How the Pill and other Contraceptives Work
Part A: How the pill works
The oral contraceptive pill, also known as the birth control pill, is currently being used by over 10 million women in the U.S. 1. A number of physicians and researchers have noted that the oral contraceptive pill (OCP) is actually an abortifacient (ie, an agent that causes an early abortion; specifically, any agent that causes death of the zygote, embryo, or fetus after conception has occurred). Others have stated that they do not believe the OCP is an abortifacient as noted in the recent publication (1998), written by several physicians entitled: Hormonal Contraceptives: Are they Abortifacients? 2
The ethical question of whether contraception is morally permissible has varied between the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches. Both agreed on the "sin of contraception" before 1930 3, whereas both differ in general on the issue today. This appendix will focus on the medical and technical aspects concerning the cited questions regarding the pill's abortifacient qualities.
In order to answer the question of whether the OCP causes early abortions, a number of basic questions need to be answered such as:
Q-A5A. What is an oral contraceptive pill (OCP) and how does it work?
posted by Sean at 5/22/2006 03:19:00 PM
12 Comments:
This is more of an aside for later, but I'm curious if there are medical reasons why some couples might not be able to practice NFP?
I want to know more about the topic before bringing it up, but I'd like to ask people on the Sojourn web site about this. It's a touchy topic, so I want to be sensitive about it. But I imagine most couples don't even consider NFP, if they've even heard of it before.
The interesting thing is that some couples use the pill, yet they still end up pregnant. Another interesting point I've learned is that more of the organic folks who shop at Whole Foods are going to NFP simply to be healthier.
And one more interesting thing is that...
just kidding, but I should try proofreading. That reads kinda corny (to me, anyway) :)
Good questions to look into. I don't think there are any medical reasons not to use NFP. If the method is used properly its extremely effective. It basically boils down to finding out when your wife is fertile (different methods exist), then don't have sex during the fertile time. It's really simple. I don't know why people go through all the crap with the pill when they could just do this. The truth is that we have lost a lot of identity. Women in general regarding this are not familiar enough with their own body to know these things. Its a lost art so to speak.
I've been thinking about bringing this up on the sojourn discussion board as well. but im goting to get really familiar with this before i do. It will be like going into the lions den. I need to know my resources really well. But those people really need to be enlightened on this subject. Birth control is rampant there. It's such a sad world view.
I also need to tell my brother and sister in law about this stuff. They currrently use b.c. pills.
I think most people think NFP is the old "rythm method" and that its not effective. Or that is just some old school catholic thing and that it obviously doesn't work because catholics have a lot of kids.
I look forward to our discussion in the future about this over at the sojourn board. Im glad we can at least both be in there.
goting ?
i need to proof read as well.
- in the book that we have about NFP it says, NFP doesn't stand for "Not For Protestants".
i thought that was pretty funny.
Here is a link to the talk "Contraception, Why Not?" by Janet Smith
this is the first resource we used. Josh and Katie gave us a tape of it.
It made a lot of sense to us, thats when we really started studying this topic.
anyway,
check it out
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0002.html
You can also get a free copy of this on cd here...
http://www.omsoul.com/category17.html
well... that link was to long.
I will put a link to it on the side of my blog under the resource section.
Also,
When we were is pre marriage counseling at sojourn we read a book called "Reforming Marriage" by Doug Wilson. In it he talks a little about using birth control. Some of the people that he is grouped togther with are against it as well.
It opened our eyes and made us question the whole thing a little more. But the common response from Sojourns leadership was, "God gives us wisdom to use things that are availible to us this day in age as a helpful resource, for example...he has now allowed us to cure certain diseases and given us certain medicines to keep us from getting sick. So we need to use the wisdom God gave us to use the medicine before we get sick or during the sickness in order to get better. It's the same when it comes to birth control."
The main presupposition in this reasoning is that pregnancy is a sickness that needs treated. Rather than a blessing that should be sought after and welcomed.
If you read enough medical stuff ie. insurance policies and medical spec sheets on birth control you will see this common presupposition.
In our society now Pregnancy is definately treated as a sickness.
I think Janet Smiths paper/talk goes into this.
I was wondering if there are some women whose cycles cannot be charted as accurately as would be necessary to know when to abstain from sex.
My cousin and his wife practice NFP. They also had an unexpected pregnancy after she had some kind of medical treatment, which apparently changed her cycle a little bit. Of course, they're happy about it. She was born about a month ago and asked me to be godfather, for which I need to work on my Italian accent.
Try cotton balls stuffed in the sides of your cheeks.
The book we have about NFP has a lot of different ways to tell if the woman is ovulating or beginning to ovulate. Its not just one method. It also has certain rules for not so normal cyles.
Cotton balls stuffed in the sides of your cheeks? Interesting...
Is that a joke? :)
for the godfather accent! not NFP.
ohhhh... I totally missed the boat on that one. I should've re-read my last post.
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