UK shock: Two-thirds of women who abort are using contraception
by Kelli
Figures from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) reveal that a staggering two-thirds of women having an abortion were using a contraceptive at the time they conceived.
“Ultimately women cannot control their fertility through contraception alone, and need accessible abortion services as a back-up for when their contraception lets them down,” said Ann Furedi [pictured], BPAS’ chief executive, in a press release.
BPAS looked at the contraceptive use of 156,751 women aged 15 and over visiting its clinics for an abortion between January 2011 and December 2013.
“Two thirds (66%) of women having an abortion at bpas reported using a form of contraception when they conceived. 40% of these say they were using the contraceptive pill, the most popular prescribed contraceptive in the UK,” the abortion organization stated in a report titled “Women trying hard to avoid unwanted pregnancy.”…
Furedi tried to downplay the failure behind contraception. “An unintended pregnancy is often a happy accident,” she said in a press release. “Contraception fails and sometimes we fail to use it properly. In our experience women are trying hard to avoid unwanted pregnancy, or sometimes vastly underestimate their own fertility.”
Furedi’s statement on abortion as a solution for failed contraception echoes those of Joyce Arthur, founder and executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, who admitted last year that “[m]ost abortions result from failed contraception.”
~ Peter Baklinski, LifeSiteNews.com, February 5
[Photo via thetimes.co.uk]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
It doesn’t surprise me. The contraceptive mentality leads a lot of the ‘personally against’ abortion but think it should be legal self prescribed pro-life people to choose to kill their babies anyway and call it a form of ‘backup contraception’. If they respected their bodies in the first place they wouldn’t be ingesting these high doses of hormones to begin with.
Crickets from the folks who suggest there’s no major link between contraception and abortion?
Crickets from those who think contraception is so highly effective?
Crickets from those who say abortion is not a backup for contraception?
2/3 of aborting women were using contraception. That’s really, really significant.
You want my tax money to pay for products which 40% of post-abortive women say they’ve used??! And you think natural family planning is not worth promoting??
We “extreme” pro-lifers could save y’all a lot of money and sorrow and lo, we don’t even care about your sex lives.
Is it just me or does that woman have kind of a “so, there!” look in her eyes?
The response to this will have to be MORE contraception, MORE “safe sex” talks,(start in preschool)MORE education, MORE “back up contraception.”(ABORTION!)
Keep doing what you’ve always done and get what you’ve always gotten.
INSANITY!!!
mmm. Again, I think the major issue here is a heart issue. If you’re engaging in sex, you need to be at least ready to be pregnant for nine months before you release for adoption. You need to consider the possibility that what you’re doing leads to babies. People put false hopes in contraception – they believe the lie that it’s 100% effective. (Indeed I have a son and a niece who were created thanks to a ‘fail’)
If you’re having sex with a person, there is a chance that you will make a baby with that person. Is he or she someone you’d want to raise a child with?
However. I don’t think we ought to lambast all contraception ever ever ever and force all people to do NFP or whatever. I think there’s a time and a place and I honestly believe that it is a heart issue.
Hi Libertybelle,
I have this problem: what you describe as a heart issue (as opposed to a ‘hard’ intellectual issue means that ‘morally-soft’ issues are dismissible/irrelevant-to-anyone-but-ME’. Then this ‘soft-thinking’ leads from sex being a nonchalant activity, to the LIFE of a child be irrelevant.
We in-PL land yap and yap about how precious life is, but actually fail miserably to take-care-of-OUR-OWN-NUTRITION-needs (or stop-smoking) to prevent premature suffering and death. Or is this a problem for nerds-only, a ‘heart’ issue too?
I think we PL fail because we speak as if LIFE/rights were ‘head’ issues, and not overwhelmonly ‘heart’ issues.
It is not lambasting if 40% of the women surveyed were on the pill. That should be totally unacceptable to birth control advocates, and everyone whose money is wasted on such products.
“We’re not selling a cream for spots; we’re selling hope!” -How to get ahead in advertising
Two-thirds of women seeking abortion were using contraception.
40% of those were using the Pill.
So… One-quarter of women seeking abortions were on the Pill.
I just wonder if they were using the Pill, etc., correctly and on a consistent basis.
“Crickets from the folks who suggest there’s no major link between contraception and abortion? ”
No, the statistics don’t follow that at all and it’s disingenuous and/or ignorant to pretend that they do. Most people use/have used contraception. The vast majority of sexually active women use contraception, the majority of women do not have abortions. The only way these statistics could support that contraception is a “major link” to abortion is if most people who used contraception got abortions, which is blatantly not true. What’s a “major link” to abortion is people getting pregnant when they are not ready or with someone’s baby that they don’t want to have a baby with. You can take away all the contraception and that will still exist.
“Crickets from those who say abortion is not a backup for contraception?”
This doesn’t follow from those stats either. Plenty of people use contraception and never abort if they have an unplanned pregnancy. Plenty of PRO-LIFERS use contraception and would never dream of aborting. The only way this would make sense as a casual factor is if people who didn’t use contraception rarely or never aborted after an unplanned pregnancy, and people who used contraception did. That’s not what is going on here.
Like LibertyBelle said, it’s a heart issue. People need to be educated that trying to prevent pregnancy doesn’t always work, and that once the baby is here he or she doesn’t get killed, period. Tangents on contraception not only make the pro-life movement look backwards, they don’t even hit the issue where it’s important.
“I just wonder if they were using the Pill, etc., correctly and on a consistent basis.”
Most likely not. But the actual facts don’t seem to matter sometimes. Perfect use the pill is actually really effective, typical use not nearly as much. Other contraceptives/barrier methods/etc are even more dramatic. I do think there’s a point that people have to stop overstating the effectiveness, because even though with perfect use it’s very effective, people don’t use things perfectly.
Ardent abortion supporters openly admit that abortion is a backup for failed contraception. It is not a backup that many choose, as is the case for most prolifers using contraception, but many also do choose to have their unanticipated child killed when contraception fails.
The only ones unwilling to accept this are some prolifers who have a personal attachment to contraception. Now, honestly, that’s disingenuous.
Yeah it’s a back up for those people, but that doesn’t mean abortion is inherently a back up for contraception failure. Some people see euthanasia as a back up for chemo failing to kill cancer, that doesn’t make euthanasia inherently a back up for chemotherapy. Two different things.
There is nothing wrong with thinking contraception is damaging or immoral, but I am tired of false and sweeping statements. They certainly don’t help make people see what’s wrong with abortion IMO.
The push for more and more contraception, more and more sex whenever and however you like it without natural, biological consequences is what is backward. It’s taking us backwards, away from real love and real care. And chemicals are really hurting women overall.
But shhhh. Don’t question the status quo or you’re called a prude. Question everything about big pharma except fake hormonal pills for lifestyle. That’s plain old craziness. I’m sick of having contraception pushed on me, a poor helpless woman who must take a pill full of crap that often doesn’t even do what it’s supposed to do so I can be sexually available to men. I take the health risks and consequences. That’s progressive?! I don’t think so.
Totally agreed with Carla. The answer by those who don’t have eyes to see is MORE of a failed solution. Insanity unfortunately carries the day in large segments of our current culture.
Contraception users and pro-choice to kill babies are both all about the development reduction.
Aaaaaaaand here we go again.
Contraception is not exclusively hormonal pills!! Ugh.
And many people choose abortion when they have sex without contraception at all. The willingness to kill a baby is different from the ability to prevent babies from happening.
You might be sick of people “pushing contraception on you” (which they’re not) but I’m sick of pro-lifers claiming other pro lifers who want to try to prevent pregnancies and control the amount of children they have akin to pro abortion people. That is not only wrong but harmful to the movement.
Even if zero people used contraception, we’d still have abortion because about half the country doesn’t see unborn humans as people, that’s where the issue is coming from, not because people try to plan their families. I don’t want anymore biological children but that doesn’t mean I’d ever be okay with someone aborting an unplanned baby of mine. And most pro-lifers who are okay with or don’t hate contraception don’t “push” contraception, want “more and more sex”, or anything of the sort, I think we would all agree that promiscuity and the hook up culture is a bad idea, it’s not a good idea to lump everyone together.
And if you don’t want contraception than don’t take it, that parts easy. I don’t see why anyone would care if you do or not. It’s simply getting really old to see contraception users constantly conflated with pro-aborts or those who abort their children, when it’s not remotely true. They are separate moral issues,
You might be sick of people “pushing contraception on you” (which they’re not)
Uh, HHS mandate? At the very least, “they” are forcing me to pay for it, which is nearly as bad.
And Mary Anne none of us want the “status quo”. Every single one of us hates abortion and wants it to end, and I believe most people are worried about the damage the hook up culture does to young people (and even older people). But that still doesn’t mean contraception=abortion and it’s not fair to many, many contraception users to conflate them.
JoAnna you’ll find all the pro-lifers who are okay with or don’t hate contraception are against eh HHS mandate. Which has little to do with contraception and a lot to do with infringement of religious liberty.
I would wager that most women in their reproduction years do in fact have contraception pushed on them. By the medical field, not so much by other prolifers. It’s at every checkup, ad nauseam.
HHS mandate is a form of direct coercion. Also true, Joanna.
Oh for heaven’s sake.
I don’t know where you go to the doctor, but I have to been to many different types of offices in different states at different stages of my life and have *never* been “pushed” to have contraception. Ever. They asked what my plan was, and if I wanted information. Occasionally the doctor would just tell me all the options and give me pamphlets for all of them. But to me that’s not pushing. I got info on NFP, DepVera, the Pill, etc. All the options. Isn’t that what doctors are supposed to do? And before I was married and told them I wasn’t sexually active, I was told to be careful and that that was a wise choice. Even if they doubted me they didn’t push me to be on anything.
The biggest problem like Jack said is that people abort and kill children. The hookup culture is bad. But there is an enormous difference between people who want to plan their families and people who will do anything to not get pregnant (ie aborting a child).
I do trust God with my family. Just like I trust Him with my health. But that doesn’t mean I don’t take reasonable steps to be healthy/have the amount of kids I want. Because how wrong is it to want to enjoy the unitive aspect of sex and have a rockin marriage and not want to go through the trauma of birth anytime soon?
Oh my gosh. Did I say “trauma” of birth? Yes. I did. It was not pleasant and I personally need more time to heal and recover mentally as well as physically. Not everyone is cut out to produce legions of children and I honestly think that that is okay.
Can we just agree that there can be some nuance in the prolife movement about contraception? Please?
We seriously have got to stop conflating everyone who uses contraception with people who have abortions. It must stop.
Now, if you want to tell the women honestly that contraception is not 100% effective, fine. If you want to talk about the dangers of too many hormones, okay fine. But realize that there are many ways to contracept and they don’t all use hormones that mess with your body.
Babies need to stop being killed. Women need to stop being lied to. We need to spread hope. That ought to be our mission.
And no, I don’t agree with HHS mandate. It is evil. But that’s a religious liberty/economic policy. And yes, a moral one. I don’t want to fund someone else’s abortion or even birth control because that *is* a personal choice. And I would never dream of asking, say, Catholics to pay for my contraception.
phillymiss says:
February 6, 2014 at 2:41 pm
I just wonder if they were using the Pill, etc., correctly and on a consistent basis.
Doctors prescribe the pills, and then forget about the woman. Birth control pills come in different strengths and formulations…. not every one is right for every woman.
Some women’s bodies overcome the hormones, and pregnancy occurs.
Sometimes the hormones overwhelm the woman’s body, and she has difficulty restoring fertility and conceiving when she wants to have a child.
Sometimes the woman’s body has adverse reactions to the hormones — resulting in strokes, embolisms, and even cancer many years later.
And then there is the real-world concern of not using the medicine properly. We must resist the temptation to blame the woman. The doctor said that these pills would prevent pregnancy, and then she relied on the doctor and the pills. The fact that she sometimes forgot a pill did not cause her to lose trust in the doctor and his medicine.
Let us remember that Abby Johnson got pregnant three times (and aborted two of those children) while she was on Planned Parenthood programs, and even while she was teaching other women how to use the medications properly.
If you’ve never been pressured to use contraception, then you are extremely fortunate, LB. The day after I gave birth to my first child, my OB came into my hospital room and woke me up to ask my what type of birth control pill I preferred, so she could write a prescription (even though we’d discussed this before). I replied, “None. We prefer to use Natural Family Planning to space pregnancies.” Her response: “Well, you know that doesn’t really work.” (The sad thing is that she was allegedly Catholic.) I went to a different care provider for my next two pregnancies, and when we moved to a different state I took care to find an OB who was informed about and supportive of NFP.
You should also check out some of the posts here: http://myobsaidwhat.com/category/birth-control/ for more examples of how medical professionals will pressure women to take contraception, even if they’ve indicated that they choose not to do so.
I also participating in a combox discussion the other day where several atheists commenters informed me that I, as a Catholic woman, was actively being oppressed because of the Catholic Church’s teachings regarding contraception. One commenter compared Catholic women to FLDS women (as in, he believed we were brainwashed and trapped in a cult). The fact that I would choose of my own free will to not be on contraception was mystifying to them.
“Oh my gosh. Did I say “trauma” of birth? Yes. I did. It was not pleasant and I personally need more time to heal and recover mentally as well as physically. Not everyone is cut out to produce legions of children and I honestly think that that is okay”
LibertyBelle, You said you couldn’t really handle the ‘trauma’ of another kid at this time. Then you should really do a little less rockin’ and a little more planning so you don’t hurt yourself.
LibBelle, maybe it’s just where I am in CA, but believe me, contraception is more pushed than merely offered. And most docs I’ve spoken with are totally ignorant about NFP today, still calling it “rhythm method”, etc. So I’m pleasantly surprised to hear that info on NFP was given to you.
I take issue with your statement that-
“We seriously have got to stop conflating everyone who uses contraception with people who have abortions. It must stop.”
Not everyone who uses contraception has abortions. No one is saying that. No one. The fact remains that many contraception users do abort, which is why this post about the British figures are so sad.
I would agree with you that there can be nuance within the prolife community. I also agree that there are other types of contraceptives that do not have fake hormones or abortifacient properties.
I also think you may be being defensive, and that perhaps- perhaps- your personal connection with contraception is contributing to the idea that prolifers who do not support contraception claim that everyone who uses aborts. They don’t, and it is false and devisive to suggest that.
“Not everyone who uses contraception has abortions. No one is saying that. No one. The fact remains that many contraception users do abort, which is why this post about the British figures are so sad. ”
MOST people use contraception, not just those who abort. I’m actually quite surprised that only 30% or so of those who had abortions were using contraception,, because upwards of 60% of people use contraception regularly, and most people have used it at one point. The reason LibertyBelle and I get annoyed by this is because people are trying to make a casuality that isn’t there. It’s not even to the point of correlation. It’s bad statistics and we know exactly what people are saying. “Contraceptive mentality” “a big factor in abortion” “abortion is the back up for contraception” etc. Y’all can’t say things like that and expect people to not take it the way we are. It’s not false and divisive to call you guys out on bad statistics and conflating things without evidence.
I think it quite telling you’re all ignoring the 30% of people who did not use contraception and had abortions. Quite telling. Especially as those percentages reflect the general population and would suggest that using contraception has little to no effect on who aborts or not.
only 30% of those *weren’t using contraception, sorry. My hands went faster than my head in that comment lol.
Jack, it was the head of the BPAS who said that abortion should be available as “a back up” for contraception because contraception fails. See the quote above. It’s now the pro-choicers who are admitting that contraception fails, and fails often. And they see abortion as a natural extension of that contraception.
However, I do agree that the problem is one of the heart. Some people who use contraception think they have a right to zero children, even if they’ve conceived them already. Others who use contraception do not feel that way and would never abort an already conceived life.
“Jack, it was the head of the BPAS who said that abortion should be available as “a back up” for contraception because contraception fails. See the quote above. It’s now the pro-choicers who are admitting that contraception fails, and fails often. And they see abortion as a natural extension of that contraception.”
Yeah and they are wrong about that too, just as much as pro-lifers are wrong when they argue that. If Reality or another of our resident pro-aborts wanna come here and argue that I’ll argue with them too lol. I think they are separate issues and the pro-choicers conflate them for obvious reasons (they want abortion to be seen as morally acceptable and equivalent to choosing to contracept). The anti-contraception pro-lifers try to equate them as well for various reasons. Don’t like it when either side does it.
“However, I do agree that the problem is one of the heart. Some people who use contraception think they have a right to zero children, even if they’ve conceived them already. Others who use contraception do not feel that way and would never abort an already conceived life.”
I do agree with this and I will add that the pro-choice mindset of “owed no children” isn’t limited to contraception users. They also think you’re “owed no children” if you have a one night stand when you didn’t have a condom or if you otherwise forgo contraception. It’s the mindset of children’s lives being less important than adult wants that’s the problem, not the pill or condoms or any of the neutral tools that people use to try and achieve their goals. I think it takes away from the seriousness and awfulness of abortion for people to focus so much on contraception when it’s a certain attitude that’s the problem. Certainly me or any other pro-lifer who used any type of contraception were never thought we were “owed no children”, even if we were attempting to space our families. It’s about the mindset, not the means.
“And then there is the real-world concern of not using the medicine properly. We must resist the temptation to blame the woman. The doctor said that these pills would prevent pregnancy, and then she relied on the doctor and the pills. The fact that she sometimes forgot a pill did not cause her to lose trust in the doctor and his medicine.”
You’re almost treating women like children here. Women are not stupid and I haven’t really met any that blindly trust every single thing doctors say. If my doctor says, “take these antibiotics, make sure you don’t take them on an empty stomach and make sure you finish the entire regimen”, and I don’t do that… it’s not really “blaming” me if I take them incorrectly and end up getting nauseous from taking them on an empty stomach or if I get the infection back worse because I didn’t finish out the regimen. It’s just honest that I caused them to not be as effective as they should be or I caused them to harm me. There’s problems on both sides, of people not taking their medications properly and people not being properly informed of the reality. I do know women who weren’t specifically warned that antibiotic use can interfere with hormonal contraception, for example, and lo and behold they got pregnant when they were on antibiotics.
So there’s an issue with doctors both overstating the effectiveness of contraceptives and not being very clear with the possible harms (I haven’t heard about many doctors mention the heightened risk of breast cancer though they usually emphasize the risk of stroke if you’re over 35 and/or smoke), and the things that can interfere with contraception (even barrier methods can fail if used improperly, condoms used with certain lubricants or spermicide can degrade, and they have an expiration date). But people are people, and people do not use medications correctly quite often. It should be strongly emphasized that if you choose this method of birth control (whichever it might be), these are the possible harms, these are the things that can reduce effectiveness, and these are the things you shouldn’t do when taking them. It’s not all evil doctors not informing people, people also need to take responsibility for their own medication use. That’s part of the reason I think it’s absolutely terrible that teen girls can get hold of hormonal birth control so easily, teens aren’t really known for responsible medication usage.
I think some people don’t see hormonal birth control as a medication when it really is, got some powerful chemicals in there and shouldn’t be treated as lightly as it is, by doctors or users.
That’s part of the reason I think it’s absolutely terrible that teen girls can get hold of hormonal birth control so easily
Me too. And we should be holding these ‘docs’ accountable.
Well I think it’s hard to hold doctors accountable when it’s the culture and legal setup that encourages it. County health gives out free birth control to teens, in both the states I’ve lived in so I assume it’s the same in other states. A lot of people see it as a “lesser of two evils” situation, let the kids have birth control because they are going to have sex anyway. I think it goes much deeper than just some doctors writing out scrips to teens, gotta do something about the culture that not only accepts teen promiscuity as a given, it legally allows kids to get hold of medications and such without parental consent just because it involves sex. I don’t really know what could fix it.
Mary Ann: Crickets from the folks who suggest there’s no major link between contraception and abortion?
Well, no crickets here, Mary Ann. :P Why not talk about it? ;)
It stands to reason that people using contraception will often have abortions if they become pregnant. As far as a “major link,” the same thing is being achieved – somebody does not want to be pregnant. Preventing the pregnancy does that. Abortion ends the pregnancy. In both cases, the person ends up not pregnant, which was what was wanted in the first place.
____
Crickets from those who think contraception is so highly effective?
Many of those British women are having only one abortion. They might use contraception hundreds and hundreds of times in a row, only to have it fail one time later on. It’s not like “contraception does not work,” it’s just that it is not absolutely guaranteed, every time, over hundreds and thousands of trials.
Again, these are women who don’t want to be pregnant. Without contraception, you’d be seeing a lot more abortions.
____
Crickets from those who say abortion is not a backup for contraception?
Who is saying that? It’s not always a backup for contraception, but obviously it can be.
Sorry if I was a little touchy earlier. There’s a ton of stuff going on right now. I should have stayed out of the contraception debate. Thanks as always to Jack for saying it better than I could.
And people have actually said on this and other threads that people who use contraception are not better than those who have abortions or at least contribute to the problem. that’s what I take issue with.
“And people have actually said on this and other threads that people who use contraception are not better than those who have abortions … ”
I have read this as well on other threads. It is beyond offensive. Life begins at conception, not before. Contraception (if it’s truly contraception of course) is not murder. Even if contraception is wrong for other reasons, it is not “just as bad as” (rough quote) abortion. All sin is equally damning but it does not have equal consequences. That’s where pro-lifers lose their credibility.
LibertyBelle ~ Hope you are doing ok. Blessings to you and your family!
The best contraception is abstinence. There! I said it!
Thanks, lifejoy!
Life’s a journey. Just a hard part. :)
I have shared with teens who say “I think I should go on b/c. what do you think?”
”This is a very important decision for you to make and I am so glad that you are thinking about what you should do. No one can make this decision for you. It is a very important choice you are considering, one that can change your life.
Do you know how b/c works? (I let them answer if they can). I encourage you to look it up. Basically b/c puts hormones into your body to stop you from ovulating. Do you know that anything powerful enough to stop a healthy female menstrual cycle-in other words ovulation-which is a perfectly normal female body function that your body is intended to go through every month-that puts your body into a psuedo-pregnant state has to be a powerful chemical hormone. Please don’t take my word for it-read the entire package insert-read the action of the drug, the list of potential side-effects, contraindications, etc. Better yet sit down with your boyfriend and read it together. Ask the person who wants to have sex with you- what if I have these side effects are you still going to be with me? What if I still get pregnant on this drug what will you want me to do about it (discuss the 3 options for pregnancy)- are you going to still be with me? (Yes I let her know guys can lie to get sex-not all lie though). Did you know hormonal b/c does not prevent STDs? Did you know condoms may reduce risk but do not eliminate risk of STDs or pregnancy? Did you know b/c and condoms don’t protect your heart, your mind or your spirit from the consequences of sex? Please come back and let’s discuss this further.”
Some blow me off, I am not angry at them and I still love them regardless. Abstinence/chastity still the only 100% protection and risk elimination tool, there are teens hungry for this message that want to know that they are so valuable they are worth waiting for. I know teens and young adults who are waiting and did wait for marriage, it can be done.
Deluded One,
The reason so many people assume homosexuals are more likely to be pedophiles and heterosexuals are not is because homosexuality is sexually deviant behavior. I am not saying homosexuals are more likely to be pedophiles, I am just trying to explain to explain to you ‘why’ so you can better understand it.
This is the wrong thread truthseeker, please copy paste your answer to the right thread and I’ll answer you: https://www.jillstanek.com/2014/02/catholic-hospitals-dispensing-contraceptives/#comment-477209