Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Birth Control, Contraception Don’t Stop Abortion, Help Women
Life News ^ | 8/19/11 | Kristan Hawkins

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortio; abortion; contraception; moralabsolutes; prolife
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 721-732 next last
To: UCANSEE2
Aborting the baby may lead to the breasts producing unfully developed milk that just sits in the breast and leads to what we call 'cancer' (when more cells die than are created).

I never heard about "unfully developed milk" causing cancer in medical school, and frankly, it sounds more than a bit strange. Where is the medical research that backs up this statement?

41 posted on 08/20/2011 3:59:39 PM PDT by sometime lurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: sometime lurker; UCANSEE2

Post 27.


42 posted on 08/20/2011 4:03:41 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: DJ MacWoW
Birth control is actually a marxist idea

Actually, birth control as an idea way predates marxism. By about 4000 years.

43 posted on 08/20/2011 4:04:17 PM PDT by sometime lurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: sometime lurker

Watch the link I posted. Please. My comment had little to do with history. If you are really a conservative you need the info in that movie.


44 posted on 08/20/2011 4:06:26 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: trisham

Your so sorry about what?
It is the same usual people here, who post the same predictable threads. It is also funny, that as soon as someone disagrees with these people, you all gang up on the person immediately. It is almost like your life is the computer. I really should feel sorry for you.
It is summer, go outside and have some fresh air. I am going to do just that.
Also,I do not believe in abortion, but when you put BCPs in the same category, it makes you all look like zealots.


45 posted on 08/20/2011 4:07:24 PM PDT by kaila
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: kaila; luckystarmom
When did conservatism jump the shark from anti-abortion to anti-birth control? The names you have called these troglodytes pale compared to the things I want to call these blithering idiots.

The positions I read here quickly reconcile one to Harry Reid even if he does want to tax the middle class into oblivion.

This is political suicide.

46 posted on 08/20/2011 4:07:48 PM PDT by AndyJackson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: kaila
I'm sorry that at some time in the future you may, I hope, realize how wrong you were about this issue.

I wonder what caused you to come to this place?

47 posted on 08/20/2011 4:12:14 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: AndyJackson
You worship Margaret Sanger and her ilk. I'll pass.

Agenda - Grinding Down America

America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within. - Joseph Stalin

"Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society." Antonio Gramsci - Marxist - teacher of Saul Alinsky

48 posted on 08/20/2011 4:15:55 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

The death trolls are out in droves today. No worries, though. All the pro-BCP types will be out this Saturday night naiively & stupidly making sex objects out of themselves for men.

But don’t worry - power to the women /s


49 posted on 08/20/2011 4:17:35 PM PDT by surroundedbyblue (Live the message of Fatima - pray & do penance!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: surroundedbyblue
Unfortunately, you are correct.
50 posted on 08/20/2011 4:19:38 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: surroundedbyblue
death trolls are out in droves today

Well, now we have settled the issue of which side is name-calling here.

51 posted on 08/20/2011 4:25:07 PM PDT by AndyJackson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: surroundedbyblue; wagglebee; trisham

“Use a condom - kill a baby.” Have you gone insane? This is political suicide. You just handed the country to Reid lock stock and barrel.


52 posted on 08/20/2011 4:27:39 PM PDT by AndyJackson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: trumandogz

“Life begins an conception and any pill...”

When God’s blessings are judged a negative,
composition of soul is soon laid bare.

Where life’s deemed not our Creator’s to give,
the god of Convenience gleans sacrifice to spare.


53 posted on 08/20/2011 4:27:59 PM PDT by BuddhaBrown (Path to enlightenment: Four right turns, then go straight until you see the Light!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: AndyJackson; surroundedbyblue; trisham
“Use a condom - kill a baby.” Have you gone insane? This is political suicide. You just handed the country to Reid lock stock and barrel.

Where has ANYONE on this thread suggested making contraception illegal?

Most teenagers have premarital sex, do you think conservatives should abandon support for abstinence programs?

54 posted on 08/20/2011 4:35:58 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: miss marmelstein
As far as I know, the only contraceptive that is effective, without health risks, is the condom - if used by responsible, married couples.

You did read that the folks you are supporting even oppose the use of condoms? You did know that before you jumped in to support them, didn't you?

55 posted on 08/20/2011 4:37:44 PM PDT by AndyJackson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: DJ MacWoW; EnglishCon; UCANSEE2
Aborting the baby may lead to the breasts producing unfully developed milk that just sits in the breast and leads to what we call 'cancer' (when more cells die than are created).

I'm sorry to say the medical literature I find don't support this statement. (And linking to a poster's bare statement is not the same as citing the specific research or article supporting the claim.)

"Pre Milk" is also called colostrum, which starts being produced during the second trimester of pregnancy (week 13 to week 28). Searching PubMed for articles on cancer and colostrum, I don't find any in the first 3 pages saying that colostrum contributes to cancer. I find some suggesting the opposite: Curr Protein Pept Sci. 2009 Aug;10(4):308-38. Molecular and biotechnological advances in milk proteins in relation to human health.

Limiting the search to colostrum and breast cancer, I find 13 articles, none of which conclude that colostrum contributes to breast cancer.

If you have scientific support for this statement, I'd like to see it.

56 posted on 08/20/2011 4:39:55 PM PDT by sometime lurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: kaila
Birth control pills gave me a lot of freedom.

Reminds me of an editorial I read in Vogue magazine in the early 80s. I saw it at a friend's house, I never read it (then or now). I was quite surprised. The author - the then editor of Vogue - lauded the sexual liberation movement, which included of course birth control, because it gave women the freedom you describe. She glorified the freedom women now have to engage in casual sex - even one night stands, if they want - they can have recreational sex divorced from marriage and commitment, just as supposedly men have always been able to do.

57 posted on 08/20/2011 4:44:09 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: AndyJackson; wagglebee
Well, now we have settled the issue of which side is name-calling here.

Really?

Post 46 The names you have called these troglodytes pale compared to the things I want to call these blithering idiots.

58 posted on 08/20/2011 4:44:24 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: AndyJackson; wagglebee

To what post are you referring?


59 posted on 08/20/2011 4:45:36 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: sometime lurker; EnglishCon; UCANSEE2

All I know is that the link between breast cancer and abortion has been covered up.


60 posted on 08/20/2011 4:46:47 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 721-732 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson