Free Republic

...Wednesday ...Spears detailed in court testimony the “abusive” nature of the conservatorship that her father... obtained... ...(allegations) including that individuals involved with her conservatorship have forced her to take birth control, preventing her from having another child, put her on lithium after she disagreed with dance choreography, and forced her into concert tours. ...(on) Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, McGowan called Spears’ testimony a “cultural reset” and said she believes the pop star is “ready to blow the lid” on who has wronged her in Hollywood and what has been done to her over the last 13 years. “...And I know...

All over the world, countries are confronting population stagnation and a fertility bust, a dizzying reversal unmatched in recorded history that will make first-birthday parties a rarer sight than funerals, and empty homes a common eyesore.... ...Like an avalanche, the demographic forces — pushing toward more deaths than births — seem to be expanding and accelerating. Though some countries continue to see their populations grow, especially in Africa, fertility rates are falling nearly everywhere else. Demographers now predict that by the latter half of the century or possibly earlier, the global population will enter a sustained decline for the first...

China’s population is aging and the number of births has plummeted. The Central Bank of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has published a paper calling for full liberalization and encouragement of childbearing. Some experts say that for economic reasons and overall war preparedness, Chinese Leader Xi Jinping may fully lift the birth restrictions. On April 14, the CCP Central Bank published a working paper titled “Understanding and Countermeasures on Population Transition” on its official WeChat account. The paper pointed out that compared with developed countries, China is facing a more rapidly growing aging population and a more serious declining birth...

Human beings bear the image and likeness of God. They are to be reverenced as sacred. Never are they to be used as a means to an end, not even to satisfy the deepest wishes of an infertile couple. Husbands and wives "make love," they do not "make babies." They give expression to their love for one another, and a child may or may not be engendered by that act of love. The marital act is not a manufacturing process, and children are not products. Like the Son of God himself, we are the kind of beings who are "begotten,...

Many Catholics today already possess the intuition that there is a crucial link, so to speak, between Humanae Vitae and homosexuality. They can see how the severing of the unitive and procreative meanings of marital relations—and the reduction of marital relations to mere “sex”—paved the way for the ideologies of “orientation” and “gender” that generate so-called “sexual minorities” and “sexual identities.” Yet, the genie was let out of the bottle so long ago that most of us can no longer see just how glaringly obvious this connection really is. To get a glimpse, one needs to go back to the...

For many women on birth control, it’s pretty obvious that it has effects beyond simply preventing pregnancy. After all, birth control side effects are common, and some are more obvious than others. On the less obvious front is the possible effect of birth control on mutual attraction. That’s right: hormonal birth control can actually change who you’re attracted to—and who’s attracted to you. Now, before we unpack that mind-blowing assertion, I’m going to tell you a joke. What did the boy monkey say to his three favorite girl monkeys? Nothing; because his three favorite girl monkeys were injected with Depo-Provera....

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly said the platform is trying to work with Joe Biden on a joint Facebook-Biden administration push for Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine. During a livestream interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Facebook founder mentioned a “push around authoritative information on vaccines,” though he did not elaborate on what that would entail. “You and the rest of the government have an important job ahead,” Zuckerberg told Fauci during the interview. “I know our team at Facebook has already reached out to the incoming administration to help with the COVID response in any way that we...

UK’s abortion chain Marie Stopes International (MSI) has announced a name change in an effort to distance itself from the eugenicist for whom it was named. According to a press release, Marie Stopes International will now do business under the moniker “MSI Reproductive Choices.” While the organization claimed the name change had been under review for some time, it pointed to “the events of the past year and the critical global conversations about race and diversity” which it said “reinforced to us that changing our name now is the right decision.” The move comes shortly after Planned Parenthood, the largest...

In constructing his evangelical family ethic, [Martin] Luther placed emphasis on Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful and multiply.” This living-together of husband and wife—that they occupy the same home, that they take care of the household, that together they produce and bring up children—is a kind of faint image and a remnant, as it were, of that blessed living together [in Eden]. Luther knew that the contraceptive mentality was alive and well in his own time. He noted that this “inhuman attitude, which is worse than barbarous,” was found chiefly among the well born, “the nobility and princes.” Elsewhere, he linked...

Unlike oral contraceptives, fertility awareness leads to true female empowerment by helping women understand their own bodies and make choices accordingly. Several years ago, I heard the diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) for the first time, and it was mine. My symptoms such as irregular menstrual cycles, the inability to lose weight, frequent acne outbreaks, and constant fatigue were too strong to ignore.A recent survey found that nearly 47 percent of women have experienced symptoms of hormonal imbalance. Just like me, many of those women were prescribed a hormonal contraceptive to correct these issues. After 16 years of being...

In a major win for religious liberty, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Wednesday that employers with moral or religious objections would be exempt from the federal mandate that requires company health insurance to cover birth control. The case was a consolidation of The Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania and Trump v. Pennsylvania, both of which sought to alter the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). While the bill itself had no requirements for contraceptive access being guaranteed, this became mandatory through interim final rules (IFRs). While Churches have always been exempt...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed concerned Wednesday about the sweep of Trump administration rules that would allow more employers who cite a religious or moral objection to opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women as required by the Affordable Care Act. Chief Justice John Roberts, a key vote on a court split between conservatives and liberals, suggested that the Trump administration's reliance on a federal religious freedom law to expand the exemption was “too broad.” And Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who joined the conversation from a Maryland hospital where she was being treated for an infection...

Pretend it’s 1960, and the Food and Drug Administration has just done something startling. It has taken a drug it had previously approved for infertility — brand name Enovid — and approved it for the opposite use: birth control. That pill — soon simply the Pill — triggered the sexual revolution. But not overnight. Doctors at first resisted giving it to unmarried women. Women were shy about carrying evidence that they actually planned to have sex. Feminists like Margaret Sanger and Katharine D. McCormick braved vilification to champion it. Madison Avenue chimed in: Ads featured Andromeda, the princess of Greek...

The City Pages hit, and Planned Parenthood not liking the billboards, is not just about a disagreement over a controversial issue. It’s about money. Two pro-life billboards were taken down in St. Paul, after the billboard stand owner—who remains unknown—threatened the billboard company, Clear Channel, that the stand owner would not renew the lease with Clear Channel unless the billboards were taken down.One billboard gave the website and number for abortion pill reversal (877-558-0333), and another the phone number and website for women facing an unplanned pregnancy, OptionLine.org (800-712-4357). Both advertisements were taken out by Pro-Life Action Ministries (PLAM).PLAM strategically...

Today, the RealCare Baby 3 infant simulator is a fantastically sophisticated, computer-programmed doll that costs up to $1,000 to replace if you lose it. (I know because I had to sign a waiver; Anna’s school has six of them, provided through a grant from a local education foundation.) The student wears a corresponding wristband that logs his or her responses to the baby through a radio frequency identification tag. Then she — and most of the caregivers are female — has to determine what the baby needs, based on distinctly different cries. “Just like a real baby, you eventually kind of can tell — that’s a...

1. A long time ago, before I was sexually active, I was put on the pill to control symptoms of extreme PMS. Not only did I see no relief from symptoms, truthfully, everything stayed the exact same, including my cycles being irregular and unpredictable. After more than a year on the pill, I decided to stop taking it and my cycle became regular, my extreme symptoms of moodiness and irritability literally stopped and the severe cramping was reduced – none of which had happened on the pill like it was supposed to. 2. At the same time I stopped taking...

POPE BUSTED: Bishops Denounce Vatican's U.N. Allies From the Editor’s Desk, Michael Matt takes a hard look at the big event nobody in the Vatican seems to want to talk about—the Nairobi Summit on the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo). This Bill and Melinda Gates/UN Population Fund affair was all about contraception, family planning, reproductive rights and…. the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Yes, that’s right—the very same goals Pope Francis and Jeff Sachs have been promoting inside the Vatican for years. So, why did the Vatican have to back away from their friends...

Clearly, the mentality that drives abortion, drives contraception. And when evangelicals embraced contraception they began thinking like pragmatists. Children became liabilities, not blessings. Marriage became a means to personal fulfillment, not family and sacrifice. And birth control became essential to personal health, as though our natural design was somehow defective. Posted to the website of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is a shocking quote by Pastor Joel Hunter. “Unmarried sex with contraception is not God’s plan,” he says. “(B)ut unmarried sex without contraception is not a plan at all. If holy living is not the choice of some in...

In my work as a psychotherapist, one of the first things I try to address with my clients is identifying any areas of their life that might be exacerbating whatever mental health issue they are experiencing. I ask them about their sleep habits, their eating habits, the health of their significant relationships, their exercise habits, significant stressors, and any medication they are prescribed. All of these facets of their life might be worsening their symptoms. For example, not getting enough quality sleep is linked to an increased risk of developing depression. One study found that individuals who struggle with insomnia...

This is Your Brain on Birth Control, a new book by Dr. Sara E. Hill takes a remarkably deep dive into the myriad ways that hormonal contraception alters women’s bodies, demonstrating that our sex hormones have an enormous impact on how our brains and bodies function. As we learn more about the consequences of altering women’s hormonal balance with contraception, we’ve come to find that those consequences can be very serious, indeed—in some cases, even fatal. Although the book is about the consequences of meddling with the hormones of women of reproductive age, it should also serve as a cautionary...