There have been a couple of articles that have been published lately that lead to the one recently commented on by CNN. The study “showed” a clinically and significant reduction of abortion rates, repeat abortions and teenage birth rates. The saddest part of the story is that rather than a study showing the results of teaching the benefits of periodic abstinence and the benefits of natural family planning. Instead, we get a study that supports and encourages giving IUDs and implantable contraceptive devices to women and girls as young as teenagers. This is the third report that have been released that spins the Contraception story. The first touted the effectiveness of long term forms of contraception in stopping unwanted pregnancy. The second promotes the use of Long term contraception in girls as young as 14 years old. And now, the idea that providing these devices for free will cure the problem of unwanted pregnancy completes the trilogy.
The fact 46% of all pregnancies are unwanted is very sad, but it reflects the effects of the culture of death in another way. It is one thing when we attempt to commodify the conjugal act by using voluntary forms of contraception. Now we are seeing the development of a “set it and forget it” position designed to allow the enjoyment of sex without the consequence of pregnancy.It creates an environment based on hedonism, and sex loses its value as the supreme measure of married love.
However, just as the onset of the use of contraception in the 60’s has led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases and cervical cancer, removing the fear of pregnancy almost completely (failure rates 20 times lower than the 8-9% failure rate of the pill) may see an concomitant increase in these other unintended consequences. The fact that one of the outcomes was the reduction in teenage pregnancy shows that we are continuing to give up on teaching and demonstrating the benefits of sexual morality and the primary prevention that comes from avoiding premarital sexual activity, and moving towards the idea that “everybody does it, so it’s ok” and, instead, avoiding the consequential “disease “of pregnancy.
It is interesting that one of the measures is the reduction in repeat abortions, and that they saw that they found that the majority of abortions result from untended pregnancies. So in response to pro-life forces, they can demonstrate that if we just give in on this measure, that the resultant reduction in abortion would be the culmination of the infamous statement that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.”In fact, authors such as this intimate that if every girl at 9 received a gardasil shot, they would be protected from Cervical cancer (this despite the fact that the shot guards against a virus that is continually mutating), and if they get an IUD at 14, they can experiment with sex all they want and not get pregnant. Some even report that the incidence of PID is lower with women who use the modern IUD. So…to the uninformed, no cancer, no infection, no pregnancy, no problem… And, if you don’t want the icky IUD. we have a new implantable device that, while it might cause nagging spotting, works just as well. And we can forget about the abortifacient properties of such devices….because that is not even in the discussion.
. We cannot give up on our kids and re-establishing the culture of life. We have to teach
Related articles
- Free contraceptives reduce abortions, unintended pregnancies. Full stop. (washingtonpost.com)
