Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Birth Control, Politics,etc

I recently saw this post, and it got me thinking. I have recently been looking a little closer at how most contraceptives work, and well, I am not happy with what I am finding.

So, in the beginning, the "pill" was meant to prevent ovulation and conception. Personally, I have no problems with contraceptives that are designed like this. But, it turns out that the "pill" was not effective enough. The hormones didn't work for everyone, so they decided to change it. Now, the "pills" also affect the uterine wall, which prevents implantation OR promotes a very early miscarriage. This is were most Christians (including myself) have problems. I believe life begins at conception. I don't want to add something to my body that will promote the loss of life. I know it happens naturally sometimes, but that doesn't mean I want it to happen artificially. Some might take the stand that preventing implantation is okay (often the medical definition of life begins at implantation), but what the "pill" does now even would be a loss of life to those people. This goes for the mini pill too! Oh, and the IUD. And the patch, and well, pretty much all non-barrier contraceptives...

So, now to Santorum's point. I am not completely up on politics. I live in a state with a later primary, so I am waiting until things "thin out" to look too closely. But, I wonder if SOME of his point is that this should be a state issue - not a federal issue. Our federal government has definitely overstepped its rights recently. If you look at the rolls of the federal government, many of the things our current government handles it shouldn't. The states have a lot less power than our founding fathers planned/desired/wanted.

Now, with that being said, do I think all contraceptives should be outlawed? No. I personally have 0 problem with the barrier options. Condoms, etc I don't think should ever be outlawed. But, I think those methods of birth control that do increase the likelihood of an early miscarriage should, at the VERY LEAST, be only offered once how they work is fully explained. People need to know that it isn't that much different than the morning after pill.

Now for those that say without contraceptives women are going to have a ton of babies are also wrong. There are also natural ways to control when you get pregnant. NFP, etc are almost as affective when you have regular cycles. Now there are devices to help even those with irregular cycles determine when they are fertile, which means a form of NFP can be used (I don't know if they are available in the US just yet, but one article I read said they are in Europe and the FDA is working on approving them here). But, it means women have to do a little more than taking a pill a day, which I guess some people don't want. But, if it was the only option, I bet most would use it! Add in the barrier options, and I bet our birth rates wouldn't change much. I would venture to bet that the abortion rate (assuming it was still legal) would even drop because women would be more aware of their bodies, etc...

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