Contracteption and Abortion-something worth posting about!

I couldn't believe my ears last night watching the O'Reilly Factor so much so that I had to jump on my computer and compose an email to him.  Apparently he thinks widespread birth control would save lives by reducing the number of abortions?!  I hope I set him straight with some facts from someone who is way more eloquent than myself, Dr. Janet Smith! At this time when our federal government thinks it is doing us all a service by handing out birth control for free, we all need to read up on the facts so we can dispell myths such as these!  Unfortunately, I imagine O'Reilly's views are very common.  I know he is Catholic and truly believes that this will save lives.  Many others likely feel this way as well and need to be educated as well.  (Sidenote-O'Reilly is not for this practice, but it is more for economic reasons).

Bill O'Reilly,


I thought you would know better: an increase in birth control use leads to an INCREASE in abortions, as opposed save lives! "Rather, most abortions are had because men and women who do not want a baby are having sexual intercourse and facing pregnancies they did not plan for and do not want. Because their contraceptive failed, or because they failed to use a contraceptive, they then resort to abortion as a back-up. Many believe that if we could convince men and women to use contraceptives responsibly we would reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and thus the number of abortions. Thirty years ago this position might have had some plausibility, but not now. We have lived for about thirty years with a culture permeated with contraceptive use and abortion; no longer can we think that greater access to contraception will reduce the number of abortions. Rather, wherever contraception is more readily available the number of unwanted pregnancies and the number of abortions increases greatly. " Additionally, "we need to realize that a society in which contraceptives are widely used is going to have a very difficult time keeping free of abortions since the lifestyles and attitudes that contraception fosters create an alleged "need" for abortion." Dr. Janet Smith speaks very eloquently on this topic and I have cut and pasted more of her solid arguments below from http://www.goodmorals.org/smith4.htm . Her CD titled Contraception: Why Not is invaluable (updated-the entire transcript of that CD can be found here: http://www.janetsmith.excerptsofinri.com/ ). Dr. Janet Smith would make an excellent guest on your show! I still love you, but I think you should publically redact your statement! ;)-Wheelbarrow Rider

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Rather, most abortions are had because men and women who do not want a baby are having sexual intercourse and facing pregnancies they did not plan for and do not want. Because their contraceptive failed, or because they failed to use a contraceptive, they then resort to abortion as a back-up. The connection between contraception and abortion is primarily this: contraception facilitates the kind of relationships and even the kind of attitudes and moral characters that are likely to lead to abortion. The contraceptive mentality treats sexual intercourse as though it had little natural connection with babies; it thinks of babies as an "accident" of pregnancy, as an unwelcome intrusion into a sexual relationship, as a burden. The sexual revolution has no fondness — no room for — the connection between sexual intercourse and babies. The sexual revolution simply was not possible until fairly reliable contraceptives were available.

Far from being a check to the sexual revolution, contraception is the fuel that facilitated the beginning of the sexual revolution and enables it to continue to rage. In the past, many men and women refrained from illicit sexual unions simply because they were not prepared for the responsibilities of parenthood. But once a fairly reliable contraceptive appeared on the scene, this barrier to sex outside the confines of marriage fell. The connection between sex and love also fell quickly; ever since contraception became widely used, there has been much talk of, acceptance of, and practice of casual sex and recreational sex. The deep meaning that is inherent in sexual intercourse has been lost sight of; the willingness to engage in sexual intercourse with another is no longer a result of a deep commitment to another. It no longer bespeaks a willingness to have a child with another and to have all the consequent entanglements with another that babies bring. Contraception helps reduce one's sexual partner to just a sexual object since it renders sexual intercourse to be without any real commitments. Certainly one can easily imagine how attractive abortion would be in the face of a contraceptive failure — one has made not commitment to one's sexual partner or exacted one, so how can one expect one's self or one's sexual partner to take on the responsibility of raising a child. Some clinics report that up to 50% of the abortions are of pregnancies that resulted from contraceptive failure.

Furthermore, the casualness with which sexual unions are now entered is accompanied by a casualness and carelessness in the use of contraceptives. Studies show that the women having abortions are very knowledgeable about birth control methods; the great majority — eighty per cent — are experienced contraceptors but they display carelessness and indifference in their use of contraception for a variety of reasons. Contraception has enabled them to enter a sexual relationship or a life style, but while the relationship or life style continues the contraceptive practice does not continue..

One researcher reports the reasons why sexually active, contraceptively experienced women stop contracepting: she observes that some have broken up with their sexual partners and believe they will no longer need a contraceptive but they find themselves sexually active anyway. Others dislike the physical exam required for the pill, or dislike the side-effects of the pill and some are deterred by what inconvenience or difficulty there is in getting contraceptives. Many unmarried women do not like to think of themselves as sexually active; using contraceptives conflicts with their preferred self-image. The failure to use birth control is a sign that many women are not comfortable with being sexually active. That is, many of the women are engaged in an activity that, for some reason, they do not wish to admit to themselves.

Read more at http://www.goodmorals.org/smith4.htm
The "Contraception: Why Not?" talk can be found here http://www.janetsmith.excerptsofinri.com/

Why Going to the Ob/Gyn Always Raises My Blood Pressure (and other randomness)

Today I had an appt with my relatively new ob/gyn (referred to as #4 in past posts, though I realized today he is technically #5-yikes!)  This is the one I switched to after the birth of Charlie.  For the story on that, click here.  I have a tip for any of you who might potentially be switching doctors. Even if you think you are only doing it once, instead of sending a copy of your medical records to your doctor directly, get that copy for yourself instead (and then ask any doctors you see to copy them from yours).  The reason being that there is usually a fee-sometimes cheap and sometimes ridiculous.  One of my past ob/gyn charged $16 and then 56 cents a page (why isn't there a cents sign on the keyboard!).  Anyway, thank goodness my state has a law that they can't charge over $50 as I have quite a chart!  I made the mistake of paying that $50 to have them transferred to a doctor, and then the doctor couldn't transfer them to my new ob/gyn because of HIP.PA.  They can only send records that have originated in their office.  A pain! 

Now I have had some bad ob/gyn experiences, but the worst is detailed here.  Because it is a long post (aren't they all?!) that includes my 2nd pregnancy, I highlighted the relevant part in dark blue.  I was going to my appt today for an annual as part of my "things to do before you start ttc" list (I had x-rays last week at the dental office, have consumed massive amounts of raw cookie dough and moderate amounts of alcohol-yes, sometimes at the same time). 

Going to the ob/gyn is always a bit of a nerve racking experience, and I am sure you ladies can probably relate.  First there is the fact that you have lots of information to tell them.  And it's all very important.  If you are like me, summarizing doesn't come easily.  And you know they don't have a lot of time.  And you don't want to come off psycho.  To combat this, this time I brought my records from the 2 ob/gyns that matter-the one I had miscarriages with and the one that delivered my son.  Then last night I drew up a summary sheet.  This idea was inspired by another blogger, and also because I was appalled at all the errors I read in my previous charts (information that supposedly came from me was misquoted).  I made myself limit it to one page, but I had to go front and back.  It started with a chart-diagnosis in one column, treatment in another, and how it was discovered and by who in the 3rd.  Then I had a short paragraph summarizing each of my 3 pregnancies.  I often have my docs fax each other, so their names and contact information was in the header.  I love organization and have a weird love of treating IF like an occupation (still waiting for the paycheck), so I was pretty proud of myself.  He genuinely seemed to appreciate it.  Secondly (have you forgotten point #1 already? I don't blame you, it was a lot of words ago!), the information is usually unpleasant to talk about.  For example, why must they ask "how many pregnancies?"  and "how many live births?"  That has to be the most insensitive question ever!  And then they confirm: "because of miscarriage?"  Seriously?  I mean, first I had to fill it out on the paper and then you have to make me verbalize it?  But it made me think, why else?!  And then I had that "duh" moment where I realize people who actually don't want to get pregnant but do, and in way too many of these cases, they abort.  Sobering thought.  Then I realized some of those women probably don't like that question either.  I imagine there is enough of us, between both camps, to get a petition going.  Anyway, between these two reasons, my blood pressure is always elevated at the ob/gyn!

The appt went as wonderfully as an annual can go.  First of all, I had to get rid of some pesky yeast (sorry TMI), as you can imagine that would put a damper on ttc; getting it was unavoidable since my 40 days of antibiotics (nothing spiritual about the # in that context; also not the norm-I take 10 days of biaxin cyclically, then doubled amox last month so 10 days due to long mucus phase, 5 day z-pack for infection tied to respiratory junk that stays in your system 10 days and then, bam, time for another 10 days biaxin cyclically again!)  I was a little dense though and let it get raging bad before I called Dr. H for diflu.can and it was not doing the trick.  So ob/gyn did see that on the slide and gave me another script (this time with 5 refills for future-good to have! Esp b/c I forgot to ask for one for dh-Dr. H always gives it to both of us).  Secondly, I was worried about bladder infection because despite the crazy load of antibiotics, I have had blood in my urine (my only symptom).  They tested and found something.  Interesting.  They are going to do further tests since they hate to put me on more antibiotics unless it's necessary.  Which leads me to wonder what the hell can survive all that has already been given?  Scary.  More on that later.  The third thing I wanted to get accomplished today was to remind my ob/gyn who I am since I have only seen him once, and what my ttc and pregnancy protocols are.  He totally wowed me by doing his homework before he walked in and confirming all of that before I opened my mouth.  He got triple bonus points for rejecting my gift of "Physicians Healed" since he already owns it, read it, loved it (he doesn't prescribe contraception-part of why I switched).  And he recently bought Dr. Hilgers' text book and is really enjoying it.  Hoping and praying that he will get trained in Omaha as he is Catholic, totally living it even as an ob/gyn, and we have zero napro trained ob/gyns in my area, shockingly.

So, the appt went great and all continues to be on track to ttc when fertile CM decides to appear (CD 14 and nothing yet) if I can get rid of this UTI and yeast infection!