Let us begin with the contraceptivepill. It purports to be a medicine of some sort. It is in fact a steroid. It is prescribed by doctors and bought in pharmaceutical chemists, but is given to the healthy! Its status as a medicine-for-the-healthy should have condemned it in the eyes of thinking people before it was ever manufactured. Medicine and doctors are for the unhealthy. Doctors are called upon to assist nature in healing herself when some malady or injury has disrupted the proper workings of the body. The doctor's job is to determine what has gone wrong, what is at the root of the unpleasant symptoms, and how to assist the healing process. Strictly speaking the healthy have no place at the doctor's.
Despite this the contraceptive pill is "prescribed" for the healthy so that their reproductive system will malfunction and they will not conceive even when they carry out an act whose whole nature is a planting of seed which, in healthy circumstances, may well take root and grow. There never was such a travesty of medicine as this.
The advent of the contraceptive pill has been the beginning of an absurd era in "medicine" wherein the doctor has been called upon to damage the healthy instead of curing the sick.
What exactly is the damage done? We must distinguish between the damage intended, and the damaging side-effects.
The damage intended is the suppression of ovulation in the woman. Monthly ovulation is the way a woman's system works. That is the way God made her. It's as crazy to try to stop ovulation as to try to stop your finger nails growing, your blood circulating, your food digesting or your heart beating. Of course there are individual differences in our bodily functions - we all have slightly different pulse rates, and our personal rate is itself a variable, but such differences do not constitute malfunctions requiring medical attention. Similarly women have varying lengths of menstrual cycle but do not automatically need medical attention on that account. Where there are genuinely pathological conditions such as serious haemorrhaging then of course medical assistance is required and it could be that a pill which is the only way to cure the problem could have unintended but tolerable sterilising side-effects.
A pill swallowed precisely to impede the natural functions of the healthy body is a poison, not a medicine. Pope John Paul very rightly went further and spoke of the atheism of contraception because contraception constitutes a rejection of the natural and God-made functioning of the reproductive system. People are usually satisfied with their other bodily gifts, and do not for example attempt to have four or six fingers. But they think they can do better than God when it comes to the reproductive gifts.
The idea that doctors may inflict damage as well as heal has made it much easier for them to move from caring to killing. Unborn children in their millions have been paying for this development with their lives.
Damaging Side-Effects. (a) Physical.
The unintended physical damage of contraceptive pills to the woman consists in circulatory troubles and cancer. Below I give a short list of publications which have amply documented these hazards.
Next, the movement of the tiny embryo along the fallopian tubes is impeded, giving rise to tubal pregnancies, lethal for the baby and very dangerous for the mother.
There is also the possibility of lethal damage to the offspring who may be conceived despite everything. The pill interferes with the lining of the womb and the newly conceived embryo finds itself unable to implant in the unnaturally inhospitable environment. The result is a very early abortion. (This horrible result may not be intended by the woman but should be quite obvious to the doctor.)
Damaging Side Effects: (b) Social.
Finally, there are the social consequences - an epidemic offornication, adultery, divorce, and abortion.
More fornication: if the use of human sexuality need not entail child bearing then inevitably people begin to think - why bother getting married? And if the "burden" of childbearing is removed a former disincentive to casual sex is also removed.
Marital infidelity is also similarly invited by the contraceptive ethos. If conception can be prevented discovery is less likely.
Divorce Marital infidelity leads readily to divorce. But this is not the only or even the major route by which contraception fosters the current epidemic of divorce. In contraceptive intercourse there is a refusal of the married partners to give to one another. Something essential and God-made is held back. Fruitful personal love is not wanted. The woman is being used as an object, not loved as a person. The same applies to the man. In these circumstances the bond between them is not strong enough to withstand the assaults of daily trials.
And this is still not all. The human sexual apparatus cannot function without stimulation from the brain. The pill, if effective, actually prevents the brain from initiating ovulation, besides causing over 100 other chemical changes in the body (as admitted by a prominent abortionist Dr Malcolm Potts). Here you are interfering with your own brain in a most delicate area. You simply cannot do so without risking damage to sexual attraction. Constant consumption of the pill can lead to the woman losing her desire for her husband, and thereupon the marriage is in difficulties. A 1974 study of the Royal College of G.Ps. found that divorce was twice as common among pill users as among non-users.
More Demand For Abortion.
And we are still not finished with the horrors of this diabolical creation. The pill is anti-baby. It invites intercourse in circumstances in which the couple are in no way prepared to accept the responsibilities of bringing up a child. But the child is often conceived nonetheless, as contraceptives have failure rates and users do not necessarily stick to the rules. And so we have the flood of demand for abortion now running at nearly 200 000 a year by surgical means alone in Britain.
Other Forms of Contraception Usually they are barriers of some sort resulting in an act which is not at all the God-made act of love. God intends a man to have intercourse with his wife, not with a bit of rubber or plastic.
Conclusion: The pill has been the master stroke of the devil in our times, the perfect diabolical reply to the opportunities of grace released by the Second Vatican Council. I believe there may have been a close connection. Pope John XXIII announced the Council on 25th Jan 1959. Europe was then recovering from the ravages of World War II. Her population was blossoming and the Council inspired hopes of a new springtime for Christianity. Was it only the luck of the devil that his agents began to market the contraceptive pill in that same year 1959, after a long period of research?
We cannot be certain of the extent of Satan's power, but we can be confident that he can only postpone the moment of grace. One day, perhaps soon, people will waken up to the current apostasy of the medical profession from its true calling to heal the sick, and they will demand reform. They will find that the Church is still waiting for them with her message of salvation.
Rev. James Morrow.
Bibliography: (A) Books and Booklets: Birth Control - Why are they lying to women ? by J.C. Espinbosa, M.D. Published by Human Life International, 7845 Airpark Road, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20879, U.S.A.
Contraception - The Truth, by H.P. Dunn, FRCS, FRCOG. Published by P.S.R.S. c/o Immaculate Heart Trust, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Chapeltown, Braes of Glenlivet, Moray, Scotland.
The Splintered Image - An International Pro-Life Conference Report Published by The Human Life Council, c/o Humanae Vitae House, Braemar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
The Bitter Pill by Dr Ellen Grant. Published by Transworld Publishers Ltd., 61 Uxbridge Rd., Ealing, London, England.
Birth Control and The Christian Tradition by John F Kippley. Published by The Couple to Couple League, c/o Mr and Mrs J Hickey, 8 Widbrook Meadow, Trowbridge, Wilts, England.
Gambling With Life, by Sterns, Sterns and Yaksich, published by American Life League, P.O.Box 1350, Stafford, Virginia 22554, U.S.A.
B. Pamphlets and Articles: The Pill and Sex - Risks to Health and Fertility. A Basic Guide for Parents and Teenagers. Published by The Medical Education Trust, 79 St Mary's Road, Huyton, Liverpool, England.
Methods of Birth Control - Research Reports Give Cause For Concern. Published by Medical Education Trust, as above.
The Pill and the IUD Published by Couple to Couple League, as above.
Contraception and Conscience by Rev J Morrow. Published by Humanae Vitae House as above.
Oral Contraceptive Use and Malignancies of the Genital Tract by Beral , Hannaford and Kay, The Lancet, 10th Dec 1988.
Copyright ©, Rev. J. Morrow, Humanae Vitae House, Braemar, Scotland. Further copies of this pamphlet are obtainable from the above address. Please send donation to cover costs. The pamphlet may also be freely copied by pro-lifers for non-commercial purposes provided it is copied in its entirety.
Return to Leaflets Index