For the first two years of my marriage, I used the Birth Control Pill (BCP). I really thought nothing of it. When the walk-in-clinic doctor first perscribed it to me, he said only that there was a risk of blood clots; a risk that was supposedly greater if actually pregnant. My only complaint in those two years was the evening nausea I often experienced as a side-effect of the hormones ...

When my daughter was about four months old, I was working on the manuscript of The Starfish and my research at that time lead me unexpectedly to a website concerning the abortifacient nature of BCPs. I was shocked! No one had ever warned me that breakthrough ovulation is possible while taking the Pill and that pregnancy *can* occur, regardless of how careful you might be in taking your Pill each day.

Here's the thing: the hormones in the Pill create a "hostile envirnoment" which cause an embryo great difficulty in attaching to the lining of the uterus. The embryo will often starve to death and miscarry as a direct result. The lining of the uterus under the influence of the Pill is thinned out (it would normally be thick). To understand this more clearly, think about a garden: Compare what will happen if you triy to plant a flower in brittle, dry soil versus what will happen if you try to plant a flower in rich, moist soil. Which flower will have the greater chance of surviving? A stronger menstrual period might be the only indication that an early abortion has occured.

I have no way of knowing if this ever happened to me, but as a Christian, I felt I could not morally continue to take the Pill knowing that if a pregnancy did occur, it would most likely miscarry.

Neither of the two doctors who'd prescribed me the Pill over the years had even mentioned that breakthrough ovulation was possible. So, still uncertain, I asked my doctor if this information I'd come across was true. She said, "No, it's not," but didn't expand on her statement. She assured me the Pill was safe. So, I went to a new doctor and asked him the same question. He said, "There are differing beliefs over when life actually begins. Some believe at conception, others when a fetus is viable. But yes, breakthrough ovulation and pregnancy can definitely occur despite the Pill, and miscarriage will result."

Now the exact beginning of human life may be argued with crafty semantics, but scientifically, who can deny that a unique human life begins at the very moment of fertilization? Well, I'd done my homework and I'd found a doctor who'd admitted it was true. So, I decided that even though the likehood of pregnancy and miscarriage while on the Pill was rare, I could not take that risk in good conscience. And when you consider "rarity" in light of the population of the United States alone, the numbers do add up to a startling amount (see quote below).

I quit taking the Pill that very day and will never take it again.

Consider the following information (If the math doesn't make your eyes cross) from William F. Colliton, Jr., M.D., a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington Univesity Medical Center:

Women on BCPs have 28-day cycles and thus have 13 cycles per year (365/28 = 13.3).  According to Facts in Brief from the Alan Guttmacher Institute (faxed 3/13/98), 10,410,000 U.S. women are current pill users, 26.9% of all methods.  This is second only to sterilization used by 27.7% of contraceptors. . . . Dr. Don Gambrell has informed us that there is a 14% breakthrough ovulation rate in females taking the 50 microgram pills (10,410,000 x 0.14 = 1,457,400 ovulations each cycle).  1,457,000 x 13 cycles per year = 18,946,200 possible exposures to pregnancy each year.  The accepted rate for "pill pregnancies" is 3-5 per 100 women.  Noting the fact that there is a 60+% rate of spontaneous tubal abortions with an unfavorable implantation site in ectopic pregnancies, it is reasonable for us to calculate a rate of conceptions lost to early physician (BCP) induced abortion of intrauterine pregnancies in pill users as twice that of term "pill pregnancies", given once again, an endometrium that is "less vascular, less glandular, thinner" than normal.

Thus the possible abortion rate induced by BCPs is 18,946,200 « 0.06 = 1,136,772 or 18,946,200 « 0.1 = 1,894,620 per year.  We are convinced that the reasoning with regard to the math on this issue is sound.

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From the "Physicians' Desk Reference" (Montvale, NJ: Medical Economics, 1998:

Combination oral contraceptives act by suppression of gonadotropins. Although the primary mechanism of this action is inhibition of ovulation, other alterations include changes in the cervical mucus, which increase the difficulty of sperm entry into the uterus, and changes the endometrium which reduce the likelihood of implantation [emphasis mine].

_______________________ 

And Dr. Kristine Severyn, of "Abortifacient Drugs and Devices: Medical and Moral Dilemmas" Linacre Quaterly, August 1990, pg. 55, wrote:

The third effect of combined oral contraceptives is to alter the endometrium in such a way that implantation of the fertilized egg (new life) is made more difficult, if not impossible. In effect, the endometrium becomes atrophic and unable to support implantation of the fertilized egg. . . . The alteration of the endometrium, making it hostile to implantation by the fertilized egg, provides a backup abortifacient method to prevent pregnancy.

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If you're a Christian woman using a hormonal birth control contraceptive, I urge you to research this subject. There will always be those who argue for or against any one thing and it can be confusing to read two "scientific" articles which directly contradict each other. Nevertheless, I urge you to research this issue prayerfully and with an open mind. The following is an excellent article to get you started:

"Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions? " by Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspectives Ministries.

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(c) 2008  - Bekah Ferguson

Permissions: By all means, you are welcome to reproduce and distribute my articles in excerpts or complete format as long as you don't change any of the wording. If you do reproduce any part of my articles, please include the following information: by Bekah Ferguson, Ontario, Canada. www.bekahferguson.com

Licensed under Creative Commons.

One person has commented on this article.

 1. Untitled
Angelfan, Unregistered

Hi Bekah-I'm one of your followers on Twitter and your tweet interested me so I came here to read your blog entry. I'm a Catholic (my husband is a convert). We have been practicing Natural Family Planning since we were married in 1989. It has worked beautifully for us. I also teach 9th & 10th grade CCD and I make many of the points you made above when I teach on chastity and the Catholic Church's stand against birth control. Many of the kids will never hear those points made by a doctor nor at school. There are getting to be more and more doctors who do not prescribe birth control in our area. Have you heard of Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, NE---Dr. Thomas Hilgers? He has done much research on women's cycles/fertility issues. See: http://www.popepaulvi.com/

Angelfan
Nebraska

 Posted 2009-08-21 20:59:57

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