I’ve recently been involved in a discussion on JivinJ’s blog on the topic of contraception.
If that’s the sort of thing that interests you, the discussion has been moved to my personal blog. Feel free to catch up and follow it here.
There was an interesting article in the Washington Post the other day on whether or not teen aged girls should be taught about their fertility. It seems like both sides are afraid to teach Fertility Awareness (also known as Natural Family Planning or NFP). Those in favor of “comprehensive sex ed” say it’s too complicated and teens won’t follow through. Teens would rely on only part of the method and not be fully “protected.” (Funny – we say the same thing when it comes to teens and birth control – teens won’t follow through). The abstinence-only folks think that it will cause teens to become sexually active since they will now know when to avoid sex to avoid pregnancy. (more…)
Wendy Shalit at Modestly Yours has an eye-opening post about a “comprehensive” sex-ed class at a middle school in Thornton, IL.
Hannity claims that he “studied theology”.
I wonder if he was absent the day the class learned that pride is the deadliest of sins.
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To hear more of what Fr. Tom Euteneuer has to say about contraception and its link to abortion, you can buy a CD of his talk, “The Infertile Soul: Contraception’s Influence on Faith and Society” that he gave at our Contraception Is Not the Answer conference last September.
For two of the past three years, Father Tom Euteneuer — the president of Human Life International — has led our annual staff retreat. If I had to make a list of my favorite priests, he’d be near the top.
His column this week, “Sean Hannity’s Gospel,” reminds me of why I have such great respect for the man.
In a comment on John’s post, Bad Ideas and Good Ideas, Michael-2 gave a link to an article on a study done in Germany about Natural Family Planning. I think it’s worth posting about. You gotta love hearing positive things about NFP in the news. Although the article focuses on the effectiveness of NFP as a contraceptive, it’s a step in the right direction. When a couple uses NFP, they can’t help but begin to view the body differently.
On a side note, though I realize for Catholics NFP has a moral base to it, I marvel at how well the Catholic Church takes care of her children spiritually and physically. Not only is NFP good for the soul (and relationships), but it’s healthy for the body. When practicing NFP, a woman’s body is not poisoned with chemicals and there is no need for self mutilation for either partner, which by the way may cause dementia in men! And if you need to avoid pregnancy for some good reason – it’s effective!
If you’re an adult and you proposition a young teenager, you go to jail.
If you’re an adult and you proposition a young teenager over the Internet, you go to jail.
If you’re an adult and you go out in public and give condoms to young teenagers, you go to jail collect a paycheck from the New York City Health Department. (more…)
Here follows the text of a beautiful homily on contraception given by Father Bryan Stitt of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Plattsburgh, New York:
What a beautiful scene! In the village of Cana in the region of Galilee we see a wedding feast with days of eating and drinking, music and dancing, a man and a woman, and Jesus and Mary.
I’ve loved this passage ever since I was young and was told that this was the first of the miracles that Jesus performed. I figured that that meant it was important. I was right.
It shows the compassion of Jesus—coming right into where He was needed, right into the young couple’s very lives.
It shows the loving intercession of Mary. She told Jesus, “They have no wine;” and then to the waiters she gave the best advice ever given to mankind, “Do whatever He tells you.”
It shows what goodness and richness comes when Christ is invited into our lives.
And it shows the dignity that Christ gave to marriage—making the union of man and woman a sacrament, and allowing them to share in the divine life of God by becoming a mirror of the Love of God for His Church.
Isaiah prophesized this in our first reading today which read: “As a young man marries a virgin your Builder will marry you, and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.” Basically what Isaiah is saying is that the love that a husband has for his wife is an image of the Love of Christ for His bride the Church—a love so real and true that it is willing to do anything for the other. It is a total self-gift, selfless, laying down his life, it is an extreme call.
All this imagery of marriage got me thinking recently—you deserve an apology from me.
Back in November the bishops of the U.S. released a document entitled: Married Love and the Gift of Life. It is a beautiful and eye-opening document explaining the Church’s teaching against the use of artificial contraception. As administrator of the parish I had a responsibility to share this information with you. I did not. I didn’t even put a blurb in the bulletin about it. For this I apologize.
To make up for lost time, may I please say how important the Church’s teaching on family planning is to our world today?
As you all well know, we live in a world with sky-rocketing divorce rates, millions of abortions, a pandemic of pornography, high rates of cohabitation, rape, infidelity, and fatherless families. Now these cannot be explained solely by society’s acceptance of contraception, but from what the scholars tell me, it is a big factor.
In response, the bishop’s document speaks of the true beauty and goodness of sexual love. It speaks of the “body language” of the complete gift of one person to another—fully giving and fully receiving. It speaks of how this gift is undermined through the use of contraception. By its very use one cannot give oneself to or receive another fully—it’s as if to say, “I give you everything except…”
Besides this, they often work as abortifacients. Many physical and chemical contraceptives cause abortions of human life in its earliest stages.
They also endanger the health of the women. And, as with any sinful act, they are not open to the will of God.
All this being said, the document does not simply state things from the negative perspective. It goes on to explain the alternative. For, contrary to popular belief, the Church is not saying that families should have as many children as is absolutely possible. The Church does not think that women’s bodies are “baby making machines.”
Therefore the bishops promote the use of Natural Family Planning. (And if there is anything in our world that is commonly misunderstood, it is Natural Family Planning.) For those who wish to avoid pregnancy at a certain time, NFP has an over 98% accuracy rating. It does not rely on drugs or physical barriers. Instead it uses the God given signals in the woman’s beautifully created body to determine fertility.
And most of all, NFP is to be promoted because it is open to following the will of God. After all, can there be anything which we want more than to do the will of God in our lives?
The document concludes with suggestions on where to go from here. The document itself is very short—only about 10 pages, but it gives a very good bibliography by which it encourages people to seek out more information. We all have a responsibility to be well-informed on this important matter.
Besides that, the Bishops simply promote the basics—Confession and the Eucharist. For those who have been using artificial contraceptives they encourage the value of the healing grace of Reconciliation followed by the unity and communion of the Eucharist.
Back in 1968 when Pope Paul VI reasserted the Church’s teaching with his infamous encyclical Humanae Vitae, he predicted that with widespread use of contraception would come: increased sexual infidelity, increased premarital sex, sexual exploitation of women, pornography, and increased divorce. The world said he was crazy. And even some of his closest advisors discouraged him from releasing such a document.
Now almost 40 years later Humanae Vitae is commonly held up as a sure sign of the infallibility of the pope when he teaches in matters of faith and morals.
It is this age old truth that our bishops have once again proclaimed to the world in their recent document. And we are reminded of that truth today as we look at this beautiful scene of the wedding at Cana.
We are reminded of the importance of welcoming Christ into our lives. We are reminded of Christ the Divine Bridegroom. And we are reminded of the richness and sweetness of life, love, and marriage when Christ is allowed to be present.
May we always be open to receiving the grace He wishes to share with us and then mirror that generosity in all that we say and do.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 /Christian Newswire/ — Well-known advocates for the morning-after pill have admitted that “increased access to emergency contraception pills enhance use but has not been shown to reduce unintended pregnancy rates” in a meta-analysis of studies conducted in 10 countries published this month in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. They also state the drug’s effectiveness may be “substantially … overstated.” (more…)
Miss Kelly at Modestly Yours has a must-read post titled “Sexual Freedom Is Damaging to Students”. It’s about a new book called Unprotected, written by an anonymous psychiatrist at the student counseling center of a major American university who has seen firsthand the horrible effects inflicted — especially on women — by so-called “safe sex” and “sexual freedom”.
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Christina at RealChoice has a great post titled “Pre-Roe Mortality, Redux”:
Just about anybody that’s paid attention has heard the claim that “thousands” — or, more specifically, “5,000 to 10,000″ maternal deaths a year in the United States from criminal abortions back in the bad old pre-Roe days. In fact, Planned Parenthood’s amicus brief filed with PP v. Casey still cited this bogus “fact”.
Let’s start with the numbers. Where did they come from?
Find out here.
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JivinJ reports on some disturbing statistics from the United Kingdom about the number of teens having “two or three abortions”. (more…)
You’ve probably already heard about Planned Parenthood’s free “emergency contraception” giveaway last week.
Generation Life* reports on how the event provides further evidence of the emptiness of Planned Parenthood’s “We care about women’s health” rhetoric.
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 15 /Christian Newswire/ — On Wednesday, Dec 6, 2006 Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania (PPSP) distributed free “emergency contraceptives” to women of all ages. Young women associated with Generation Life entered four different PPSP clinics. There they discovered that PPSP was engaging in many illegal and irresponsible activities and distributing inaccurate and incomplete medical information. (more…)
I opened up the paper this morning and saw this headline:
TRANS FAT: Ban hailed for blocking use of `basically a slow form of poison’
The article beneath the headline reported that restaurants in New York City will no longer be allowed to cook with oils containing trans fats. And:
In what could be the start of a shift in how Americans choose their meals, the New York City Board of Health said it will require restaurants that offer nutritional information to post calorie counts where everyone can see–on menus or menu boards.
“It will be a completely different ballgame if it is right there before their eyes,” said David Grotto, spokesman for the American Dietetic Association and a registered dietitian. “It very well may cause them to think twice.”
In light of these regulations, I’m sure no one would object to a new law that would require notices to be posted — “where everyone can see” — in any place condoms are sold that there is “insufficient evidence” to determine whether condoms do anything to prevent the spread of the vast majority of STDs. (more…)
Ruben at No Room for Contraception has hit the nail on the head in explaining the increasingly obvious connection between birth control and abortion:
It’s a common assumption that contraception reduces the need for abortion in the United States. Yet the history of contraception and abortion in the 60s and 70s shows this assumption to be incorrect. (more…)
From a country where homeschooling is illegal and “offending” parents are jailed (see here, here, here, and here) comes this:
A German court decision earlier this month ordered a gynecologist who “botched” a patient’s contraceptive implant to pay €500 [around $650] a month in child support for the next 18 years. (The patient gave birth to a son nearly four years ago.)
This Irish Times article notes the reaction of the German newspaper Die Welt, which calls attention to the unspeakable psychological harm this case inflicts upon the boy:
“A child as a case for damages – this perverse idea has now been confirmed by one of Germany’s highest courts.” (more…)
The No Room for Contraception Blog reports on a new billboard campaign sponsored by the Diocese of Tulsa. They’re a response to a billboard campaign launched by the local Planned Parenthood affiliate that claims, “Birth Control is Easy.”
And, speaking of billboards, I’ve included below an e-mail we recently received from Judy Climer of Flint (MI) Right to Life, whose organization has put up over 50 billboards in the Flint area on behalf of the local affiliate of Black Americans for Life, with which she is also involved. To say the least, the campaign has gotten people talking:
I’ll share a little of our success with BAFL, and you use it however it will bless and help others in this battle to save life.
We bought a 10-billboard blitz to put out there for the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade in January of 2004, and the message was: “Abortion, the #1 Killer of African Americans.” (This board is on our website – www.FlintRTL.com)
I received a phone call from The Flint Journal (liberal newspaper), ironically, the exact day that the boards were going up. The reporter had talked to Jim Richardson, the Director of PP, and he told them they were giving out free coffee at the Coffee Beanery to “celebrate” Roe vs. Wade. She wanted to know what we were doing.
So., I told her we were breaking forth with the truth about how African Americans have been deceived by PP, that little black babies are aborted 3 times more often than babies of all other races (in MI, they accounted for 37% of the abortions) and it makes abortion the #1 killer of African Americans. (more…)
