I want to address something that has been on my heart for a few years now that pretty much everyone is afraid to discuss in fear of offending someone. It’s birth control- I am not afraid of offending because I am zealous for truth to be made known. I am concerned for many pro-life Christian couples who are told medical birth control is ok. I am here to inform. We ourselves were ignorant of this exact thing for years, even being advised by Christians that this was indeed ok. So with that said, I’d first like to share our testimony.
For the first year of our marriage I was in college, babies were not even on our radar! About one year into our marriage (still in college for another half a semester), I started being convicted every time I took my birth control pill. I had no idea why. After all, many of our Christian friends and mentors agreed there was nothing wrong with it. One early morning as I was dropping Ben off at his factory job (he started work at 6am), we sat and talked for awhile about the situation. Ben just told me, “If you feel convicted then stop taking them. Go home right now and throw them away.” So I did. We started taking a class on Natural Family Planning (NFP), through the Couple to Couple League (CCL), a Catholic organization my dad told me about. We learned all about charting, fertility, and how God created our bodies. We charted, and waited the proper amount of time, but still the Lord broke in and we were expecting our first baby before we even got to the second class! We were due on 7-7-07! What a clear confirmation from the Lord that He was in charge of this whole situation!
I must share a few things I’ve learned:
1- Medical birth control ARE abortificients. I learned that the pill did three things: thickened cervical mucus, prevented ovulation, and lastly thinned the lining of the uterus. In other words, if the first two preventative methods used in this birth control fail (which often happens), the fertilized egg will fail to implant in the uterus do to the thinning out, thus causing an abortion. I am sure on this fact with the pill. I can’t tell you exactly how the other medical birth control methods work, besides that most, if not all are abortificients just like this. You can find information like this on Planned Parenthood’s website.
Ben and I could have had abortions without knowing it. I sometimes think, if we had not been obedient to the Lord, would Zuriah have been one of these?
2- The definition of pregnancy has been distorted by Planned Parenthood and even many doctors. As Christians, we profess that life begins at conception. What PP and others state life begins at implantation. Quite a big difference if you are wondering if your birth control is an abortificient and are seeking an answer from a medical practitioner. Be clear on your definition of pregnancy.
3- The Pill does many other things than prevent pregnancies. I sometimes get annoyed seeing so many ‘Breast Cancer Awareness’ stickers, products, etc. -hear me out- this is the reason: 1- I know Jesus can heal much better than any doctor (when He heals it doesn’t come with side effects), 2- I wonder how many women have gotten breast cancer due to a side effect in medical birth control? Or cervical cancer for that matter? I feel we are not going to the root of the problem. Perhaps we should rid ourselves of cancer causing agents while searching for a cure.
Also, I heard a very interesting study done with the birth control pill and apes: male and female apes were first observed in a natural environment: they behaved naturally, mating naturally. The female apes were given the pill, all of a sudden the male apes didn’t want to be with the female apes. Why? The pill suppresses a natural scent women put off to attract men. Could it be, that the reason for so much promiscuity in young women is due to us giving them the pill for things like acne and menstrual cycles? An interesting thought.
4- Fertility is in God’s hands, not mine. I felt like when we were on the pill we had fertility in our hands. The moment we released it, the Lord took over. What freedom! We were living apart from His will, simply by being on medical birth control. Aside from that we are very pro-life. How can we stand for life and still be having abortions? How much authority do we have while still partnering with the enemy? Even as a house, as a body, my prayer for the church is that this is made known.
I would like to recommend Natural Family Planning as a method of birth control. It is as effective as medical birth control when done rightly, while still leaving room for the Lord to break in. In fact, Planned Parenthood would recommend it as a reliable form of birth control except that “It can’t be practiced outside of a loving, commited relationship.” Go figure.
It’s natural, there are no side effects, in fact, it actually benefits your health to practice it! It even draws you closer as a couple. In the church, divorce rates are as high as any other (50%!!!), but in CCL couples the rate drops to 5%!! In teaching couples it’s even lower!
I am not so much advocating NFP as much as I am the removal of abortificient birth control from our midst. Many are using it for convenience issues, while not understanding the severe implications. This is a serious issue. Babies are being aborted without us knowing it, while we stand for life. I would urge you to seek out truth for yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit, seek it out as a couple. Examine everything I’ve said, but please, whatever you do, don’t dismiss it.
If you have any questions PLEASE don’t hesitate to ask me! I am eager to share!
Some interesting links from Planned Parenthood:
Their definition of pregnancy
Birth Control Methods that are Abortificients: (keep in mind when they say “Some people say that the pill works by keeping a fertilized egg from attaching to the lining of the uterus. But there is no proof that this actually happens.” That they also say this for the morning after pill which is clearly an abortificient in our terms of pregnancy).
Implant
Patch
Nuva Ring
Shot
Emergency Contraception (Morning After)
IUD
Pill
Another website that describes how the Pill works
