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Contraception & Contraceptives

"Contraception" is "the act of preventing pregnancy"1 by preventing "conception".

As medical science has concluded, human life begins at fertilisation, when sperm meets egg. Until recently, “conception” and therefore the “beginning of pregnancy” were universally understood to be interchangeable and simultaneous with this moment of fertilisation, when a new life begins. “Conception” and “contraceptives” were therefore always understood to be preventing a human life from forming in the first place, and many assume that that is what it still means today.

However, in recent decades2 3, the word “conception” has come to be used for fertilisation and/or implantation (which happens 6-12 days after fertilisation when the living embryo implants in the lining of the womb), and “pregnancy” has come to be defined as beginning at implantation, not fertilisation.

What this means is that “contraception” and “contraceptives” today, whilst their names suggest preventing conception (fertilisation) and pregnancy, may actually be preventing implantation, which means that human life has already begun and is being intentionally destroyed.

Many popular forms of “contraception” today sometimes intentionally end human life. 

These forms of “contraception” bring about the death of the tiny human being by causing the degradation of the endometrium (womb) lining, which develops to provide a hospitable environment for the embryo to implant and receive nutrients. When this is taken away, the embryo cannot implant and is therefore deliberately starved to death and flushed out.

Forms of “Contraception” - Which Ones Kill?

Natural Family Planning (doesn’t harm human life)

This is when the woman monitors changes in her body over her cycle to avoid conceiving a child by abstaining from sexual intercourse in her fertile phase.

Barrier Methods (doesn’t harm human life)

Barrier methods are a form of contraception which only act to prevent sperm and egg from uniting. These are non-abortifacient. 

These methods include: 

Sterilisation (doesn’t harm human life)

These involve surgical procedures which sterilise a man or woman to prevent fertilisation from occurring. 

Hormone Contraceptives (can kill a human embryo)

The following list includes contraceptives which work by releasing hormones into the woman's body with all the following effects:

  • Prevents the ovaries from releasing an egg each month (ovulation)
  • Thickens the mucus in the neck of the womb, so it is harder for sperm to penetrate the womb and reach an egg
  • Thins the lining of the womb, to prevent an embryo from implanting

The first two modes work to prevent fertilisation from taking place. If the first two modes fail then the third mode works to end the life of a little human that has already begun by preventing them from implanting inside the mother's womb.

How many lives are lost through these contraceptives is unknown. Some studies suggest that some methods have a much higher chance of ending a life than others.

The mini-pill for example is not very effective in stopping the release of an egg. A Swedish study found that 40% of participants on the mini-pill released an egg every month despite taking it correctly4.  Also a four-year study in women taking a mini-pill from day 5 to 25 of their cycle showed that 5% of sperm were able to penetrate cervical mucus between days 9 to 165 . Given how relatively infrequently women using these contraceptives experience a known pregnancy, it can be concluded that many embryos are being created through fertilisation but then destroyed through the intentional degradation of the womb’s lining.

Each hormonal contraceptive is different in efficacy with regard to the three methods of “preventing pregnancy”, but the important thing to note is that all of them have the deliberate, in-built capacity to “prevent implantation” which means to end a human life. Even if there is only a small percentage risk of this happening, these and any other contraceptives that “prevent implantation” should be avoided for the protection of innocent human life.

Contraception and Abortion

A commonly repeated assertion is that better access to contraceptives reduces abortion rates.

The evidence shows us that in fact the opposite is true. Over the last century, worldwide, increased access to contraceptives has gone hand in hand with an increase in abortions. Here in the UK, for example, we have free or cheap access to all sorts of contraceptives and teach children to use them, and yet we have the highest abortion rate in Western Europe.

One obvious reason for this is that contraceptives help to promote a culture whereby sex is performed without the expectation that babies may be created as a result. Many now think and act as though sexual lifestyle has nothing at all to do with whether or not they would like to have children. However, biology begs to differ: contraceptives notwithstanding, 40% of pregnancies in the UK are still unplanned. Many of these of course will end in abortion.

Pro-abortion organization the Guttmacher Institute states, “Fifty-one percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method in the month they got pregnant…”6

A recent survey by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) confirms the same thing: 51.2% of abortion “clients” were using at least one form of contraception in the month they conceived.

Far from being a solution to abortion, overall contraception exacerbates the problem.

References:

1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536949/#:~:text=MS%2C%20Cooper%20DB.-,Definition%2FIntroduction,participant%20in%20her%20family%20planning.

2 House of Commons, Hansard, 19 July 2000, col. 221 wa

3 Christian Institute - Contraception: a pro-life guide - DR O E O Hotonu MB CHB BSC (Hons) MRCOG MPhil

4  Guillebaud, J, Contraception: Your Questions Answered, Churchill Livingstone, 2004, page 283

5  Martinez-manautou J, Continuous Low Dose Progesterone for Contraception, International Planned Parenthood Federation, 2(5), 1968 pages 2-3.

6  [6] “Fact Sheet: Induced Abortion in the United States.”  This particular fact sources the following: Jones RK, Frohwirth L and Moore AM, More than poverty: disruptive events among women having abortions in the USA, Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, 2012, 39(1):36–43.