Dear Anonymous: My Opinion on Birth Control

Somebody named Anonymous who apparently has no face asked me this in a comment. I sat and sat and I thought and thought, but there was no way to answer your question in a comment. So I decided to write a post about it.

Birth control is a very heated argument, and it has been for a really long time. In 1879 law called the Act Concerning Offense Against Decency, Morality, and Humanity was made. It outlawed owning, obtaining, distributing, or manufacturing any literature, article, instrument, or drug that prevented fertilization or caused abortion. Contraception was not only illegal, it was super duper illegal.

Zoom forward a bit to the 1960s when a woman named Estelle Griswold decided to start an illegal Planned Parenthood birth control clinic. She knew she'd get caught, but she was ready for a lawsuit. She became the defendant of, and won, Griswold vs Connecticut. This case stated that while the Constitution never uses the word privacy, it's one of the most basic rights of mankind. It said that the government has no right to decide what a man and wife can or cannot do in the privacy of their own bedroom. In June of 1965, birth control was legalized for married couples.

Fast forward 50 years, and we're still arguing about birth control. It's more accepted in the mainstream world, but with Obama's HHS Mandate that would require all hospitals to administer contraceptives, people are beginning to take a firm stand against it. The Catholic Church is making some serious threats to shut down their hospitals so that they wont be forced to distribute birth control which is against their beliefs. It's becoming religious freedom verses reproductive freedom. There's apparently a war on women going on. It's getting nasty.

All that to say, any and everything I say here I'm sure will cause trouble. But since when can people not have opinions about controversial issues? Since when can we not express them? As always, this is me expressing my beliefs, not shoving them down your throat. If you disagree, I would love to have a conversation with you in the comments. A respectful conversation, not a heated argument.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, here's my opinion.

Many forms of birth control should be made illegal. Before you stop reading, note that I said many, not all. I believe all forms of abortion should be made illegal, because it kills a human being. The truth is many forms of birth control are nothing more than abortion. As I explained here, the dispute as to when pregnancy begins has masked many early abortions as birth control. Everyone agrees that pregnancy begins at conception, but some say conception is fertilization and others say it's implantation. That's eight days difference, and those eight days means life or death for millions of little tiny brand new human beings. Scientifically, life begins at fertilization, but according to some, pregnancy begins eight days later. In regards to birth control, any birth control that prevents a fertilized egg from implanting on the uterus is abortion. I am whole heartedly against those forms of birth control.

Birth control that prevents fertilization from happening, I believe that should be your own decision. Many religions condemn all forms of birth control for various reasons, many of these reasons I respect. As a whole though, I see no reason for the government to outlaw all forms of birth control because of some religious beliefs. Let the environmentalists be environmentalists and let the Catholics be Catholics. We should obey our convictions and beliefs.

But when speaking of life, life needs to be protected by the government. Your religious beliefs cannot allow you to murder someone legally. That leaves the difficult distinction: which forms of birth control are abortifacient (meaning cause an abortion), and which are ok?

Abort73 has a good list of which birth control methods are abortifacient and which are not. I'm only going to talk about one birth control method, because it frightens me how casually it is treated. The birth control pill is a dose of hormones that does three things to prevent pregnancy. It prevents ovulation, thickens the mucus lining to prevent fertilization, and then as a fail-safe it thins the lining of the uterus to prevent implantation in case fertilization does occur. The first two steps that the birth control pill does are fine, but the third, if it comes to that, definitely causes an abortion. In fact, some of the abortion pills are nothing more than high-dose birth control pills. It saddens me that the birth control pill is thrown around so much regardless of the potential damage it is doing. Women take it for all sorts of reasons besides as a contraceptive, but it is known to have lasting damage on women's reproductive health in the future. It plays with life, putting children at risk. While they are only a few cells and can't be detected yet, but they are still human beings. We were all there once.

A friend of mine is very passionate about this issue. She sent me the high-low estimates of how many accidental abortions happen because of birth control--it's somewhere between 6,704,900 and 22,141,900. This is sobering. That is a terrifying amount of legalized murder in this country.

There you have it, my opinion about birth control. If you were asking about my views of fertilization-preventing birth control, I haven't figured out what I personally believe yet. When it comes time for me to make that decision I will do a lot more research, prayer, and ask a whole lot of people I respect. There, I hope that helps! Thanks for the great question!

Tonya Reaves

***Update*** The local CBS television station received new documents regarding the death of Tonya Reaves. Her D&E abortion was performed at Planned Parenthood at 11 am, but after the procedure she began bleeding heavily. The bleeding continued for five and a half hours at Planned Parenthood until she was taken to the emergency room at 4:30 pm. There the doctors had to start from scratch to figure out what was wrong with her. They performed an ultrasound then another D&E. When the heavy bleeding continued they performed a second ultrasound and discovered a perforation. Tonya was taken to emergency surgery at 10:12 pm, but the bleeding was uncontrollable. Her death was completely avoidable, but after bleeding heavily for over five hours at Planned Parenthood before receiving medical treatment was too much. Once she was moved from Planned Parenthood to a hospital, even more valuable time was lost while the doctors started from scratch to discover the severity of her injuries.

LifeNews quotes an emergency room doctor with 30 years of experience named Dr. James C. Anderson, M.D. He pointed out the habit of abortion clinics sending injured patients to the emergency room without giving the doctors appropriate information concerning their condition. "I have always had to evaluate the situation, come to my own conclusions, and initiate what I thought was appropriate treatment. This definitely created some time delays that were not in the patient's best interest," stated Dr. Anderson. "These delays can have life-threatening implications when dealing with hemorrhage or infection." (More)

**Update** Tonya's family have found an attorney who is looking into a civil lawsuit against Planned Parenthood. (More)

*Update* Congressman Cliff Stearns has been looking into an investigation of Planned Parenthood regarding hiding sexual abuse and Medicaid fraud, and he is now pressing for an investigation regarding Tonya's death. (More)

Last Friday, a health young woman named Tonya Reaves went to a Planned Parenthood in Chicago for a second trimester D&E abortion. She was 24, engaged to be married, and had a son who had just turned one. She was transported to a hospital for hemorrhage. She was pronounced dead at the hospital at 11:20 PM. The autopsy Saturday determined that she died from hemorrhage caused by the abortion. Troy Newman, the head of Operation Rescue, explained, "Abortion deaths like this are completely avoidable. When a woman bleeds to death after an abortion, it is usually an indication of error on the part of the abortionist coupled with a delay in calling for emergency assistance. Planned Parenthood should be held accountable." Abortion clinics are not equipped for such emergency complications, and when an emergency does happen, calling an ambulance is avoided because it brings such bad publicity.

Yesterday, in an incredibly insensitive move, Obama called for more government funding for Planned Parenthood. "Mr. Romney wants to get rid of funding for Planned Parenthood. I think that's a bad idea," the president explained. "I've got two daughters. I want them to control their own health care choices."

Really, Obama? You want your daughters to be cared for by Planned Parenthood? I don't often get angry, but I'm angry about this one. How many more women like Tonya have to die before things change? What will it take for the government to stop funding organizations with blood on their hands?

Tonya Reaves 

Pop Quiz 2

My last Pop Quiz was regarding the definition of the word "conception." We did have a few winners! But not a ton of responses. I'll have to keep nagging you all to get you to respond, or I'll just actually post every two weeks like I said I would :) So for our answer!

All over the place, pro-lifer's have said that "life begins at conception" but the confusing definition of the word means a lot of the time they aren't saying what they think they're saying. In 1965, the definition of conception changed from fertilization to implantation. In order to understand the significance of this, we have to understand the distinct difference between fertilization and implantation. 

Fertilization is the moment when the sperm meets the egg, fertilizes it, and a unique cell is created. This cell, called a zygote, has DNA different from any other DNA that has ever or ever will be created. The DNA determines gender and serves as a blueprint for what the zygote will look like for the rest of his or her life. This moment determines not only all of prenatal development, but all development after birth as well. This is the moment when, scientifically, life begins.

Implantation happens eight days after fertilization. Once the egg is fertilized by the sperm and becomes a zygote, it makes its way to the woman's womb and implants on the lining of her uterus. This is implantation, and happens already after life begins. When the definition of "conception" changed in 1965, it moved conception to eight days after the original definition, eight days after life begins. That may not seem like a lot, but eight days has meant life or death for a lot of people when they, too, were zygotes.

The definition of conception was changed in 1965, the same year birth control was legalized in America. If conception marked the beginning of pregnancy, and pregnancy could be pushed back to start at implantation rather than fertilization, then that's eight more days to work with to "prevent" pregnancy from starting. New forms of birth control (called contraception) can be known as preventative birth control rather than abortion. If we were clear that we believe life begins at fertilization rather than implantation or conception, then a lot of forms of birth control would be considered abortifacient rather than preventative. How many lives have been ended by "birth control" will never be known, but the estimates are staggeringly huge.

And now, the latest and greatest question. In honor of the history of abortion (because I love it soooo much), this question will be regarding that. There are three main court cases that helped legalize abortion, which is NOT one of them? Your options are:
-Griswold vs Connecticut (1965) legalized contraception under the right to privacy.
-R. vs Morgentaler (1971) struck down every abortion law, legalizing it on demand through all nine months of pregnancy.
-Roe vs Wade (1973) legalized abortion abortion on demand in the first trimester, and allowed exceptions in the third trimester for the woman's health.
-Doe vs Bolton (1973) defined "health" to include a woman's physical, medical, psychological, mental, and familial health.

Choose wisely! And looking it up is cheating. I'll try my very very hardest to post an answer and a new question in two weeks. We'll see how that works. Good luck!

To Feminists: Concerning Forced Abortion in China

What if you woke up one morning in the hospital in severe pain and no one would tell you what happened. That alone would be terrifying for me.

What if you were nine months pregnant, ready to deliver your second any day now, then suddenly eleven strangers come into your house to carry you away. They take you to a hospital, insert a syringe into your stomach, and after you pull it out insert another.

Then you wake up, no longer pregnant, but in server pain. No one would tell you what happened. Later you find your uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries were removed to prevent you from having more children.

This is a very real situation for thousands of women. Many, including Zhang Wen Fang, were left in a wheelchair because of complications from the surgery. She lost not only her legs and her uterus, but also her child, her health, her livelihood, and eventually the stress caused her to lose her marriage. She never found out what happened to her child.



Zhang Wen Fang shared her story with an organization called All Girls Allowed, which works in China fighting the one-child policy and the resulting problems of gendercide and sex trafficking. She tried to appeal her case to the government, but she was threatened and beaten by the police. Mr. Guo, the Deputy Minister of the Family Planning Committee (which enforced the one-child policy through forced abortions), responded by saying, "I removed the uteruses of one thousand women, and no one dared to say a word to me."

How is this alright? How can we sit back while women are kidnapped, force to kill their own children, and drugged as their uteruses are stolen? I challenge anyone who considers themselves pro-women to do something about this. How is this choice, when it is forced upon women? How is this health, when it confines women to wheelchairs? How is this making women equal to men?

Let's not forget the visual of what forced abortion really does:

Feng Jianmei, 6/3/2012

Read the Lifenews article or similar posts.