Birth Control Pills: The Hidden Truth
The Catholic Church recognizes the birth control pill as a form of contraception. Many doctors and drug companies call some of these pills “oral contraceptives,” when in fact they act as “oral abortifacients.” All too often the drug ‘kills off’ the embryo, perhaps only a few days old, causing an abortion-like effect (some drug examples are methotrexate, “emergency contraception” or “morning after pills”). The typical birth control pill prescribed is the standard low dose progesterone-based form, but according to some bioethicists, this pill, as well as progesterone only pills, are potential abortifacients.
There are 3 main ways the pill changes a woman’s fertility. One way is that it thickens her cervical mucus not allowing the sperm to get through, even though in some cases it does. The second way is that the pill suppresses ovulation, but in some cases a woman may still ovulate on the pill and produce an egg. In the case where the sperm makes it through the cervix, and an egg is produced through ovulation, the sperm has the potential to fertilize the egg becoming a zygote (first stage of a human being). The third way is that the pill alters the woman’s hormones causing the endometrium on the uterine wall to thin,(the uterine wall is where the zygote travels to begin nourishment and development) which jeopardizes the survival of the zygote. Even if the zygote survives the hormonal imbalance on its way to the uterine wall and makes it there, it will be difficult for the zygote to attach and be nourished because the endometrium is thin. This causes the zygote to die making the pill an abortifacient.[1]
The pill also causes over 150 physiological changes in the woman’s body that can cause negative side effects including breast, cervical and liver cancer, tumors, blood clots, strokes, infertility, depression, cramping, nausea, weight gain, decreased libido, mood swings, acne, osteoporosis, cerebral hemorrhage, heart attack, and a change in who women are attracted to due to a decrease of estrogen, which can contribute to dissatisfaction in long term relationships. Also, the Pill is classified as a carcinogen meaning it is a poison that causes cancer.[2]
At the beginning stages of the pill’s invention, the innovators went to the insane asylum, Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts, to test it on women classified as “psychotics” who were either not capable of truly consenting to the experiment or did not even know they were in clinical trials. They also tested it on a bigger scale with lower class women in Puerto Rico. Sadly, the women were not informed about the potential negative side effects because the people that launched the clinical trials (Margaret Sanger, Katharine McCormick, John Rock, and Gregory Pincus) knew it would almost be impossible for women to consent to being tested on with “poison.” Sadly, three women died due to the high dosage. Today, women take a lower dosage of that same “poison.”[3]
Also, research has shown that the hormone estrogen from the pill is transferred via woman’s urine into the water supply, which can cause defects and abnormalities to fish as well as infertility to human males for those who drink impure faucet water that contains estrogen.[4]
Many women take the pill to avoid pregnancy, but there are some who take it for other medical reasons. According to Catholic teaching, it is morally permissible to take the birth control pill for medical reasons. However, because the pill can be a potential abortifacient, couples should abstain from the sexual act if the woman is on it. What some may not know is that the pill does not ‘solve’ the problem that a woman may have with her fertility, but actually ‘suppresses’ it. If a woman stops taking the pill, the problem she had will return. It acts sort of as a band-aid, covering the issue the woman is dealing with and should only be used as a ‘last resort’ because of the many negative side effects. A good source for those wanting to find the root problem of their fertility issues, go to https://naprotechnology.com/ and set up a consult.
To learn more about the negative effects of the birth control pill, what it does to the woman’s body and their attractions, see https://chastity.com/qa/birth-control-pills/., Hannah Klaus and Manuel Cortés. “Psychological, social, and spiritual effects of contraceptive steroid hormones.” The Linacre Quarterly vol. 82 (2015), 283-300; Roberts, S. C., Klapilová, K., Little, A. C., Burriss, R. P., Jones, B. C., DeBruine, L. M., Petrie, M., & Havlícek, J. “Relationship satisfaction and outcome in women who meet their partner while using oral contraception” (Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 279 (1732)), 1430–1436., and Russell, V. M., McNulty, J. K., Baker, L. R., & Meltzer, A. L. “The association between discontinuing hormonal contraceptives and wives' marital satisfaction depends on husbands' facial attractiveness” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(48) (2014)), 17081–17086.
[1] (see https://chastity.com/qa/do-birth-control-pills-cause-abortions/).
[2] (see IARC monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans: volume 91: Combined estrogen-progestogen contraceptives and combined estrogen-progestogen menopausal therapy. Geneva: World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2007:1-528.).
[3] (see William Roberts. “Facts and Ideas From Anywhere: ‘The Pill’ and Its Four Major Developers,” Proceedings (Baylor University Medical Center, 2015) 28(3):421–432.
[4] (see Selmoni, O.M., Maitre, D., Roux, J. et al. Sex-specific changes in gene expression in response to estrogen pollution around the onset of sex differentiation in grayling (Salmonidae) BMC Genomics 20, 583 (2019) and “17a-Ethinylestradiol and Mestranol and Drinking Water” Minnesota Department of Health Contaminants of Emerging Concern Program, 2016: (https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/risk/docs/guidance/gw/mestraethinyleinfo.pdf)