Abortion and the Pill

I remember the first time that one of my friends approached me with the idea that the birth control pill could cause abortions. I thought she was "out" there. I hadn't seen her in a few years, and to be honest, I thought she may have gotten a little extreme during our time apart. Besides, I was undeniably pro-life and the very concept that I, myself, may have inadvertently caused an abortion was completely unacceptable. I thought to myself "No offense friend, but I trust my doctors more than you - and they never said anything about this!" So if your first response reading this is ridicule, I am no one to judge.

All I can say is get over yourself! Get over your emotional reasons for not wanting to believe this, and just do your own research and come to your own unbiased conclusions. You see, not only did I think that the very idea of the birth control pill causing abortions was absurd (I mean it prevented ovulation right?), my first marriage had recently come to an end after five painful years and I couldn't bear the thought that I had failed at marriage and that, maybe even perhaps, I may have aborted some of my own children along the way. So when she pushed an article into my hands to read, I pushed it back. "No thank you," I said. "I'm not interested."

It took me two and a half years to get over myself.

Fortunately, God is a god of grace and second chances. I am now married to an amazing, godly man and we have a beautiful four month old baby girl. My heart could not be more full as I have realized this dream of motherhood. I had waited patiently (and sometimes impatiently) for years for this moment and now that it is here I can honestly say it is everything I ever hoped for. My husband and I want a large family but, naturally want to space it out. Which, of course, brings me to the point of decision again when it comes to birth control.

Initially I was interested in the IUD as I didn't know much about it. I talked to my doctor on one of my follow up appointments and he said that is caused sterilization while it was in place. Eek! He used the word sterilization about five times during that conversation and I told him, "Wow! That sounds terrible. No thanks." I'm not sure why, but sometime in the following weeks between Dr appointments, as I was researching birth control choices, I remembered what my friend had told me. I decided to google it and this was the article that I found on it:

http://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Feb/17/short-condensation-does-birth-control-pill-cause-a/


I would definitely take the time to read it in its entirety, but basically, Randy Alcorn presents a reasearch paper on how birth control pills could cause abortions. Apparently the pill is even more effective at preventing life than we realize. I read the article. I re-read it. I called my mom about it. I called my sister in law about it. I went over it and re-went over it with my husband. And then I printed a copy, guns locked and loaded, to bring this up to my Dr and provide him with his own reading enjoyment.

This week at my appointment I asked him straight up, "Can the pill cause abortions?" His response was "Yes it can." My heart just sank. I expected some sort of battle where I could point out all of the evidences in Randy's Alcorn's research paper and beat him over the head with his own Physician's Desk Reference. But when he said "Yes," I really and quite suddenly wished that it wasn't true.

He proceeded to tell me that he counsels all of his patients that the pill does three things:
1.) It's main purpose is to prevent ovulation
2.) It thickens the cervical mucus so the sperm can't meet the egg
3.) It thins the lining of uterus so that the fertilized egg can not implant. (abortion)

Immediately I let him know that no doctor had ever told me that before. I had no idea that the pill could annihilate a fertilized egg. I was always led to believe that conception never occurred when you were on the pill (except for rare cases when people got pregnant, which clearly isn't abortion). I told him I would have made different decisions when it came to birth control if I had known that.

He had two responses to what I had to say. The first is that, he also believes that life begins at conception. However, many doctors do not use the term "abortion" unless the fertilized egg has already implanted. Therefore, it was probably a word game to them when I was told the pill did not cause abortions.

The second thing he told me is that probably (although he didn't have a number) it is incredibly rare for the fertilized egg to be aborted because of being unable to implant. He then proceeded to tell me about how his wife had gotten pregnant on the pill with their second child and how rare that was.

I myself, and probably many of you, have known many women that have gotten pregnant on the pill. So the logic follows to me, that even MORE babies are aborted then those that actually get past mechanisms 1-3 and are able to grow into full-term babies. When I mentioned this to him he paused, and looked at me, and said, "Yes. That would make sense." Ugh. Not what my conscious wanted to hear. Not in the least. But my brain proceeded my heart and made me ask- to search for honest answers.

And then I went home and I got angry. I was angry because so many men and women who love the Lord, and are are steadfastly pro-life, have no idea in the least that they could have been, and likely have been, as the years progress, aborting their own children. Wow! How Satan must be smiling in that Grinchy-evil grin.  From ear to ear with pure delight. The Bible clearly says that Satan comes to "steal, kill and destroy" and I take that quite literally. He hates God's people and he hates that we love God. More than he hates us, he hates the thought of us making more people who might love God. So he uses our ignorance to deceive us.

The saddest truth is the not knowing. I really don't know for sure that I have aborted my children or how many. But the likely-hood is there and that is enough for me to be done with the pill. To me, it makes sense the the likely hood of the pill causing an abortion is the greatest right after you stop using it. My husband and I got pregnant 1.5 months after going off of it. I was actually super sick that first month and thought at first that I was pregnant, and then decided my body was just re-adjusting after the pill. I would think that, because the lining of you uterus is probably still so thin, that it would be easy to conceive when you first go off the pill, but not for it to implant, or for it to grow and flourish, causing your body to abort the fertilized egg. This is why doctors tell you it can take a few cycles to get pregnant after going off birth control.

So where does this leave me? A little sad and still a little angry. I don't hate on myself for something that I didn't know. But knowing what I know now,  I can't move forward the same way that I have in the past. God has forgiven me, if I have aborted any children, and I don't dwell in shame, but my heart is determined, at the least, to make up for that by bringing this to other' attention.

There was actually a time, not too long ago, where many women did not know the facts of abortion, did not believe their unborn child was really a baby, and did not believe that the fetus felt any pain during an abortion. Many of them believed that what they were doing was actually best for the child (physically speaking). And then science caught up with them. Whether you are pro-life or call yourself pro-choice, the science, the procedure, all of it is there on the internet for you to know and understand that abortion terminates a life and how specifically it does this. As a Christian, don't turn a blind eye to medicine that you put in your body. Research it. Find out what it really does, how it works, and the real effects that it can have on human life. Then pray about it and move forward as the Lord directs you.


I welcome your comments and thoughts as this is still something I continue to research and understand.