The dawn of demonic deception [the birth control pill]

Human Life International ^ | 4-23-10 | Jenn Giroux

[mlizzy]

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of "The Pill" the Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy and misleading article ("The Birth Control Riddle" April 20, 2009) by Melinda Beck, calling the arrival of The Birth Control Pill the "dawn of dependable contraception" which "ignited the sexual revolution, ended the post-war baby boom and helped millions of women enter the work force." Ms Beck then proceeds to lament all of the "unplanned pregnancies" which still occur today before detailing for us how safe it is now to use new and improved birth control methods.

Marshall McLuhan, the late, great expert on the media, who converted to Catholicism before he died said, "The major media are engaged in a Luciferian conspiracy against the truth." How true! Ms Beck's column is a prime example of this conspiracy, including such blatant lies and misrepresentations as:

"the benefits outweigh the risks" when taking "The Pill"

"...the longer a woman uses the pill, the lower her risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer", and

"...the pill does not seem to increase the risk of getting [breast cancer]".

Beck then goes on to reassure the readers with sources such as the Guttmacher Institute (Planned Parenthood's own research arm) and a quote from Planned Parenthood's VP of Medical Affairs who explains away the damaging side effects by saying, "We have to keep these things in perspective. A woman's risk for problems is substantially higher during pregnancy."

"The Pill" and the widespread use of other contraceptives in reality ushered in the 'Dawn of Demonic Deception' in America. One needs only to review some of the bitter fruits of "The Pill" to appreciate why.

--A Mayo Clinic study said that women who use hormonal contraceptives for a minimum of 4 years prior to their first full term pregnancy have a 52% higher risk of developing breast cancer
--Women who use a hormonal contraceptive for more then 5 yrs are 4 times more likely to develop cervical cancer
--Prior to the sexual revolution and "The Pill" there were known to be 5 sexually transmitted diseases: Today there are more than 30.
--There are over 50 medical studies which indicate that use of oral contraceptives and Depo-Provera place women at higher risk for almost all known risk factors of HIV.

As we look around today, we see how accurately Pope Paul VI predicted what would follow if contraception were adopted on a wide scale: a general lowering of moral standards, an increase in infidelity, ever-greater objectification of women, and the use of contraception as a weapon. Smaller and more broken families, rampant homosexuality, pornography, and China's coercive one-child policy are just some of the sad and obvious reminders of Pope Paul's wisdom in reaffirming the Church's perennial teaching against contraception in Humanae vitae.

Exposing the lies of contraception is, indeed, the great moral challenge of our day. It is not only a battle for life, it is a battle for souls.

When asked recently by a major publication to name her greatest regret, Martha Stewart replied, "Not having a dozen offspring." This neatly summarizes the widespread "post-contraceptive regret" that weighs heavily on the hearts and souls of women who bought into the lies of the abortion industry. Even Catholic families have since the 1960's dropped from 5.5 to 2.1 children today, increasingly rejecting the joys and challenges of larger families for the lesser goods of greater material comfort, "freedom," and professional accomplishment.

The 1920's-era story (ironically, the same time that Margaret Sanger was beginning her efforts to legalize contraception and abortion in America) comes to mind of the small boy who was peering out a window at dusk as a man came along to light the gas street lights.

His mother asked, "What are you looking at?"

As if explaining the obvious, the boy replied, "I am watching a man poke holes in the darkness."

Today as confirmed Catholics this is all that God is asking of us - to stand in bold witness and poke holes in the spiritual darkness that surrounds us. Encountering the demonic deceptions forwarded by Ms. Beck and others who ignore the devastation wrought by contraception, we must answer with the light of truth.

Our daily faithfulness to God's perfect plan for sexuality and marriage through the rosary and sacraments is the only way to reclaim the culture and our nation. Only by using these gifts can we help bring about a countercultural comeback of chastity and the family. [emphasis, link; mine]

[big'ol_freeper]

RE: “If anything, we should be requiring certain low-skilled immigrants to agree to Depo Provera injections as a condition to coming to our country.”

Admit it, you got that from Margret Sanger...or Adolph Hitler.

[stfassisi]

Yes. I hope she washed her hands after.

This type of thought is what makes america ugly

[mlizzy]

You are wealthy and Blessed.

Thank you ...

[Cicero]

I always thought that Marshall McLuhan’s book and his famous phrase, “The medium is the message,” was essential reading to understand what was gong on in those days.

All the trendy people picked it up, and loved McLuhan. What they perhaps didn’t understand is that he didn’t necessarily APPROVE of what he described.

[cpforlife.org]

Artificial Birth Control weakens marriage and the family, it contributes to the increase in divorce, and it has inevitably lead to abortion.

Artificial contraception was condemned as a sinful act by every major Christian denomination in the world, Protestant and Catholic, until 1930. Pope Paul VI in his 1968 Encyclical Letter, Humanae Vitae reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s continued position against Artificial Birth Control because it is in direct opposition to the fundamental purposes of marriage and family. The very word contraception means against conception—against new life.

Pope Paul VI warned that the widespread use of contraception would lead to “conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality.” The rates of abortion (about one of every four pregnancies in the US), divorce (approximately 50 percent of all marriages), family breakdown, wife and child abuse, venereal disease, and out of wedlock births have all massively increased since the mid-1960s.

When birth control fails many people will inevitably turn to abortion. The contraceptive mentality of the culture has become increasingly dependent upon the “back-up” of abortion to the extent that the value of human life is becoming increasingly cheap. In vitro fertilization, cloning, genetic manipulation and embryo experimentation—which turn human life into a mere commodity—are all descendants of contraceptive technology.

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From: Birth Control and NFP: What's the Difference? (by Fr. Frank Pavone) http://www.priestsforlife.org/articles/nfpdifferences.html (excerpts)

[Natural Family Planning] NFP does not refer to the so-called “calendar rhythm method”, which was based on calendar calculations of a “normal” cycle. NFP, instead, is based on direct observations of various signs that occur in a woman's body which tell her when ovulation occurs. These observations are relatively easy to make, take only a few minutes, and work even for irregular cycles. NFP is internationally known and practical and has an extremely high effectiveness.

NFP does not separate sex from responsibility.

NFP is not just a “method” based on physiology. Rather, NFP is based on virtue. It is based on sexual self-control, which is necessary for a healthy marriage.

NFP puts the responsibility for family planning squarely on the shoulders of both partners, because it requires communication and cooperation.

NFP is not just a means of avoiding pregnancy, as artificial contraception is. Rather, it can also be used to achieve pregnancy since it pinpoints ovulation. It is a wholly positive approach to the sexual life of the spouses. It is clean, inexpensive, morally acceptable, and reliable.

As with anything good, NFP can be misused, if a couple has the wrong motives. Married couples are called by God to cooperate generously in bringing forth and educating new life. For a couple to decide that “we don't want children at this time”, there need to be serious, objective reasons (health, finances, etc.). If the reasons are not objective but selfish, then the couple cannot justify the avoidance of pregnancy just because they are using NFP to do it. In this case they are not practicing “family planning”, but “family avoidance”!

The Pill can cause abortion: Contraceptive drugs (including “the pill”) act in three major ways: 1st, they prevent the release of the egg from the ovaries; 2nd, they thicken the mucus in the reproductive tract, making it more difficult for the sperm to reach the egg; and 3rd, should the egg manage to be released and fertilized, thus forming a new human being, they cause the wall of the uterus to prevent implantation, thus causing the new child to be aborted.

Dr. Ronald Chez, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), publicly stated that the new Pills of today, with their lower estrogen dose, allow ovulation up to 50% of the time! It is estimated that Chemical “Contraceptives” cause between 7 to 12 million early abortions each year in America (Source: Study of Abortion Deaths Ad Hoc Commission 1995). Most women using the Pill (and other “birth control” methods) do not know they can become pregnant and have early abortions.

To find out more about the Pill and other chemical contraceptives that cause early abortions, go to:
“Birth Control Abortions”. http://www.prolife.com/BIRTHCNT.html

Church teaching on birth control
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil:

Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality. http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect2chpt2art6.htm#2370

2399 The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception). http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect2chpt2art6.htm#2399

Internet Resources:

Humanae Vitae: On the Regulation of Births, Pope Paul VI, 1968 http://www.usccb.org/prolife/tdocs/humanaevitae.htm

Natural Family Planning (NFP) http://www.ccli.org/

Pope Preaches Inviolability of Human Life and Sanctity of the Family to Europe, Africa
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/81-01-15popeabortion.html

Pro-Life PING

Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

[narses]

Thank God instead, He is the Master.

[mlizzy]

Thank God instead, He is the Master.

Thank you. I do ... both directly and through His mother.

“Always keep close to Our Heavenly Mother, because She is the sea that must be crossed, in order to reach the shores of eternal splendor, in the Kingdom of Dawn” --St. Padre Pio.

[DemonDeac]

The pill/a condom aren’t anywhere near abortion and its almost laughable to suggest. Abortion is an abomination that should be illegal but the other two are and should be fully legal though i’m sure plenty of the big-government nanny state “conservatives” on here would be more than happy to see the pill made illegal.

[Mrs. Frogjerk]

If you think about it, when they market birth control, they also push the same mentality that is at the core of abortion. The mentality that children are a burden and are to be dealt with as such.

Sometimes, you may conceive a child, and the timing of it may stink. But hey, you play you pay. We all know how babies are made. I don't care what birth control you are using, none of them are 100% full proof(other than abstinence of course). You must always be open to the possibility that you may conceive a child. If you aren't “open” to that than keep your legs “closed”.

[redgolum]

The traditional Lutheran stance (and for that matter the traditional Christian stance) on contraception is that it is ultimately bad for the marriage bed and for the souls of those involved. Few pastors, or priests, preach that anymore. Though in some place it is still common.

[narses]

“The pill/a condom aren’t anywhere near abortion and its almost laughable to suggest.”

Why do you conflate barrier contraception (one evil) with hormonal contraception?

Why do you deny that hormonal contraception is an abortificant?

[mlizzy]

Pill Ping!

[count-your-change]

I wasn’t familiar with Pious V’s comment but I do recall Paul’s to the Galatians, “A little leaven ferments the whole lump”. (5:9)

[mlizzy]

Pill Ping II!

[boatbums]

Our daily faithfulness to God's perfect plan for sexuality and marriage through the rosary and sacraments is the only way to reclaim the culture and our nation. Only by using these gifts can we help bring about a countercultural comeback of chastity and the family.

I know this is a Roman Catholic organization, but Christians of other "flocks" still under the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, must be included in this fight as we are just as strongly pro-life. Is there anyway the "Catholic Church-specific" language of battle can be curtailed some? I don't say the rosary or receive the Catholic sacraments, but I am just as fierce an advocate for life and the return to its sanctity and that of marriage as our Heavenly Father designed it as anyone can be. You would have many more join in the fight if it didn't appear to be such a "Catholic" issue. No offense intended here.

[Mrs. Frogjerk]

When a woman is prescribed the pill, they are never told that it can act as an abortificant. Doctors should at least be legally obligated to say this, but they aren’t.

If you feel that abortion should be illegal, than why do you feel any differently about the pill. Once the sperm meets the egg, the human child is formed. All of the child’s DNA is present. If that child cannot attach to the uterine wall, it will die and be aborted. What is the difference.

I had taken the pill a long time ago(not proud of this) and was told nothing. I was given a prescription and sent on my merry way. May God forgive me for any children of mine that were lost because of this. The guilt of this follows me like an albatross. No woman should have to deal with this. But most importantly, no child should lose it’s young life this way.

[narses]

“You would have many more join in the fight if it didn’t appear to be such a “Catholic” issue.”

Sorry, we are Catholic.

[Mrs. Frogjerk]

I understand what you are saying.

Are there any Christian organizations that include varying faiths in regards to the fight against abortion? If not there should be.

The more of us fighting together the better. National Right to life is a great organization. I’m not sure if they are all Catholic though? But either way, if the Protestants wanted to join in the fight with the Catholic’s they would be most welcome.

God bless you for your faith in our Lord and for your caring of those most innocent!

[boatbums]

The character of children reflects the character of society, not the number of children per family.

That was an excellent statement! There has always been illicit sex, illegitimate children, divorce, abortion, and abandonment, but never before has it been as rampant as now!

[boatbums]

But hey, you play you pay. We all know how babies are made.

Quite true! I had a best friend who became pregnant twice while she was using birth control pills, my mother claims she and dad used the Rhythm Method - but still had five kids, my dad got a vasectomy - but fathered two more sons after wards (with his second wife)!

People also forget that condoms are not 100% effective in preventing pregnancy and much less so in preventing STDs. Respect for life and our God-given part in producing that life should be taught from the cradle and up. Our "culture of death" in large part started in the '60s when birth control and uninhibited sex really took off. We are reaping the consequences still to this day!