The firestorm over Obama's controversial mandate forcing institutions to provide services they object to provides a teachable moment. Specifically, Obama has mandated that all employers, including religious ones, provide health care coverage that includes sterilization and abortion-causing drugs.
Besides the very important issue of the mandate's violation of the freedom of religion-that is, government's forcing institutions and individual businesses to pay for things they object to-and besides the very important issue of calling abortifacient drugs "contraception"-when in fact these drugs cause the death of newly-conceived human beings-let us address the important issue of contraception's connection to abortion. Does widespread access to contraception lead to fewer abortions? Is it true, as Democrat abortion-supporting USA senator Barbara Boxer says, "broadening access to birth control will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions"?
Logically, one would think "Yes". If a couple, or sexually-active partnership (not much love in that phrase, is there?) were not ready for a child, contraception would prevent the conception of a baby that the not-yet-ready couple might otherwise abort.
But the lived experience of several decades indicates otherwise. As the availability of contraception increases, adolescents and others not ready for children have more sex. Because contraceptives, like every other man-made object, occasionally fail, some couples find themselves with unplanned pregnancies. And as children were never a part of such couples' plans, abortion is the next option.
Here is what the Supreme Court of the United States of America said in 1992: "in some critical respects abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception...for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail."
Consider these demonstrations of the contraception/abortion link:
"In Sweden, between 1995 and 2001, teen abortion rates grew 32% during a period of low-cost condoms, oral contraceptives and over-the-counter emergency contraception."
In Spain, a ten-year study found "[C]ontraception use increased by about 60%, the abortion rate doubled. In other words, even with an increase in contraception use, there weren’t fewer unwanted pregnancies, there were more."
The Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, found "simultaneous increases in abortion rates and contraceptive use in the United States, Cuba, Denmark, the Netherlands, Singapore, and South Korea."
Witness these prominent individuals in family planning institutions on the contraception/abortion link:
Malcolm Potts, director of Planned Parenthood in the 1970s: "As people turn to contraception, there will be a rise, not a fall, in the abortion rate…"
Alfred Kinsey, famous sexologist, in 1955: "At the risk of being repetitious, I would remind the group that we have found the highest frequency of induced abortions in the groups which, in general, most frequently uses contraception."
Judith Bury, British abortion advocate: "“…women…have come to request [abortions] when contraception fails. There is overwhelming evidence that, contrary to what you might expect, the provision [availability] of contraception leads to an increase in the abortion rate.”
Lionel Tiger, sociologist, in 1999: "With effective contraception controlled by women, there are still more abortions than ever…[C]ontraception causes abortion.”
Contraception would seem a good way to prevent unintended pregnancies and the consequent tragedy of abortion. Empirical data indicate just the opposite. What, then, should be done? Let couples in love save their sexual debuts for their wedding night, so that all their children may enter the world within the bond of a loving marriage. Let these couples practice Natural Family Planning, a method which allows a husband and wife to space the births of their children without any sort of artificial intervention (visit ccli.org for more information). Let faithfulness, love and life prosper.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
