Abortifacient Shmortifacient

I wrote this post a few weeks ago and have been reflecting on how to make it better, more informative and inclusive. Well since I'm the one writing it we're already suffering on all those fronts anyways. So after lots of edits (mostly to the spelling of 'shmortifacient')  I decided to just write a new post about the scientific proof that this actually occurs. If it takes anywhere near as long as this post you'll see it next year. ;-)

 So here is Part 1 with a little added background about my history of teaching safe sex:


I have learned a lot about hormonal contraceptives in my 24 years. It all started back in high school when my first job was as a peer educator. I (ignorantly) taught my fellow high schoolers about the ins and outs of contraception and unplanned pregnancy. We also educated about other things, eating disorders, domestic violence, harms of tobacco and alcohol, how to say no, etc. In my 3 years at that job, I put a lot of rubbers on a lot of bananas. I showed a lot of teens what a diaphragm, female condom, sponge, IUD, and pack of birth control pills looked like. I'm not proud of this past and my only sorrowful excuse is that I was then ignorant, of both the harmful effects of what I was promoting and of the Church's teaching.

Since then I've becoming painstakingly aware of how damning these devices are. I've had to learn mechanisms of action for most every kind of birth control out there in order to pass my pharmacology tests, my first board licensing exam, and my family medicine shelf. I feel I'm fairly well versed in how these things work.

They work in three ways:
1) Inhibiting ovulation
2) Cervical mucus alteration
3) Endometrial alteration

Despite my years of education (devoted to medicine, mind you) I have come across many people who say some variation of this:

"I have heard that. It didn't hurt my second child as I was on birth control before and for weeks until I found out I was pregnant. So I'm not so sure I believe that."*

That's fine, I generally doubt people that spew "scientific facts" on the internet backing them up with the catch all phrase to end all catch all phrases: "studies show [insert claim here.]" What's not fine is that hoards of pro-life women are taking a medicine that could potentially be aborting their children without their doctors informing them. Fortunately though pharmaceutical companies are obligated to put how their drugs work on a little piece of paper that comes with the medicine. We are then able to read this insert and know exactly what this drug is capable of doing to our bodies, albeit it takes some searching. When it comes to the abortifacient properties of birth control let me settle the argument with this (emphasis mine):

Monophasic pills: "alterations include changes in the cervical mucus (which increase the difficulty of sperm entry into the uterus) and the endometrium (which reduce the likelihood of implantation)."
Biphasic pills: "alterations include changes in the cervical mucus (which increase the difficulty of sperm entry into the uterus) and the endometrium (which reduce the likelihood of implantation)."
Triphasic pills: alterations include changes in the cervical mucus (which increase the difficulty of sperm entry into the uterus) and the endometrium (which reduce the likelihood of implantation)."
Transdermal Patch: "alterations include changes in the cervical mucus (which increase the difficulty of sperm entry into the uterus) and the endometrium (which reduce the likelihood of implantation)."
Depo Provera shot: "inhibits the secretion of gonadotropins which, in turn, prevents follicular
maturation and ovulation and results in endometrial thinning"
Hormonal IUD: "How does Mirena work? It is not known exactly how Mirena works. Mirena may
work in several ways. It may thicken your cervical mucus, thin the lining of your uterus, inhibit sperm movement and reduce sperm survival. Mirena may stop release of your egg from your ovary, but this is not the way it works in most cases."
Copper IUD: "The contraceptive effectiveness of ParaGard® is enhanced by copper continuously released into the uterine cavity. Possible mechanism(s) by which copper enhances contraceptive efficacy include interference with sperm transport or fertilization, and prevention of implantation."
Subdermal Insert (Implanon): "The contraceptive effect of  IMPLANON™ is achieved by several mechanisms that include suppression of ovulation, increased viscosity of the cervical mucus, and alterations in the endometrium."
Emergency Contraception (Plan B): "it is possible that Plan B® may also work by preventing fertilization of an egg (the uniting of sperm with the egg) or by preventing attachment (implantation) to the uterus (womb)"

So what does this mean? It means that if you believe life begins at conception (and it does) then by using one of the aforementioned methods of contraception you are potentially aborting your newly conceived child. Scores of women who have been informed of this have been appalled their physician had chosen not to inform them of this little fact. So here it is, spread this information far and wide so no more women continue to unknowingly lose their child to a flawed womb they themselves medically induced or betray their conscience under the guise of "My physician never told me." Help put an end to internet ignorance and blatant disregard of facts. The manufacturers say it themselves, begrudgingly so, and we should all be made aware. We deserve to know what we're doing to our bodies, not just what Planned Parenthood or Big Pharma wants us to know.


*Comments taken directly from a post Abby Johnson put on Facebook about NFP.

P.S.
If anybody know hows to properly spell Shmortifacient, let me know.