up as "abortion is correcting a mistake", "sex is just for fun so gay lifestyle is ok"
I strongly re-emphasise that I do not mean you in any way and you would not follow this, but the thinking as a whole has influenced society as I outlined -- one small step and down the slippery slope
You are missing the point. Widespread use of birth control brought about the view that a child is an "accident" that can be "corrected". BC fails. Not one form is 100% effective. A child is a natural outcome of sex and not a punishment or accident.
Then you went off on a tangent where this is somehow the an evil Catholic plot.
However, what you have totally failed to address is the premise of the thread and that is that CONTRACEPTION DOES NOT STOP ABORTION. Since the Pill made it's way onto the market 53 MILLION babies have been murdered. An American baby is murdered EVERY 24 SECONDS.
If you haven't killed a baby, good for you, but don't sit here and pretend that contraception has somehow prevented abortions.
Someone has finally posed a moral and social question [or hypothesis] that can be discussed and debated and I think conservatives would generally (not speaking absolutes) agree with your position.
But this is far different from the position that it is evil to use contraception as a method for "family planning."
I meet someone I love at graduate school, marry her and we agree that we will have children after I have finished school and get a job that will support a family. We use contraception as a measure to effectuate our plans. Now, if the contraception fails, I have to go get a job, delaying completing my thesis and getting a better job. It's a shame, it's an enormous hassle, but I do the responsible thing.
But the absolutists here would claim that my wife and I are living in sin.
The crux of this moral issue is personal responsibility, not condoms. But the clueless moralizing on this forum does not distinguish between the two. And they kill any attraction that conservatism might have for others. Twisted conservative logic is just as dangerous as twisted liberal logic.
If you haven't killed a baby, good for you, but don't sit here and pretend that contraception has somehow prevented abortions.
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Somehow this important point has been left behind in this discussion.
“Contraception prevents children from being raised in a horrible home situation. More people should be on BCPs.”
You’re not much of a deep-thinker, are you?? Pretty much live for the moment & do whatever suits YOU, huh?
As was mentioned, you failed to address the shortcomings of contraceptives as outlined in the article. Instead, your posts read more like an advertisement for BCPs.
And no, we don’t need more people on the Pill screwing up the environment. We need responsible adults with self-control
This is exactly the kind of facile language reading to incorrect conclusions that has become so rife among the conervative Taliban.
The problem is "fail and are used improperly." First, the scientifically correct inference is that by a very large statistical margin of error they fail because they are not used properly, or are not used at all. And because Vlad won't reveal his sources, we have to fall back on summary results rather then details of the study to find out what was really going on.
This sounds like that old personal responsibility issue. And as for self-control. If these animals as you call them cannot exercise enough self-control to use prophylaxis consistently and properly, how are you going to get them to abstain from sex all together.
Moreover, several folks here would deny married couples the use of contraceptives, even if they are responsible parents, on the grounds that they might fail.
A 98% or 99.7% probability that one can finish schooling and get a job before having to support a family is pretty good odds, much better odds than the probability of successfully finishing an advanced degree, or deferred undergraduate degree for that matter.
Contraception has nothing to do with abortions.
Actually, if there were no BCPs, there would probably be a major increase in abortions.
100% correct, and I applaud you for stating the truth when few will.
Voila. My point exactly - to quote another poster on your side. Not only are you intellectually sloppy, and lazy, but you are coward.
Second, as I pointed out, what I posted is not data because it is not original source. Apparently you cannot point to original source data either.
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Perhaps you might point out where a poster on this thread suggested making contraceptives illegal.
“Contraception has nothing to do with abortions.
Actually, if there were no BCPs, there would probably be a major increase in abortions.”
The statistics say otherwise. Your assertion is false. Again think a little deeper
It has EVERYTHING to do with abortion.
How many people would cruise a bar looking for a one night stand if they knew it might result in a child? Contraceptives have given people a false sense of security in order to engage in risky behavior. The result is abortion.
If I recall, you’re the one who first brought condoms into the discussion
Second, despite your calling me & others “Talibani”, no one has suggested outlawing contraceptives. Do I think they’re sinful? Yes. Do I think the contraceptive attitude has led to significant moral decay? Yes. But I’d rather speak the truth & talk to people about that then advocate for a government ban on birth control. You have been ruse, inflammatory, and arrogant throughout this thread. Not very easy to have an intellectual discussion with someone like you.
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And the rampant spread of STDs.
Contraceptives, used properly, reduces the chance of getting pregnant significantly.
I suspect all of this anti birth control is really Catholic indoctrinated belief. Some of us are not Catholic ( I left the Church- my Bishop sexually molested my male classmate), and therefore do not subscribe to this line of thought .
I have to go to work, will continue this later.
You guys are geniuses. It only took us 443 posts and all capital letters before we finally got you to state your blindingly self-evident thesis.
Are you totally insane? My bird bath does not stop abortion either. Should I tip it over and slight it so that it will hold no water again?
There is no end to the things that you can hate if you hate them because they don't stop abortion. Irresponsible individuals cause the mass of abortions. Otherwise responsible individuals who get caught in an untenable position, as a result of our society, also cause abortions. But responsible caring families who use contraception to limit the number of children they have to those that they can afford, accepting the consequence of an unplanned arrival in the event of failure, don't cause abortion and you need to stop your politically suicidal war on them.
The liberals RINOs and their big spending ways do more to promote the moral breakdown of this country than anything I know. And by putting up the backs of almost all decent people, however misguided they may be, you are going to perpetuate that which you say you do not want.
Unless of course you are Reid plants, of which thesis I am thoroughly and completely convinced.
I doubt anyone on this forum thinks abortion is a grand and glorious thing. By making war on "us" you are undermining your own cause, unless of course, as I said, you are trying to do Harry's will.
And I suspect that all of them drank water and ate food.
You guys are geniuses. It only took us 443 posts and all capital letters before we finally got you to state your blindingly self-evident thesis.
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Since that is part of the title, and the focus of this article, I'm a bit puzzled by your response.
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