Archive for the 'Contraception' Category

Pro-lifers have been warning for years about the physical side effects associated with various forms of birth control.

Note in particular this tragic story about a 25-year old mother who died after several days of terrible headaches caused by hormones released into her body from the Ortho Evra birth control patch.

These paragraphs from the article cited above caught my attention:

Though the Food and Drug Administration and patch-maker Ortho McNeil saw warning signs of possible problems with the patch well before it reached the market, both maintain that the patch is as safe as the pill.

However, the reports obtained by the AP appear to indicate that in 2004 — when 800,000 women were on the patch — the risk of dying or suffering a survivable blood clot while using the device was about three times higher than while using birth control pills.

The women who died were young and apparently at low risk for clots — women like Zakiya Kennedy, an 18-year-old Manhattan fashion student who collapsed and died in a New York subway station last April. Or Sasha Webber, a 25-year-old mother of two from Baychester, N.Y., who died of a heart attack after six weeks on the patch last March.

Some doctors, reviewing the Food and Drug Administration reports at the request of The AP, were alarmed. “I was shocked,” said Dr. Alan DeCherney, editor-in-chief of Fertility and Sterility and a UCLA professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

But other doctors said they would have expected some deaths and no investigation is warranted. (more…)

A big part of our job at Generations for Life is to serve as an educational resource for students.

We frequently get requests for information on abortion from students who are working on school-related projects on the subject, and from others who are seeking answers simply out of a desire to learn more about it.

This e-mail we received last week from Jenifer, a high school senior from Ontario, Canada, is one such example. I’m posting it here since the questions Jenifer raises are very common ones:

Dear Sir or Madame,

I am a high school senior who completed a Summit Ministries Conference this summer.

The reason I am emailing is because I need some help and Summit recommended you. You see my friends and I were talking about Abortion and we eventually turned to the topic of the day after pill. All of the other girls believed it should be use be cause they said “It takes three days for the sperm and egg to connect.” My sister told me that was nonsense and I believe her…but
I don’t have the proof! What do I say to something like that?!?!

If you could help me up I would appreciate it! I’ve been feeling overwhelmed!

Here’s our reply: (more…)

Not too long ago, my brother, Eric Scheidler, the communications director of the Pro-Life Action League sent me a PDF of the “Contraception Is Not the Answer” conference flyer to proof. In dutifully doing so, the name of one of the conference speakers struck me as familiar – Lionel Tiger. It’s not a name you can easily forget.

I immediately remembered seeing a book of his, The Decline of Males, sitting among a pile of other psychology books on my husband’s desk. When my husband got home, I mentioned that Lionel Tiger was going to be speaking at the Pro-Life Action League’s contraception conference. He couldn’t believe it and said he’d really like to hear him speak. We are now both attending the conference this weekend. Because of my husband’s enthusiasm, I went online to hear the teleseminar interviews. And after hearing Lionel Tiger, I too, was eager to hear his talk.

He comes from a very different perspective – science based, not faith based. I think he may even have a different opinion on the abortion issue, but during the seminar, he mentioned four times how grateful he was to “the people who are hosting this conference” and how this issue needs to be address – especially from a scientific point of view. I can’t wait to hear more from his perspective.

If you haven’t yet signed up for the conference, I encourage you to do so.

Last week, we received a press release from the Center for American Progress. It informed us of CAP’s new report titled More Than a Choice: A Progressive Vision for Reproductive Health and Rights.

Here’s an excerpt:

More than a Choice: A Progressive Vision for Reproductive Health and Rights, a report released today by the Center for American Progress, presents a new vision of reproductive rights that broadens the current discourse beyond the stagnant abortion debate.

And what does this “new vision” consist of?

Progressives can expand the definition of reproductive rights by equally embracing the rights to have or not have children—with a partner of one’s choosing and in a time and manner that honors one’s conscience and life circumstances—and by placing abortion within its appropriate context as one of a wide range of important reproductive rights issues.

What CAP is basically saying is this:

Have sex if you’re married; have sex if you’re unmarried — we’re in no position to say whether one is right and one is wrong.

Use birth control; don’t use birth control — we’re in no position to say whether one is right and one is wrong.

Give birth to a child; abort a child — we’re in no position to say whether one is right and one is wrong.

Reading CAP’s press release brought to mind these words of G. K. Chesterton:

When men have come to the edge of a precipice, it is the lover of life who has the spirit to leap backwards, and only the pessimist who continues to believe in progress.

I couldn’t help but notice something about the babies on the cover of the More Than a Choice report [PDF].

Open the link and notice what the babies are not doing.

I’m sure CAP paid a hefty sum for the photo shoot out of which came this cover picture. Isn’t it interesting, then, that they apparently couldn’t even get one picture where the babies were smiling?

Not only that, but the baby on the right looks to be on the verge of tears.

My theory: Born babies have a sixth sense for detecting shameless propaganda aimed at convincing people there’s nothing wrong with killing unborn babies.

Oddly enough, the same thing happened in the July issue of Vogue, which did a puff piece on the new president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards — she was shown sitting at her desk, with a toddler on her lap, along with four other toddlers — none of whom is smiling.

Early registration by mail for the Pro-Life Action League’s “Contraception Is Not the Answer” conference has already ended, but online registration is still available until midnight Eastern Time today, September 11, 2006.

After today, the standard registration fee of $100 kicks in. That’s still a great deal for eight great speakers and an oustanding program of talks on the ways that contraception has impacted out society. But if you register online now with your credit card, your registration fee will be only $85 per person—an outstanding value for the most important pro-life conference of the decade.

Our own Eric Scheidler will be on Relevant Radio’s Drew Mariani Show at 3:00pm Central Time today to talk about the Pro-Life Action League’s “Contraception Is Not the Answer” conference September 22-23.

You can listen online or find a list of local affiliates here.

Today’s Chicago Tribune has an excellent article on government-sanctioned eugenics programs that existed in many U.S. states until as recently as the 1970s.

The article focuses in particular on 52-year old Elaine Riddick, who was sterilized without her knowledge at age 14:

After Riddick became pregnant from a rape, doctors on the Eugenics Board of North Carolina decided in 1968 that she was too “feeble-minded” to ever be a good mother and wanted to ensure that she never would get pregnant again. So doctors tied her tubes and didn’t tell her…

“What they did to me was totally inhumane. Death would have been better because it would have been over,” said Riddick, who has battled depression. “This is a story that must be told. So I pulled myself up from the hole . . . where I had hidden for many years. And when I told the story, I could hold my head up high for the first time.” (more…)

The Pro-Life Action League’s next “Contraception Is Not the Answer” teleseminar is tonight, September 5, at 8:00 p.m. Central Time (9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific).

The call will feature Dr. Lionel Tiger and Dr. Allan Carlson.

Dr. Tiger is the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University. He is best known for developing the concept of male bonding in Men in Groups.

Tiger’s book The Decline of Males examines the consequences of giving women unprecedented control of human reproduction. Addressing the topic of contraception from a secular perspective, he speculates that males are on the path to obsolescence and that widespread contraceptive practice has led to general family breakdown.

Dr. Carlson is president of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society. He has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Family and Human Services and has lectured worldwide on family issues. At the “Contraception Is Not the Answer” conference later this month, Carlson, a Protestant, will deliver a talk entitled “The Protestant Embrace of Contraception.”

If you’d like to hear what these two speakers have to say tonight — or if you would like to be able to hear online recordings of all our preview teleseminars, register here.

Queen Latifah was one of the presenters at yesterday’s MTV Video Music Awards. Before introducing Al Gore — who talked to a fawning audience about global warming — she talked about how population growth over the last century amounted to “messing with Mother Nature”.

How ironic: It’s an awards show in the year 2006 highlighting contemporary music, but how much more Stuck In The Sixties can you get than to wring your hands about overpopulation?

It’s as if Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb had just hit bookstore shelves (and thus had not yet been proven completely wrong), and the writers of Star Trek were still hard at work producing birth control propaganda.

The sign says it all:

The Pro-Life Action League’s next “Contraception Is Not the Answer” teleseminar is tonight, August 31, at 8:00 p.m. Central Time (9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific). The call will feature two of the most articulate and knowledgeable authorities on what makes for a strong marriage — and how marriage is undermined by contraception.

Damon Clarke Owens, founder of Joy Filled Marriage, will give a preview of his talk, “‘The Perfect Family’: How Contraception Affects Marriage and the Home.”

Jennifer Roback-Morse, author and research fellow at the Acton Institute, will tell us about her conference talk entitled, “Women’s Liberation? The Cultural Contradictions of Contraception.”

If you’d like to hear what these two speakers have to say tonight — or if you would like to be able to hear online recordings of all our preview teleseminars, register here.

Close followers of the the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate will recognize that contraception now occupies a prominent position on the battlefield.

And not just potentially abortifacient “emergency contraception,” mind you, such as the FDA approved for over-the-counter sales this morning, but contraception per se.

It’s no surprise that self-styled pro-choicers are making a conscious effort to shift discussion away from abortion, because they know they’re up against the ropes in the arena of public opinion.

Hence, the pro-choice movement’s increased attention on birth control: From a PR standpoint, they think they have a winner.

This is precisely why pro-lifers cannot back away from this issue.

No doubt, opposition to contraception is a much harder sell to the general public than opposition to abortion. But that’s no excuse to shrug our shoulders and keep quiet.

On the contrary, we as pro-lifers have to keep the issue of birth control front and center, alongside abortion, where it belongs. (more…)

Not unexpectedly, but no less unfortunately, this morning the FDA approved over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill to women 18 and older.

Backers of the FDA’s decision can send their “Thank you for your support” letters to the current occupant of:

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

(more…)

On Tuesday, August 22 the Pro-Life Action League will launch a series of three dynamic teleseminars, featuring speakers from the League’s upcoming “Contraception Is Not the Answer” conference, Sept. 22-23.

The first teleseminar, to begin at 8 p.m. Central Time, will feature the League’s Joe and Eric Scheidler, speaking with Sacred Heart Seminary Professor Janet Smith and Human Life International Director Fr. Tom Euteneuer. Topics will include the profound impact that contraception has on relationships and the spiritual effects of contraception.

Only a limited number of tele-slots are available, so to access the phone-in number and special passcode, register now:

• Register now for the FREE pro-life teleseminars

Future teleseminars will be held August 31 and September 5. All calls begin at 8 p.m. Central (9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific) and will last one hour. Register now to gain access to these great teleseminars, as well as the archived recordings.

Working for a pro-life activist organization, I’ve come to realize that hate mail is one of the things that comes with the territory.

As nasty as hate mail can be, there’s something about it that tells me we must be doing something right.

After all, if those who want to keep abortion legal weren’t concerned that pro-life activism really is effective, they wouldn’t go to the trouble of contacting us.

Instead, they would simply ignore us.

But they don’t, and for the past several years, we’ve continually received a steady stream of hate mail.

Case in point — this e-mail we received earlier this week:
(more…)

For too long the pro-life movement has been reluctant to face the issue of contraception head-on. Most pro-lifers know in their gut there’s something wrong with contraception, and that flooding our society with condoms, pills, patches and injections ultimately leads to more abortion, not less.

Contraception severs the link between sexual intimacy and the creation of new human life, a link which is right at the center of God’s plan for humanity, created “male and female” in his image, an interpersonal communion which in its capacity to give life echoes the inner mystery of God Himself, the Author of Life. Once separated from this essential mytsery, sexual intimacy becomes an end in itself. The conception of new human life becomes a “mistake,” and the answer is abortion.

(more…)