Weekend question
Do you think the contraception issue is a component of the abortion issue, or are pro-lifers who “go there” over the top?
Aug.20, 2005 2:29 pm |
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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.
Well since often abortion is the result of backup contraception I don’t see how anybody can not make the connection. It is over the top to ignore how the contraceptive attitude leads to more abortions.
Someone who is contracepting who becomes pregnant already has the attitude of not welcoming a new life and the word contraception itself means “against life.”
So even leaving behind the moral problems of contraception (of which I as a Catholic totally accept and fully believe) it should be obvious to anybody that is against abortion that the contraceptive attitude in and of itself strongly disposes someone to considering abortion when contraception fails. And this does not even adress the fact that contraceptives such as the IUD and the pill and others can act as abortafacients.
A Few Weekend Pro-Life Posts
Do you think the contraception issue is a component of the abortion issue, or are pro-lifers who “go there” over the top? – Jill Stanek Both the AMA and the American Academy of Family Physicians encourage intentional elective abortion in…
So long as the contraception isn’t also an abortafacient, like some forms of the pill, I have no problem with it. I, personally, don’t look at abortion as contraception, but I know that a lot of poor-choicers do. So in that vein, yes, it is going to come up in most discussions, but i think it’s a mistake to lump abortion and all contraception together.
BTW, Jeff I’m going to have to disagree with you regarding the person who uses contraception being against life/ more inclined to abort. While I support abstinance before marriage, after marriage I think that contraception is a crackerjack idea. (again, exclusive of abortion)
I have a friend, we’ll call her “Z”. (she comes around here often and I know she doesn’t mind me using her as an example, but I’m not comfortable with sharing her name.) She had her first born, in highschool, after using a condom. (yes, correctly. She had the oh-so-helpful banana lesson.) She did *not* abort.
Soon before her first was born she became a follower of Christ. A few years later she married, and got on the pill. (at the time she didn’t know anything about the pill, and her doctor only told her that it would prevent ovulation, not that it would prevent implantation.) She got pregnant again four months into the marriage, while still on the pill. She and her hubby made enough to qualify for food stamps at the time. Her husband had a disability and the docs decided at that point that he would require surgery to solve a growing problem. Literally at the same time he was in the hospital the doctors discovered an illness in her that would require her to be on bedrest, constant blood work, IV’s, etc. (yes, I’m being vague on purpose. If she wants to she can chime in and clarify. Or she can email me and I’ll clarify.) Anyway- she did not abort her second child either. BUT they did get a vasectomy soon after. That seems to be the only form of contraception that actually worked. (at least so far. Z? ;oD )
Anyway, my point is that our friend here has always been very, very pro life. Not at all inclined to abort when her contraception failed. I do realize that this is only an example, and that statistics would serve better here. Unfortunately the stats that I’ve seen regarding the number of people who abort who also used contraception is shakey at best. (even though it did say the majority used abortion as their only form of “contraception”.)
It’s a related issue. I’ve seen prolifers take pretty solid pro-contraception stands and pretty solid anti-contraception stands.
I think there’s a lot of wisdom to the anti-contraception stand of the Catholic Church, but that’s where we start crossing the line between protecting the innocent from those who want to kill them and into the realm of trying to protect people from themselves.
As for abortifacient “contraceptives,” they’re a touchy area. The intent isn’t to kill a person you already know exists, so it’s not exactly the same moral issue. It’s more like putting a mine field in your yard, versus sitting on the porch and shooting intruders.
As a political issue, curbing contraception is a loser.
I think if the fact that the pill is linked to abortions and that it was dangerous to the woman taking it most woman would stop taking it on their own. And they would be furious that we were lied to.
History, history, history . . .
Abortion is nothing other than the result of the legalization of contraception. Margaret Sanger and her work for contraception led directly, intentionally and decisively to abortion. It was only in 1930 with the Lambeth conference that some Christians decided to abandon total opposition to contraception. We will never win the war against abortion unless we learn from this history and fight to root cause of abortion . . . contraception and the concomitant contraceptive mentality.
Josephine I have not found that to be true. When I tell my christian friends about the abortifacient properties of the pill they simply refuse to believe. They think I am “one of those christians”. I have given them articles, web links, copies of pill inserts, etc…again they don’t want kids and the pill prevents them. It is a heart attitude. They have the same attitude as the women that get abortions do. I know that seems harsh but why is it ok that women use the pill because “they can’t afford a baby” and it is not ok for a woman to have an abortion for the same reason? I have yet to have a pro-contraception christian be able to answer this question.
Mandi,
I know I have had the same thing happen. What I am talking about is the media. Noone believes those little papers because they have heard otherwise. Now I do agree that there are people who just will not hear you. Its that simple, they want what they want and what they want is to kill(wether they call it that or not) in order to not be pregnant. This is why you have so many christians at the clinics. They say they are prolife but dammit they tried to prevent this and they deserve a way out. I do believe that if there were total honesty about the pill and there was no way of denying it anymore then some would stop and the others would just have to admit they are all for killing. And it is true that you wont stop abortion without stopping contraception. Its the mentality that keeps those friends from listening to you and gets them to the clinic when thier BC fails. I am actually new to christianity but there is a verse in the bible where Christ is seperating people and they cry out Jesus Jesus and he says I never knew you.. God and Christ do not give death. Its that simple.
A link discussing the subject of the historic church position on contraception:
Why Did God Kill Onan? Luther, Calvin, Wesley, C.S. Lewis, & Others on Contraception:
http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2004_02_08_socrates58_archive.html#107637888088186961
You will also note that these protestant church fathers used very strong language, I don’t think it would be too far off to call it a form of sodomy. Which is part of the irony that many christians call for a dissolvable, sterile, selfish, for pleasure only “marriage”, but not for gays. I seem to have trouble following the reasoning.
The late 1800s Comstock laws banned pornography, abortion, and contraception, and it wasn’t even thought of that they were disconnected.
Pope Paul VI in humanae vitae explained the contraceptive mentality and what it would lead to (even if you aren’t a catholic it is worth a read, as is casti conubii “the chaste marriage” – written in 1930 in response to the anglicans saying it was ok – google for encyclicals or by title).
Somehow treating potential children like potential typhus or cholera doesn’t seem like a Christian attitude.