The Pill causing abortion--Moved from Christian Advice

[Inklingchick]

Hi,

This isn't really a general question-- it's a real moral quandary I'm facing (and wrestling with). It's weird.

So I found out about the abortifacient aspects of how the Pill sometimes works. And I've got it into my head that it's my obligation to, like, email all the women at my workplace about this, and that if I don't, I'm responsible for the deaths of any babies who might otherwise not have died. I work in a secular organization, and it would be really inappropriate of me to send this email, but I know God calls us to do hard things sometimes, and that sometimes we have to even violate the law (let alone company policy and social custom) to save lives (i.e. Esther/Ahasureus). I REALLY don't want to do it, but I want to want to if Jesus wants me to. Although I feel so totally incapable of it that it'd really totally have to be Him doing it through me.

So what should I do? I feel guilty for not sending the email right away... I know I can, and possibly should, just focus on telling people in other forums (some of the women at work are real-life friends, and some are facebook friends, and theoretically I could start a facebook-note conversation about this). But I won't be able to reach ALL the women at work like that. Do I have an obligation to get the information to all these women, given that I have access to their emails? I mean, the vast majority of them I don't know personally at all. A bunch of them are in satellite offices in other states.

Or would the positives (possibly getting information about the pill causing abortion to women who might then decide not to take it thus saving babies' lives) be outweighed by the negatives (convincing other women that people who think that life begins at conception are nutcases, and thus possibly hardening them against further investigation of the pro-life position)? Or is that just an excuse?

It just feels really hard to have access to these emails and this information and not send it out. I feel like, if I won't even do THAT, how dare I do OTHER pro-life stuff? If it were REALLY about saving babies lives, wouldn't I INSTANTLY send out the email?

But there are so many other ways to get the information out...but not to that particular group of women...

As you can probably tell, my mind has been running in circles about this since before Christmas-- I spent Christmas feeling like a murderer because of it. I know that sounds nuts. I'd love anyone's perspective.

Susannah

 

[Ariel]

Hello Susannah,

I've had times too when I thought I should witness, or do this that or the other--and then if I would feel guilty if I didn't do it.

But may I suggest? Instead of sending unwanted e-mails, why not pray and ask God to open doors for you?

Let me give you an example. When I was taking Hebrew classes, I wanted to witness to my teacher so badly. I felt I should, but I reflected that if I did it openly, I would be rebuffed immediately. So instead I prayed for an open door. One day there was no one else in class--the other people didn't come, and I was the only student there. Suddenly, my Jewish teacher asked me about my faith and why I believed in Jesus. This was an open door! For 45 minutes, until the next class came in, I presented Jesus, using OT Scriptures, including Deut. 18:15. She listened attentively, asking me questions. But when the next class started coming in, I could tell she wanted me to hush, so I did.

If I had started witnessing on my own, she would never have listened. Instead I prayed and waited for God to give me an opportunity. He did.

I believe this could help you also. Unwanted emails are almost always deleted immediately, but what if God gave you an open door?

 

[TexasBluebonnet]

I have to be honest. I'd probably go ahead and send it. But then again I'm coming from this from a different place than you are. You see, about a year and half before I was born my parents aborted my sister. I hate abortion and the pill and anything that takes a child's life. I would do anything to bring her back and stop more from dying. My perspective is that if you do send it, then you've done your job. Saving a life perhaps. The "guilt" (not to make you feel worse which is why I used " ") wouldn't be on you. But perhaps if you feel weird about it, try sending it to their home e-mail addresses.

 

[Zeena]

Hi,

This isn't really a general question-- it's a real moral quandary I'm facing (and wrestling with). It's weird.

So I found out about the abortifacient aspects of how the Pill sometimes works. And I've got it into my head that it's my obligation to, like, email all the women at my workplace about this, and that if I don't, I'm responsible for the deaths of any babies who might otherwise not have died. I work in a secular organization, and it would be really inappropriate of me to send this email, but I know God calls us to do hard things sometimes, and that sometimes we have to even violate the law (let alone company policy and social custom) to save lives (i.e. Esther/Ahasureus). I REALLY don't want to do it, but I want to want to if Jesus wants me to. Although I feel so totally incapable of it that it'd really totally have to be Him doing it through me.

So what should I do? I feel guilty for not sending the email right away... I know I can, and possibly should, just focus on telling people in other forums (some of the women at work are real-life friends, and some are facebook friends, and theoretically I could start a facebook-note conversation about this). But I won't be able to reach ALL the women at work like that. Do I have an obligation to get the information to all these women, given that I have access to their emails? I mean, the vast majority of them I don't know personally at all. A bunch of them are in satellite offices in other states.

Or would the positives (possibly getting information about the pill causing abortion to women who might then decide not to take it thus saving babies' lives) be outweighed by the negatives (convincing other women that people who think that life begins at conception are nutcases, and thus possibly hardening them against further investigation of the pro-life position)? Or is that just an excuse?

It just feels really hard to have access to these emails and this information and not send it out. I feel like, if I won't even do THAT, how dare I do OTHER pro-life stuff? If it were REALLY about saving babies lives, wouldn't I INSTANTLY send out the email?

But there are so many other ways to get the information out...but not to that particular group of women...

As you can probably tell, my mind has been running in circles about this since before Christmas-- I spent Christmas feeling like a murderer because of it. I know that sounds nuts. I'd love anyone's perspective.

Susannah

Fist off, you are there to work. And to use work time as personal time is a waste of your employer's money. So no, you should not send this but to woman on your personal list during non-working hours from a non-business machine.

And anohter thing, where did you get the idea the pill causes abortion?
As far as I'm informed, it poisons the womans body enough so that the eggs shrivel up and are not fertalizable..

Perhaps these woman are not taking proper doses or are being lax on the timing?

 

[TexasBluebonnet]

Fist off, you are there to work. And to use work time as personal time is a waste of your employer's money. So no, you should not send this but to woman on your personal list during non-working hours from a non-business machine.

And anohter thing, where did you get the idea the pill causes abortion?
As far as I'm informed, it poisons the womans body enough so that the eggs shrivel up and are not fertalizable..

Perhaps these woman are not taking proper doses or are being lax on the timing?

There are rare instances where the pill does cause abortion. They work by thickening the walls of the uterus. But it's not exact everytime. The body changes from day to day. In the event that the pill doesn't work, there is a back-up plan. It also works to thin the walls of the uterus. Why would it do that? The only reason is to prevent the implantation of an already fertilized egg.

 

[CyberPaladin]

Inklingchick just remember losing your job isn't the end of the problems the company can cause you they can blackball you for any future job. It's nearly impossible to prove even worse in this economy it would be hard to tell it's even happening.

 

[BigNorsk]

Other things that can cause an abortion are sitting in a hottub too long, especially in the first trimester, or getting in a car accident and getting damaged from the seatbelt or steering wheel. There are also infections that can cause it maybe you should email everyone to get tested for chlamydia for instance.

Once you start down the road of being the one to enlighten people about everything, I don't think there is any place to stop.

Can the pill cause an abortion, well yes, but they aren't very dependable at it anymore, the dosage is generally too low. And abortion would be an unintended consequence of taking the pill, not the primary purpose.

I'm sure an abortion would also be an unintended consequence of sitting in a hottub, or driving a car, or for that matter having an illness.

Uncontrolled diabetes is common and a cause of abortions as well.

See where this is going? I would think what you actually should do, is quit getting emails at work that aren't work related. No one is paying you to either receive and read nor to pass them on.

What you do on your own time is a different matter, but doing it at work, you are basically stealing from your employer. They would certainly be justified in firing anyone who decides to take their employees time by emailing them all with a non job related email.

If you can, remove or block whomever is sending you such things at work.

Marv

 

[TexasBluebonnet]

Yeah, but I just don't think it's a good idea to mess with the body's natural processes that way though. I'm personally not a fan of taking anything that alters the nature order of things. And that's what that does. But that's me.

 

[Inklingchick]

Marv--

from what I understand, actually the modern low-dose BCPs are more likely to cause an abortion, not less likely, because they don't inhibit ovulation nearly as well, so more eggs get released , thus more eggs get fertilized, thus more eggs don't implant...

I would love everyone's prayer/continued thoughts about this. I 've probably -- what with posting to newsgroups asking for advice, changing my gmail status, emailing all the women in my personal gmail address book, and posting to a pro-life group to let people know, told more than 500 people about the Pill at this point. I'm going to blog about it and I think I'll be really good at presenting the pro-life, life-begins-at-conception case, partly because when I was a teenager I was pro choice. I ordered a custom bumper sticker saying "The Pill can cause early-term miscarriages," with a web address that I'm going to use to start a site about this, and I may-- I'll have to pray for courage and wisdom-- stick it on my car, so that at least some of the women who work at my site will see it. And yet it's the ones I haven't reached, but could, that I think about.

I mean, there are a million different ways that I could reach lots of different groups of women...there are two womens colleges right nearby me, and I could put up fliers...and that seems like a good idea, and I might do it, but I don;t feel guilty about not doing it in the way that I do about not sending the work email.

I feel like I'm building a case for why Bluebonnet is wrong and I shouldn't/don;t need to send it. I don't really want to make decisions by building cases, but by resting in God's love and taking as much objective information into account as I can. The problem--part of the problem-- is that I have obsessive-compulsive disorder, so I get fixated on ideas that feel like my conscience speaking, but are in fact just my brain using its neurotransmitters wrong, so I can't tell if this is conscience, God's voice, or my OCD.

How do we know what, of all the good that we could do in the world, is the good that we should do? Are we allowed to pick our battles, or our battlefields? How can I even hesitate, knowing that I could, statistically, and probably would, save lives? But that's true of any good thing we do-- if I send $5 to WorldVision instead of buying a latte, I could, statistically, save a life, but I don't think that means that I can never buy a latte.

What I want to want is to rest in God's love and do His will with my whole heart, to delight myself in Him and for Him to be delighted in me. I'm scared that if I don't send this email I will be cutting myself off from Him.

S

 

[TexasBluebonnet]

Marv--

from what I understand, actually the modern low-dose BCPs are more likely to cause an abortion, not less likely, because they don't inhibit ovulation nearly as well, so more eggs get released , thus more eggs get fertilized, thus more eggs don't implant...

I would love everyone's prayer/continued thoughts about this. I 've probably -- what with posting to newsgroups asking for advice, changing my gmail status, emailing all the women in my personal gmail address book, and posting to a pro-life group to let people know, told more than 500 people about the Pill at this point. I'm going to blog about it and I think I'll be really good at presenting the pro-life, life-begins-at-conception case, partly because when I was a teenager I was pro choice. I ordered a custom bumper sticker saying "The Pill can cause early-term miscarriages," with a web address that I'm going to use to start a site about this, and I may-- I'll have to pray for courage and wisdom-- stick it on my car, so that at least some of the women who work at my site will see it. And yet it's the ones I haven't reached, but could, that I think about.

I mean, there are a million different ways that I could reach lots of different groups of women...there are two womens colleges right nearby me, and I could put up fliers...and that seems like a good idea, and I might do it, but I don;t feel guilty about not doing it in the way that I do about not sending the work email.

I feel like I'm building a case for why Bluebonnet is wrong and I shouldn't/don;t need to send it. I don't really want to make decisions by building cases, but by resting in God's love and taking as much objective information into account as I can. The problem--part of the problem-- is that I have obsessive-compulsive disorder, so I get fixated on ideas that feel like my conscience speaking, but are in fact just my brain using its neurotransmitters wrong, so I can't tell if this is conscience, God's voice, or my OCD.

How do we know what, of all the good that we could do in the world, is the good that we should do? Are we allowed to pick our battles, or our battlefields? How can I even hesitate, knowing that I could, statistically, and probably would, save lives? But that's true of any good thing we do-- if I send $5 to WorldVision instead of buying a latte, I could, statistically, save a life, but I don't think that means that I can never buy a latte.

What I want to want is to rest in God's love and do His will with my whole heart, to delight myself in Him and for Him to be delighted in me. I'm scared that if I don't send this email I will be cutting myself off from Him.

S

I'm all for finding other ways, different ways to broadcast what you are talking about. In fact, it could be better. You'd probably reach a widder audience anyway. Pray about it. But above all, do whatever it is that G-d is telling you to do. He will help you do whatever that may be. Speaking as someone who has had this issue effect me and my family personally, the important thing is that the message gets out there in whatever form that it needs to be in. I hope this helped. Just have faith and be of courage. G-d is with you.

 

[Katryna]

The way the pill works is multi-faceted: it prevents ovulation in the first place; then it changes (thickens) the cervical mucous so that the egg and sperm can't get together; and *then* it changes the lining of the uterine wall so that implantation can't take place. By the time the first two *improbababilities* happen, what are the chances the third is going to happen? Nill. And for those who believe God sits on His throne and waves the fertility wand over individuals (I don't...) ... for those who claim they have gotten pregnant IN SPITE of using every imaginable birth control method out there... If He truly WANTS a baby to be born, surely he can over-ride the pill's usage and allow the baby to come to be?

The pill doesn't "poison" anything. It merely fools the body into thinking it's at a different phase of the cycle via hormones, so that an egg is not released for fertilization. Is it 101% reliable? No... but it's the closest thing to 100% we have. For many women, it relieves menstrual cramps, lightens periods, and cures acne because of the hormonal influence. For some women (diabetics and others), having a baby would be an extremely serious complication to their health, and the pill is a much better alternative TO an abortion. You need to make sure you have your facts correct, and understand that not all pills are the same, and not all women take them for the same reason. You seem to have taken a LOT on your shoulders; it seems to me a bit much to assume that God cannot get His pro-life message out without YOU and that if you do not hassle women at the workplace, He will forsake YOU. He has promised never to do this, and therefore I think you need to consider that somewhere you have gotten your wires crossed over a matter that means a lot to you personally, but you need to consider the ramifications if you try to impress your personal feelings and misconceptions about "the pill" on others.

 

[Inklingchick]

Katryna,

thanks for you reassurance. I have in fact done some research on this; I'm not going off half-cocked, and I do understand how the pill works. There's a paper by Larimore and Stanford published in the peer-reviewed journal Archives of Family Medicine (an AMA publication) called "Postfertilization Effects of Oral Contraceptives and their Relationship to Informed Consent" that's available without a subscription; it discusses the mechanism of the anti-implantation effect and talks about what the odds are of this happening. It is unlikely, but certainly not impossible, and if a woman is taking the pill while sexually active, from what I can tell it is probable that, over the course of a year, or several years this postfertilization effect would kick in at least once. This is especially likely with the new low-dose pills (i.e. the "minipill"), which permit ovulation up to 40% of the time.

Believe me, I know how hard this news is to deal with. And obviously a lot of research remains to be done. But if you believe that life begins at conception...it is an issue.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of complicating and bad news.

Please pray for me, guys; I don't want to be abrasive or nuts or the Official Office Freak, but I want to be faithful... I don't know what I should do, or how much "doing" is enough. I've probably communicated this information to almost a thousand people since I got this bee in my bonnet, what with groups like this and emailing people and changing my facebook status...but I haven;t sent it to this one group of women at work, and that omission is all I'm thinking about. And I don';t know how to think about this.

S

 

[Zeena]

I'm scared that if I don't send this email I will be cutting myself off from Him.

S

Rest assured precious Saint, that He will never cut Himself off from YOU.

Romans 8:33-39
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:1 ASV
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 13:5
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

 

[Zeena]

I don't know what I should do, or how much "doing" is enough.

S

No doing is ever enough.
What matters is being.

We are human beings after all, not human doings.

Matthew 11:28-29
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Hebrews 4

 

[Texas Lynn]

Talk to staff at Planned Parenthood about it. There is no reasonable moral objection to using birth control.

 

[Ave Maria]

Talk to staff at Planned Parenthood about it. There is no reasonable moral objection to using birth control.

I agree although many of our Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ would probably disagree.

Pregnancy does not begin until the fertilized egg implants in to the uterine wall. I know of absolutely no form of contraception that causes an abortion which would be an end to a pregnancy. For more information, see these links:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_cont.htm

 

[Texas Lynn]

I agree although many of our Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ would probably disagree.

The hierarchy who speak on the reconrd for the RCC would publicly anyhow.

 

[Ave Maria]

The hierarchy who speak on the reconrd for the RCC would publicly anyhow.

This is true. Many Catholics do not agree with their Church's official stance on contraception.

 

[max1120]

So if you are not going to allow for birth control pills? Have you thought of the logical outcomes of such a decision?

1. Over population: We have a global population of now over 6 Billion people. That is 6,000,000,000+ people!!! What happens when they start having 4,6,10 or more children each? If we allow for unlimited pregnancy, assuming half of the worlds population is female do you realize how large the worlds population would become? The planet only has a finite amount of resources and it will take a long time before we reach the technological point of being able to colonize space. So think of the horrible suffering you would be imposing on great and great numbers of people.

2. Families can not support 8 - 12 children. How many of your friends or co-workers do you think can afford 10 children. Can they properly feed, cloth, educate, and love 10 or more children? What about college? What about even the necessities of life life food ,shelter, utilities, clothing...ect? Are they prepared to live in near poverty? Remember 100 or 150 years ago most people lived on farms and out of the average family of 8 only 4 or 5 lived to adulthood. Infant mortality rates were high and thus you had to have 8 to see 5 or 6 grow to adulthood. That situation no longer exist. Could they provide health care for that many children? I doubt it.

If you are going to suggest that they should not use the pill you should think first about what you suggesting. There are a host of other issues at work here but I will try to address them later.

Max

 

[max1120]

PaladinGirl...That is very true. I am not catholic but we have a lot of catholic's that are friends of ours who are married. All of them use or have used the birth control pill. The church does not seem inclined to accept that pill is not harmful to women nor is harmful to society. But all you have to is go to a catholic mass on Sunday, anywhere in the United States, Canada, or western Europe, and see the number of married couples with no children, 1 or 2 children and yet have been married 10 or more years. Compare that to 30, 40, or 50 years ago when the same church would have been filled with 5 or 6 or even 7 child families. Then you will see what I am talking about. The pope says "no birth control pills" but catholic families in this country do not accept that teaching and do not seem to folllow it at all.

Max