Today I received a book in the mail that I had ordered that deals with Natural Family Planning. This is the method JP and I have chosen to use in spacing out our children. Along with the book came a CD of a talk by a doctor named Janet Smith. The talk is titled "Contraception: Why Not?" I sat down and listened to it today and would encourage everyone to read the transcript here.
I personally am anti-contraception of any form, and I think Dr. Smith makes a very clear, Biblical argument against the use of contraceptives. I am fully aware that this will probably offend many of my readers, but that's okay. Just read the article. If you won't read all of it, at least read the second half of it. If you still disagree, so be it. Whatever you do, do it in faith.
Here are some points that Dr. Smith makes:
-In the 60's, the expectation was that contraceptives would make for better marriages, fewer unwanted pregnancies, and fewer abortions. None of these assumptions were correct, and she has stats on all of them.
-Statistics show that people who contracept in marriage generally have weaker marriages
-The rate of adultery has greatly increased since contraceptives came on the scene (if most every woman is contracepting, most every woman is available without consequence)
-From the article: "..When male and female participate in the sexual act, they have opened up the arena which God has designed for bringing forth new human life. And when they contracept, they are slamming that door in God's face. They're saying, 'We want to enjoy this pleasurable act that You gave us, but we do not want to let You perform Your creative act.' Now, I'm not saying that couples who are contracepting, are conscious that this is what they're doing. But, this is what the act itself means. It's much like drinking a little bit of poison in your orange juice. You might not know it's there, but it will have it's effect on you. You're not intentionally doing that, but that's what the act itself means."
-Contraceptives have negative physical effects on a woman's body, including increased irritability, depression, weight gain, and reduced libido. "Now, I don't know about the rest of you women, but I've been looking for a pill that will make me more irritable, more depressed, help me to gain weight, and reduce my libido so I can have sex."
And most importantly in my mind...
-THE PILL IS AN ABORTIFACIENT. Yes, it's true. Just read the insert that comes with your prescription. The pill's first line of defense is to prevent ovulation, but a woman's body can still have "breakthrough ovulation" without you even knowing it. If you do ovulate and the egg ends up getting fertilized (beginning of life), the pill will cause your uterus to reject the baby, thus aborting the child without you even knowing it.
So if you have a few extra minutes, please read the article. It's long, but it's worth it. In the end it also goes into the differences between Natural Family Planning and Contraceptives and why a Christian couple might opt for NFP.
If you want a free copy of the CD, click here.
7 comments:
I am a little confused. Are your motives for not using contraceptives because you don't want to use medical barriers to prevent children or because you don't want to try and alter the timing God has for your family?
We can time our family using the NFP method, and I think it is wise to do so. Timing is not the issue. The issue is blocking God's creative work with artificial methods, especially those that may abort my baby. God gave each woman a window of time during which He can bring forth new life. I say if you don't want to get pregnant, abstain during that window, don't set up medical barriers to stop it.
Okay, that I totally agree with. My husband and I also use NFP (for reasons very similar to yours). I just get very frustrated when people don't want to use the pill or condoms (or other artificial methods) because it's blocking God, but then say "we use NFP but use condoms when I'm fertile" to me, that is very contraditory.
And, I totally support your use of NFP - after talking to many of my married friends, I am amazed at how many eitehr chose to use NFP right from the start or switched to it early in the marriage. Religious and moral convictions aside, it's nice to see people going a natural route and not putting unneccessary drugs into their bodies.
To be honest, I hadn't even thought about the contradiction until listening to this CD, but I was struck with the truth of it.
Plus I think it's healthy for a marriage for the couple to abstain from time to time. One lady in the article called it a "honeymoon every month."
As a medical professional I am confused as to why you say " If you do ovulate and the egg ends up getting fertilized (beginning of life), the pill will cause your uterus to reject the baby, thus aborting the child without you even knowing it." If one does ovulate and its gets fertilized, the pill can't cause an abortion, the hormones do not work that way-you end up pregnant. That is why the pill is only 99% effective, several people get pregnant on the pill. The same goes for the "day after pill" though I am absolutely not in agreement with casual sex, I have to educate the clients that come in asking for it to, yes, "abort" their baby if they have one and I have to tell them that if they are pregnant that pill will do nothing to prevent a pregnancy. There are some pills that you can use that early on that do cause a hostile uterus which will shed that egg as you had described before but they are hard to find and not sold so commonly (because so many people don't want the ethically ramifications of that). I think NFP is great and I love the idea of less medicine! Maybe next time you go in with your daughter you can ask her MD to explain it to you.
I do know that Norplant, Depo-Provera, Progesterone only pills, the common low-dose contraceptive combination pills, and the IUD all work as abortifacients by preventing the implantation of the fertilized ovum.
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