Source: Wikimedia Commons

A Pro-Women Response to “Contraception Saves Lives”

on March 12, 2015

By Kristin Larson and Chelsen Vicari

It’s a struggle, isn’t it? As Christian women we aim to be humanitarian and compassionate towards everyone. When we read about poor women in Malawi, ill from attempting to perform abortions on themselves, we hope to provide a solution. But if, in the process, we whitewash moral truths, historical facts and health effects, we ultimately cause more harm than help.

One Christianity Today contributor found herself in this quandary. In her article, “Contraception Saves Lives,” author Rachel Marie Stone found herself celebrating Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, as a pro-woman champion heralding chemical contraception as the best form of birth control for women in underdeveloped regions. But what Stone overlooks is that Sanger’s family planning strategies and racist eugenics views are inextricably linked.

Stone begins her article by painting an over-the-top revisionist picture of what secular history books have told us about the notorious eugenicists. Stone wrote, “Sanger founded Planned Parenthood, which, contrary to what Sanger would have wished, is today the largest provider of abortions in the United States.” It is true that when Sanger founded Planned Parenthood in 1922 the group did not yet perform abortions. In 1963 Planned Parenthood even released a pamphlet stating, “An abortion kills the life of the baby after it has begun.” However, it is likely that these were insincere sentiments meant to appeal to the broader public opinion of the time.

Caution to anyone who believes that Margaret Sanger’s establishment of Planned Parenthood was a righteous attempt to relieve underprivileged women. Sanger was driven by the immorality of her racism and eugenics. With aims for societal hegemony, Sanger started Planned Parenthood to regulate the birth of minorities, or what Sanger called “benign imbeciles, who encourage the defective and diseased elements of humanity in their reckless and irresponsible swarming and spawning.” Not exactly the model female leadership Christian women should emulate.

In 1939 Sanger initiated The Negro Project, a eugenics strategy to reduce the black population. The awareness campaign TooManyAborted.com, explained “Eugenists believed the entirety of the black population were intellectually and racially inferior.” Sly as she was, Sanger still managed to convince influential black clergy to help advance her eugenics movement among the black community.

Sadly, Planned Parenthood is carrying out Sanger’s bigoted scheme. During 2012, more black babies were aborted than were born in New York City, according the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. CNS News reported that 31,328 black babies were aborted while only 24,758 were born. The breakdown shows that of the 73,815 abortions in the city, 42 percent of those babies were black and 31 percent were Hispanic.  Analysis of census data gathered by the imitative Protecting Black Life found that, today, 79 percent of current Planned Parenthood clinics are located near African-American or Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods.

In addition to the serious moral problem of lauding Margaret Sanger as a champion of women’s health and freedom, Stone promotes Depo Provera twice as an ideal “solution” to impoverished women’s fertility. Long acting reversible contraceptives (LARC’s) are promoted by public health officials and family planning advocates for their high rate of efficacy due to the “set it and forget it” feature. Depo Provera, an injection administered every three months, is one of the most toxic forms of hormonal birth control available. It earned a black box warning from the FDA in 2004 for causing potentially irreversible bone mineral density loss. This risk is so great that the FDA warns women to find an alternative form of birth control after two years.

In the US, where women have more birth control choices and access to information when making family planning decisions, the continuation rate for Depo Provera is low. One study found it to be a mere 23 percent after one year of use. Why don’t women like this apparently effortless and effective form of birth control? Mostly because it can cause prolonged and erratic bleeding and other side effects, such as headaches, weight gain, dizziness, fatigue, and low libido. The most common side effect, erratic and prolonged bleeding, is a significant issue for women in developing cultures where menstruation is stigmatized and access to health care to address health problems incurred by excessive bleeding is limited.

Depo Provera, like all hormonal contraceptives, works by suppressing ovulation, thereby disrupting a woman’s natural cycle. Although the pill and Depo Provera may be reliable ways for women to avoid pregnancy, it is not in women’s best interest to push hormonal contraceptives as their only option. These drugs do not merely prevent pregnancy, they shut down and override the endocrine system, which interacts with all other systems in the body. God designed women with a delicate balance of hormones that when left alone, fluctuate rhythmically to support fertility, emotions, and overall health. Our natural, untainted hormones even protect against breast and other reproductive cancers.

As Rachel Marie Stone points out, in many of these cultures Natural Family Planning is not completely viable as men would not always be willing to abstain or use condoms during a woman’s fertile phase. But this is no reason to completely disregard the validity of natural and barrier methods controlled by the woman.

More and more secular feminists are sounding the alarm on hormonal contraception today, and Christians ought to be the most pro-women voices out there. In many cases they are, proclaiming the truth about the very real health and abortifacient risks of hormonal contraception. But this article is a sad and shocking example of a Christian voice rewriting the past and promoting the use of toxic chemicals by the poorest and most vulnerable women in the name of charity.

 

  1. Comment by Andre Van Mol, MD on March 13, 2015 at 10:24 am

    Excellent response to the CT article. One other thing that comes to mind was the author’s mention that contraception prevents abortion — often quoted and assumed to be true, but is it? • 54% of women getting abortions used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant.
    • Abortions in Spain rose during 1997-2007 despite increasing levels of contraception use.”
    (Sources: Jones RK, Darroch JE and Henshaw SK, Contraceptive use among U.S. women having abortions in 2000–2001, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2002, 34(6):294–303.
    “Trends in the use of contraceptive methods and voluntary interruption of pregnancy in the Spanish population during 1997-2007.” Contraception. 2011 Jan;83(1):82-7.)

  2. Comment by psychic on March 26, 2015 at 1:34 pm

    Have you ever heard of Dysmenorrhea? Some women suffer from a condition where they bleed abnormally heavily and suffer unreasonable pain during periods. This can be cured by birth control. Are you really of the opinion that the only use for birth control is to stop pregnancy?

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