Another Inconvenient Truth: Oral Contraceptives Are Dangerous

This post is going to be uncharacteristically short, but serves as an important update and additional source for prior blog posts on the topic of contraception.

A month ago, on the Feast of St. Edith Stein, I wrote about contraception and covered a number of bases: how Texas pays for it for low income women and the immorality of that; how that is awfully close to eugenics; how we must be morally consistent in our pro-life ethic; how contraceptives (not just “emergency” contraceptives) are abortifacient; and the serious health risks of hormonal contraception, especially “the Pill.” 

Today I saw an article, entitled “Link Between Breast Cancer and Contraceptives Now Too Big to Ignore,” that discusses how yet another study establishes (again) how dangerous oral hormonal contraception is. (And, I submit, probably all similar hormonal contraceptives whether taken orally or by some other means, carry this risk; e.g., injections, implants, patches. I suspect that the danger with the medications is not the means by which one gets them into one’s body, but the chemicals ingested and how they affect one’s body. They seem to all work on a similar principle.) 

The article discusses this new study, its methodology, and the unmistakable findings about the increased breast cancer risk. It also discusses how political pressure and a certain feminist ideology is keeping medical professionals from telling women the truth.  It brought to mind this simple, but profound and all-too-often applicable verse from the Bible:  “Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’” John 19:38 (RSV, CE)

The conclusion of the article discussing the research is spot on:

There is a great deal of political pressure to avoid condemning oral contraceptives. The lobbying to make hormonal contraceptives a mandated benefit of the Affordable Care Act and the reticence to allow religious exemptions to this mandate are evidence of the power of contraception advocates.

Many women erroneously believe they cannot be successful unless they render themselves sterile. It is the purveyors of this myth who are waging the real war on women. The lives of young women are being sacrificed because of this radical feminist ideology. It is time for medical professionals to speak clearly and without apology about the dangers of hormonal contraception.

(Emphasis added.)

As I have written before, in Texas, thanks to the Women’s Healthcare Program, we have had government funded contraception for low income women for years now – loooooong before Obamacare.  Think about that.  Pray about that.  

Medical professionals need to be honest about what this kind of contraception does: that it can be abortifacient and that it has serious health risks, including but not limited to cancer. Pro-lifers need to re-evaluate any support for contraception (especially that which is abortifacient and/or carcinogenic) as well and realize, as we’ve discussed before, that support for contraception is a moral impediment to the overall success of the pro-life movement (such as any efforts to have a Personhood or Human Life Amendment).  

Politicians need to think about what they are doing to women's health - and this is a women's health issue even though contraception is not health care, it is quite the opposite. We need to apply pressure to politicians at all levels of government to stop taxpayer funded contraception programs. Government needs to exempt those individuals, corporations, and religious organizations who object from being forced to pay for these toxins.

I encourage our clergy to boldly speak and write about what the Church teaches about contraception and counsel individuals on the matter as well. And, I encourage both clergy and the laity (the latter having an ongoing moral responsibility to learn about your Faith and then put it into action) to really read, absorb, and pray over Humanae Vitae so that you realize how prophetic it was (and is) and what a gift it continues to be to the Church and the world. I encourage the laity to look into Natural Family Planning (and to learn and understand when it is morally licit to use.)

I have long believed that in many things science and history – when accurate – will end up supporting morality even if what is moral is ignored, rejected, and treated with hostility by the majority. Always remember that one cannot escape consequences by simply choosing not to believe truth or asking "What is truth?" to avoid the issue.  Right is right even if only 1% believe it or live it, after all.  

         Thanks for reading!