CONTRACEPTION

Some dictionaries simply define contraception as ‘birth control.’ Planned Parenthood’s website says “birth control is how you prevent pregnancy before it begins,” which is certainly not accurate. As you’ll discover, some contraception methods end a human life after your child is conceived.

This may be the most important information you ever read.  Your health, even your life, and especially the life of your future child, depends on your willingness to be informed on what you put in your body.

This information is based on far-ranging scientific studies, for which we provide attribution.  In other words, the real risk contraception poses to your health and life isn’t based on opinion.  It is based on science.

KINDS OF HORMONAL CONTRACEPTION

  • Combined estrogen/progestin:  These formulations use two types of artificial hormones, estrogen and progestin, to disrupt the normal healthy functioning of a woman’s fertility cycle.  The most common forms of these preparations are orally ingested pills taken daily, such as Lo Ovral, Loestrin, Yaz®, and Seasonique; patches changed weekly such as Ortho Evra; and vaginal rings worn 3 weeks, then out for 1 week, such as NuvaRing®.
  • Progestin only:  These formulations do not contain any estrogen. Rather, they have only one of several types of progestin, which can be taken either orally; by injection; via implants worn under the skin for three years, such as Implanon; or via an intrauterine device worn up to three years, such as Mirena®.

How contraception works

Hormonal contraceptives disrupt your fertility using three recognized mechanisms, according to FDA labeling for Mirena®, NuvaRing®, Ortho Evra, Ortho-Cyclen, and Seasonique:

  • They prevent ovulation, which is the release of an egg from the ovary into the fallopian tube.
  • They cause mucus in the cervix to change so that if sperm reaches the cervix, it is more difficult for them to enter.
  • They thin the lining of the uterus so that if the first two actions fail and a new human being is created, the baby will die before he/she can attach to the lining of the uterus.

Is it safe?

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified combined hormonal contraceptives as Group 1 carcinogens.
  • Side effects include susceptibility to the AIDS virus since the Pill weakens your immune system.
  • WHO research also identifies an increased risk of cervical/breast cancers, stroke, blood clots, death, heart attack, liver cancer, ectopic pregnancy, and infertility for women using hormonal contraceptives.
  • It provides no protection against sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs).

Studies

  • Women who started hormonal contraception before age 18 have a 90% increased risk for breast cancer and a 370% increased risk for “triple negative” breast cancer.
  • Women who use hormonal contraceptives before their 1st birth have a 44% increased risk of breast cancer.2
  • Women who use contraceptives 11 years or longer are at a 210% increased risk of breast cancer. (By contrast, smoking ‘only’ increases the risk of breast cancer by 25%.)3

Definitions

FERTILIZATION is when a unique human life begins.  This ‘conception’ process begins when a sperm penetrates an oocyte, creating a brand new human life.

IMPLANTATION is the attachment process of the now 5 to 7 day old baby to the lining of his/her mother’s uterus.

Science states that human life begins at fertilization.  The pill prevents this developing human from implanting in the lining of the uterus, effectively aborting your child’s life.

Is the Pill effective?

No.  It is important for you to understand its significant failure rate.

Planned Parenthood’s website describes the Pill’s effectiveness this way:

“When used perfectly, the pill is 99% effective. But when it comes to real life, the pill is about 91% effective because it can be hard to be perfect.”

As reported in the New York Times, for typical use, 61 out of 100 women who use the pill become pregnant within a decade. The Times' cited research by James Trussell, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton’s Office of Population Research.  He described ‘typical use’ like this:

“This is the norm, reflecting the effectiveness of each method for the average couple who do not always use it correctly or consistently.”

Projecting this lack of effectiveness over time, the fail rate hits 38% by year five before ballooning to 61% by year ten.

Can you count on the Pill to do what it says it will do?  You be the judge.  Are you perfect?

EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION

What is the “Morning After Pill” (MAP)?

The Morning After Pill contains a high dosage of the hormone progestin, and when used as directed, prevents or ends pregnancy.  It is marketed as an “emergency contraceptive.”  It is also known as Plan B.

How is MAP taken?

It is designed to be taken in two doses.  The first pill is supposed to be taken within the first 72 hours after intercourse, followed by the second pill 12 hours later.

How does MAP work?

Here is what it does to your body:

•Suppresses ovulation (female egg production in the ovary).

•Thickens mucus in your cervix which blocks sperm passage.

•Irritates your uterus lining, making it hostile to implantation, resulting

in abortion.

So, is MAP contraception or abortion?

Yes.  You’re never sure, because MAP works as a contraceptive by suppressing ovulation.  However, if you have conceived, it effectively ends the life of your child, as described above.  That’s why the chemicals in morning-after pills (high-dosages of the hormone progestin) are properly identified as “abortifacients.”

Hold on, the FDA and Planned Parenthood say that MAP is not an abortifacient.

What gives?

When does human life begin?  Check out highly regarded textbooks on embryology.4,5,6 They say it is when the sperm and ovum, neither of which can sustain life or direct growth by itself, come together at fertilization. For the first time the new life has all 46 chromosomes and all the directions (DNA) it needs for the rest of life.  The sex of the baby, the color of the hair, everything is already fixed.

The FDA and Planned Parenthood simply redefined the beginning of life from fertilization to implantation, which occurs about a week after conception.  This redefinition of when human life begins was based on political and economic considerations, not biological or ethical ones.

WHAT ARE THE  health risks OF MAP?

When conception has taken place, MAP is typically fatal to your child.  However, in the rush to make the morning after pill available, studies to determine the risks of long term and repeated use of heavy doses of progestin to YOUR body were not carried out.  As pointed out previously in this Resource Book for Women, even low doses present health risks to women, according to the United Nation’s World Health Organization.

In addition, you may experience these additional side effects:

  • Heavier menstrual bleeding
  • Nausea
  • Fatigue
  • HeadacheDizziness

Will MAP protect me from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)?

No.

 

MORE

 

Birth Control Can Cause Blood Clots

Using estrogen-based birth control (pills, patches, and rings) comes with a risk of blood clots, though it’s relatively small. The overwhelming majority of women on birth control pills do not have problems.

But, it’s important to note that smoking, being obese, or having a family history of clotting disorders while you’re taking estrogen can all increase the risk.

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Is RU-486 Safe?

In this type of non-surgical abortion the first pill called mifepristone is given at the Planned Parenthood or other abortion clinic and is used up until 9 weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone counteracts the natural pregnancy hormone progesterone, which is critical to maintaining a pregnancy. Without progesterone the placenta fails, cutting off oxygen and nutrition to the baby, resulting in his/her death. The patient leaves the clinic after the first pill and is instructed to take the second pill, misoprostol, 36 to 72 hours later. Misoprostol causes the contractions which will then expel the dead baby within several hours or a few days. RU-486 is advertised as a very safe abortion method, but when a San Francisco abortion clinic administered the pill to 18-year-old Holly Patterson, she suffered the ultimate abortion complication. Holly died a week later from a massive infection as a result of fragments of the fetus left inside her uterus which caused her to go into septic shock.

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When Does Life Begin?

It is the central question in the abortion debate: when does life begin?

Science teaches without reservation that life begins at fertilization (conception). It is a scientific fact that an organism exists after fertilization that did not exist before. This new organism has its own DNA distinct from the mother and father, meaning that it is a unique person. As the embryo grows, it develops a heartbeat (22 days after fertilization), its own circulatory system, and its own organs. From fertilization, it is a new organism that is alive and will continue to grow and develop as long as nutrition is provided and its life is not ended through violence or illness.

DNA

Artistic metal representation of DNA double-helix structure.

It is indisputably human, as it has human DNA.

The offspring of two members of a species is always the same type of creature as the parents. No two dogs will ever conceive and give birth to a cat; no fish egg will ever produce a snake. According to all the laws of nature, the preborn baby is human.

Scientific textbooks proclaim this fact. Keith L. Moore’s The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology (7th edition, Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003) states the following:

A zygote [fertilized egg] is the beginning of a new human being. Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete … unites with a female gamete or oocyte … to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marks the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.

 

“Zygote” is a scientific term for the new life that is created when the sperm and the egg combine. “Oocyte” is another term for the egg cell, the cell released by woman’s ovary, which travels down the Fallopian tube and is fertilized by the male sperm.

The author of this scientific textbook, Keith L. Moore, is a world-renowned embryologist. He has written a number of definitive books on embryology, and his scientific knowledge and experience are vast and beyond reproach. Few medical students can complete their careers without studying from his textbooks.

Moore puts it even more plainly in Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology (7thedition, Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2008, p. 2):

[The zygote], formed by the union of an oocyte and a sperm, is the beginning of a new human being.

Here is an example from another scientific work.

From Human Embryology & Teratology (Ronan R. O’Rahilly, Fabiola Muller [New York: Wiley-Liss, 1996], 5-55):

Fertilization is an important landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed[.]

This third embryology textbook is as clear as the first two – fertilization is the beginning of new life and the start of a new, distinct human organism.

From T.W. Sadler, Langman’s Medical Embryology (10th edition, Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006, p. 11):

Development begins with fertilization, the process by which the male gamete, the sperm, and the femal gamete, the oocyte, unite to give rise to a zygote.

And in another source (Ronan O’Rahilly and Fabiola Miller, Human Embryology and Teratology [3rd edition, New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001, p. 8]):

Although life is a continuous process, fertilization … is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte.

Read more here

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What is the “Morning After Pill” (MAP)?

The Morning After Pill contains a high dosage of the hormone progestin, and when used as directed, prevents or ends pregnancy.  It is marketed as an “emergency contraceptive.”  It is also known as Plan B.

How is MAP taken?

It is designed to be taken in two doses.  The first pill is supposed to be taken within the first 72 hours after intercourse, followed by the second pill 12 hours later.

How does MAP work?

Here is what it does to your body:

•Suppresses ovulation (female egg production in the ovary).

•Thickens mucus in your cervix which blocks sperm passage.

•Irritates your uterus lining, making it hostile to implantation, resulting

in abortion.

So, is MAP contraception or abortion?

Yes.  You’re never sure, because MAP works as a contraceptive by suppressing ovulation.  However, if you have conceived, it effectively ends the life of your child, as described above.  That’s why the chemicals in morning-after pills (high-dosages of the hormone progestin) are properly identified as “abortifacients.”

Hold on, the FDA and Planned Parenthood say that MAP is not an abortifacient. 

What gives?

When does human life begin?  Check out highly regarded textbooks on embryology.4,5,6 They say it is when the sperm and ovum, neither of which can sustain life or direct growth by itself, come together at fertilization. For the first time the new life has all 46 chromosomes and all the directions (DNA) it needs for the rest of life.  The sex of the baby, the color of the hair, everything is already fixed.

The FDA and Planned Parenthood simply redefined the beginning of life from fertilization to implantation, which occurs about a week after conception.  This redefinition of when human life begins was based on political and economic considerations, not biological or ethical ones.

WHAT ARE THE  health risks OF MAP?

When conception has taken place, MAP is typically fatal to your child.  However, in the rush to make the morning after pill available, studies to determine the risks of long term and repeated use of heavy doses of progestin to YOUR body were not carried out.  As pointed out previously in this Resource Book for Women, even low doses present health risks to women, according to the United Nation’s World Health Organization.

Click on the article below for proof that the morning after bill IS in fact an abortifacient and does in fact end a unique human being.

CLICK HERE

Is The Pill Effective?

No.  It is important for you to understand its significant failure rate.

Planned Parenthood’s website describes the Pill’s effectiveness this way:

“When used perfectly, the pill is 99% effective. But when it comes to real life, the pill is about 91% effective because it can be hard to be perfect.”

As reported in the New York Times, for typical use, 61 out of 100 women who use the pill become pregnant within a decade. The Times' cited research by James Trussell, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton’s Office of Population Research.  He described ‘typical use’ like this:  

“This is the norm, reflecting the effectiveness of each method for the average couple who do not always use it correctly or consistently.”

Projecting this lack of effectiveness over time, the fail rate hits 38% by year five before ballooning to 61% by year ten.

Can you count on the Pill to do what it says it will do?  You be the judge.  Are you perfect?

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Is the Pill Safe?

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified combined hormonal contraceptives as Group 1 carcinogens.
  • Side effects include susceptibility to the AIDS virus since the Pill weakens your immune system.
  • WHO research also identifies an increased risk of cervical/breast cancers, stroke, blood clots, death, heart attack, liver cancer, ectopic pregnancy, and infertility for women using hormonal contraceptives.
  • It provides no protection against sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs).

Studies

  • Women who started hormonal contraception before age 18 have a 90% increased risk for breast cancer and a 370% increased risk for “triple negative” breast cancer.1
  • Women who use hormonal contraceptives before their 1st birth have a 44% increased risk of breast cancer.2
  • Women who use contraceptives 11 years or longer are at a 210% increased risk of breast cancer. (By contrast, smoking ‘only’ increases the risk of breast cancer by 25%.)3

Proven Risks and Side Effects of Contraceptives

  • Increased frequency of blood clots
  • Increased frequency of high blood pressure
  • Increased frequency of migraines
  • Increased frequency of depression
  • Increased frequency of breast cancer
  • Increased frequency of contracting and transmitting HIV
  • Loss of libido

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Does the Pill Cause Breast Cancer?

Scientific medical studies have identified a link between the use of artificial hormones and breast cancer.  In 2005, the World Health Organization classified oral contraceptives as a Group 1 carcinogen, along with tobacco, arsenic, and asbestos, the most dangerous classification known.7

Likewise, a comprehensive meta-analysis8 published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings in October 2006 found that 21 out of 23 retrospective studies done since 1980 showed that women who took oral contraceptives prior to the birth of their first child sustained a 44% average increased risk of developing pre-menopausal breast cancer.  This risk rose to 52% for women who took the Pill for at least four years prior to the birth of their first child.

How could the Pill increase my risk of breast cancer?

Birth control pills are made from synthetic estrogens and/or progestins.  Experiments have shown that these hormones cause women’s breast cells to divide more rapidly.9  Cells that divide more rapidly are more prone to develop into cancer cells.

Teenage girls are especially vulnerable to breast cancer risk since their breasts are growing. Most have not yet developed cancer-resistant Type 3 lobules through a full-term pregnancy, making them especially susceptible to the cancer-causing potential of contraceptive steroids (birth control pills).

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Is the Pill a Steroid?

Yes. Steroids are banned for professional athletes because they’re dangerous to their health.

The dangerous performance enhancing steroids taken by athletes are male steroid hormonal drugs that build muscle.  According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,  risks associated with their use include liver cancer, kidney disease, enlarged heart, high blood pressure, and increased risk of stroke and heart attack, even in the young.

Similarly, female steroid hormonal drugs build breast tissue.  Like male steroid hormonal drugs, the risks are serious and include increased danger of breast cancer (see above), and even liver and cervical cancers.

An article in Scientific American10 reports on studies that birth control pills even appear to remodel brain structure in women.

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Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Ethical adult stem cell research in line with Church teaching IS being conducted! There is no justification for the taking of human life through the destruction of embryos. To date no cures have been found via embryonic stem cell research, rather, it has proven to be a dead-end for both the diseases and conditions researchers purport to be trying to cure with this research in addition to the embryonic life sacrificed in the process. For more information on a moral approach to stem cell research, see below.

The John Paul II Medical Research Institute (JP2MRI) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance research and education on stem research in a manner consistent with a pro-life bioethics.  JP2MRI is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity, as defined by the Internal Revenue Service. The Institute strictly focuses on adult stem cell and induced pluripotent stem cell research and education. The Institute's goal is to focus on reducing the barriers to translate basic research into clinical research.  JP2SRI mission is to coordinate research activities between the Institute, academia and industry and to find treatment solutions for patients with disorders that could potentially benefit from adult and umbilical cord stem cells.

JP2MRI was founded by Dr. Alan Moy.  Dr. Moy is a physician-scientist whose previous academic appointment was at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and College of Engineering.  He is also the Founder and President of Cellular Engineering Technologies Inc., a biotechnology company located in Iowa, which focuses on preclinical industrial applications in adult and umbilical cord stem cell research.  Dr. Moy is currently a practicing physician and holds an Adjunct Associate Professor position in the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa.

The Institute represents an opportunity for pro-life individuals to support ethical-derived stem cell research consistent with pro-life values.  JP2MRI         DOES NOT conduct human embryonic stem cell research and does not perform therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer.

The majority of donations are directed toward research and education. There is low administrative overhead.

The Give Cures program offers an opportunity to provide support for the JP2 Medical Research Institute.   You can learn more at http://jp2mri.org.

AN ETHICAL DILEMMA

Human life at the earliest stage is still a life, valued, loved and created by God.  To use and kill a human being for research is a moral evil, but ignored and approved of by many.  What is disappointing is the number of groups that support the killing of embryos for research. See list here.

The challenge is daunting when well known and popular groups who raise funding for cancer research also support embryonic stem cell research and many times people who support only ethical research unknowingly donate to those organizations.  Even worse is the prospect that patients may one day be faced with the moral dilemma of choosing between a cure and having a clear conscience.

The good news is there is an alternative--Give Cures.  You can help...share the flyer and  Give today!

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ABORTION/BREAST CANCER LINK

"It is known that having a full-term pregnancy early in a woman's childbearing years is protective against breast cancer....Interruption during the first trimester of a first pregnancy causes a cessation of cell differentiation, which may result in a subsequent increase in the risk of cancerous growth in these tissues." [Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. Web site, "Abortion and Breast Cancer: The Issues" 3 (visited Sep. 5, 1997) http://www.igc.apc.org/ppfa/ab-breas.html]

In our last Rose Review, we offered some websites where you could get information regarding the link between abortion and breast cancer. I hope many of you took the opportunity to become informed about the truth behind what many in the pro-abort community would like to keep secret: that there is indeed a significant link between having had an abortion and developing breast cancer at a young age.

Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., F.A.C.S., a New Jersey breast cancer surgeon, became suspicious of why her young, thirty-something patients were developing breast cancer. After all, wasn’t this the “grandma disease”? Analysis of her own data showed that 30% of women in their thirties with breast cancer had no family history, but did have an abortion; whereas in her older patients, only 15% had had abortions.

Epidemiologists use six criteria to determine if an association is in fact causal. The six criteria were all met in linking abortion to breast cancer. They are:

  • The exposure or risk must precede the disease. (Women who developed breast cancer had previous abortions)
  • The preponderance of the studies must show an association. (28 out of 37 studies report an association between abortion and breast cancer)
  • The studies must include statistically significant studies. (By 1995, 17 studies worldwide [8 studies included American women] showed a statistically significant link between abortion and breast cancer.)
  • There must be a plausible biologic basis. The physiology of the breast provides the best evidence of the link between abortion and breast cancer. If a pregnancy is terminated before the 32nd week, the woman is left with an increased number of Type 1 and 2 lobules, which are the most sensitive to the carcinogenic effects of estrogen.
  • There should be a dose effect, meaning the more you are exposed to a risk, the higher the risk. A study by Melbye et al, 1997, showed that for every week you delay an abortion, the risk of breast cancer increases by 3%. His study showed a statistically significant increase risk of breast cancer among women with second trimester abortions.
  • There must be a relative risk of over 3.0, or a 200% increased risk. (Teenagers less than 18 years of age who have abortions between nine and twenty-four weeks gestation have an 800% increased risk, or a relative risk of 9.0 according to the National Cancer Institute’s  commissioned study, Daling et al, 1994. They found the teenage girl’s risk increased to infinity if she also had a family history of breast cancer. This was because all the women in her study who had a family history of breast cancer and had also had an abortion at age 18 or younger, developed breast cancer by the age of 45.

A simple look at the number of breast cancers worldwide since the easy availability of abortion, shows further proof of the link. According to an article by Dr. Lanfranchi for the USCCB, the incidence of breast cancer in the United States has increased to 40% since the legalization of abortion. In Romania, they enjoyed one of the lowest rates of breast cancer anywhere while abortion was outlawed. Now that abortion is legal there, their breast cancer rate is one of the highest in the world. In the United Kingdom, breast cancer rates parallel abortion rates. And China has seen a 40% increase in breast cancer since implementing the one-child-per-family policy and forced abortions.

This is not to say that every woman who develops breast cancer has had an abortion. There are several risk factors for breast cancer, including age, family history, genetics, having the first child after the age of 30 or never having a child, early menstruation(before age 12), late menopause(after age 50), heavy smoking and/or alcohol use, obesity, and prolonged use of hormone replacement therapy(HRT). One of the first studies to discover the link between HRT and breast cancer, was the Million Woman Study done in Great Britain from 1996 -2001. 1,084,110 women aged 50 to 64 were involved. Within 1.5 years, researchers saw an increase in breast cancer from women who had already been taking HRT. Within 4.5 years they saw a significant increase in breast cancer among women who had begun HRT with the initiation of the study. The study was intended to last for 10 years, but was halted because of the high incidence of breast cancer among the participants. The most significant increase in breast cancer followed the use of oestrogen- progestagen combinations rather than from other types of HRT. This study and others like it have led to a decrease in usage of HRT for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. But what about oral contraceptive use? If an increase in estrogen following an abortion is linked to breast cancer. And increased levels of estrogen in HRT are linked to breast cancer. Doesn’t it make sense that increased levels of estrogen in oral contraceptives, especially the higher doses found in emergency contraceptives such as Plan B, would also increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer? In separate studies published in 2006 in the “New England Journal of Medicine”, the October edition of “Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention”, and the October issue of “Mayo Clinic Proceedings”, the use of oral contraceptives was confirmed as increasing the risk of developing breast cancer. It goes back to the physiology of the breast. Until a woman has her first full-term pregnancy, her breasts are made up of Type 1 and 2 lobules, which are highly sensitive to the carcinogenic effects of estrogen. The more estrogen a woman is exposed to in her lifetime, the higher her risk of developing breast cancer. So, if abortion increases the risk of breast cancer, and oral contraceptives increase the risk of breast cancer, why does Planned Parenthood continue to say they are a business that cares about the health of women? Why do they oppose any legislation that requires women to get the truth?

Please check out the following websites for detailed information:

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