My Thoughts on Birth Control Pills, IUD Devices, Etc.

Psalm 139:13-14a
For You formed my inward parts;
You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

This one's gonna be tough. I've been waiting a long time to write this. Just never knew how.

In 2008, Garrett and I got married. I went on The Pill in January, we got married in April, and in October, while walking around campus I saw a book that caught my attention. "Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?" (by Randy Alcorn) 

"Ha! That's crazy," I thought. I've never heard that and I'm on the pill. Of COURSE they don't.

*picked it up* *guy told me to take it with me* *took it home and read the first couple of pages*

Birth control pills work in three ways.
1. Prevent Ovulation (right, knew that)
2. Thicken Cervical Mucous to prevent sperm from getting to the eggs. (Gross)
3. Thin the lining of the Uterine wall to prevent a fertilized egg from attaching

Wait. Fertilized egg? That's weird. I believe in life at conception. A fertilized egg is AFTER conception. This can't be right.

*put down book* *go to bathroom and get my BC Pill pack* *read fine print*

Birth control pills work in three ways...
(See above. It was the same)

*sit down*

This can't be true. If this was true wouldn't someone have told me?

My response was quick. To me it was simple. I believed in life at conception. Conception happens when an egg gets fertilized. I believe in the value of human life and that every person, even a four week old baby, is precious. For me to take a pill that works to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting
is to take a pill that goes against what I believe.

I flushed them.
(If you're curious, most birth control works this way. IUD, patch, etc.)

When you start looking for other options of birth control that don't do the above things, the options slim WAY down. Yes, it was a bit of an inconvenience. Not big enough for me to even consider using something that went again what I believe in, though. A minor sacrifice.

I wasn't informed. Maybe you weren't either. Now you are. Do some research. Pray about it.

A couple of other things I want to mention:

1. Since 2008, when I first came across this information, I looked up every site I could think of, even ones that had differing viewpoints than my own, to make sure that this was true. Since then, some websites have changed the wording on their pages to sound less...harsh? Ortho-Tricyclen (my BC brand) removed the word "fertilized" from in front of egg. Planned Parenthood has taken the third function of BC off of its site altogether.

          When asked how BC Pills work:

           Medicine Net
           medicinenet.com actually seems to say that preventing ovulation isn't the primary function of
           birth control pills. That the other two, a thinned uterine wall and increased mucous is first and
           that the prevention of ovulation occurs in SOME women.

            Planned Parenthood

            Planned Parenthood leaves out the whole third mechanism: 

     2. How often does this happen? It's almost impossible to tell. It would be a very early miscarriage  

     basically, happening at 4 weeks, and would result in what most women would think was their   

     period. However, I tried to work up some numbers just to wrap my head around it. This is basic 

     math, and could be off a little. But even if it's off a little, the numbers seem staggering. Here's what I 

     figured: 

• Planned Parenthood says there are 62 Million women are in their childbearing years, and of those women, 28% are on the pill.  That's 17,360,000 Women. 
• Planned Parenthood says that a pregnancy occurs 2-9 women out of 100. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt and use the lowest number, 2, as these are probably the people that used the pill PERFECTLY. So 2 out of 100 is 2% of women who use the pill perfectly end with a pregnancy. 
• 2% of the 17+ million that are on the pill is...347,200 pregnancies with PERFECT pill usage. That means the Pill typically FAILS that many times in one year. Out of the 3 methods it uses,  (1. preventing Ovulation 2. Increasing Cervical Mucous 3. Preventing Implantation of a Fertilized Egg by Thinning the Uterine Wall) all three fail an average of 347 THOUSAND times. 
• There's no way of knowing how many times the job of preventing pregnancy is left up to a third and final method, the thinned uterine lining. But to know that all three methods fail at the staggering rate of almost 350,000 times per year makes me think it must be a large enough number to be considered. (Though, isn't 1 a large enough number to be considered?)

     3. Another thing to consider is the effect of BC on our bodies. When I went off The Pill my moods  

     leveled immediately. It was totally effecting my quality of life. I know this is subjective. What I'm
      not sure is subjective is the increasing number of miscarriages that women go through on their
      first pregnancy. Could a large number of these be a result of our uterine wall still not being
      hospitable enough to be able to host a baby? I think this is something important to consider.

     4. What about women with a medical condition that use The Pill to maintain bearable levels of
     cramps as well as help increase chances of fertility?

     This isn't my situation, but obviously effects a number of women. Randy Alcorn's daughter, the guy
     who wrote the book I mentioned above, is on The Pill for a medical condition and he addressed that
     in a radio interview he did. She uses other forms of birth control at the same time (condoms, etc.) to
     override how The Pill works, basically making condoms her main form of birth control to prevent
     sperm from even entering the equation (haha...wow). You could also avoid having sex on days that
     you are the most fertile to reduce the likelihood of this happening. Obviously, condoms don't always
     work, so there would be the occasional time that The Pill would then be on backup, and that's a
     tough thing to consider. He said this was a tough choice she had to make and does everything she
     can to reduce this chance.

   Some Links for further reading:

• "The mommypotamus"writes a much clearer blog about this with definitions on contraception and some quotes, etc. from sources. Very easy reading and insightful. 
• Facts and quotes from doctors and medical personnel can be found at www.abort73.com and    www.prolife.com 
• I also highly recommend the book by Randy Alcorn, "Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?" It's written in FAQ format and based on years of research. 

Thanks for reading. I know it's a lot.
Please consider doing some research and making informed and prayerful decisions.

30 Hour Famine

Awesome weekend. I've done the 30 Hour Famine before. Just not quite like this. In days past it has always seemed like a glorified lock-in. The kids come and get a kick out of taunting each other the whole time with stories of big juicy steaks, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a HUGE glass of sweet tea (I should stop there. #1 I'm giving myself away with the sweet tea line...it was probably me taunting...and #2 it's making me hungry...) They don't eat for 30 hours, but to take their mind off of the slight...seriously...slight...hunger pains, they spend their time watching the latest movies, playing on rented inflatables, putt-putting, or other things of the like.

Not this time. The kids were challenged...I was challenged.

We started the evening with making supper. No, not for us. We took what we made (or helped make, i should say) over to the local Salvation Army and watched as people that were really hungry came through the line with slightly wary, but definitely grateful eyes. A bunch of smiling, peppy high schoolers dished out the goods to individuals who I'm sure wondered what exactly our motives were. I don't blame them. I've done service projects in the past to make ME feel good. How selfish. But tonight, I think our kids were definitely going to get at least a little bit of a feel for what it's like to be...homeless...or hungry...or enslaved. Once the plates were piled high with food, the kids scattered amongst the crowd and sat down to conversations with strangers that would open their eyes to an important fact. These people were...people. Just like themselves.

After washing the dishes and leaving behind plenty of leftovers, we moved from our first stop to our second: Our Community Place. A local joint that has the dreams of becoming another "beacon of HOPE" in the Valley. Cardboard boxes were passed out to each of the kids as they were told, this was home for the night. They quickly began to build their "cardboard community", shelter for an evening. With cardboard boxes much nicer than any you would find in a local dumpster (i would soon find out just how sturdy they were- enough to withstand wake up kicks from the boys in the morning), they made temporary homes along with skylights, doors, and chimneys. It was fun to watch them be creative. We hoped to get the message across that this is life for some people, and not only when it's nearing summertime warmth.

Once our beds were in place, we all gathered around a projector screen where many kids saw things they'd never seen before. The story of the "invisible children" soon became the heartbeat of many as local high schoolers from Harrisonburg realized they wanted to do something about the injustice in the world. Watching kids walk for miles each day just to get a spot on a cold, wet, cement floor where it was safe...or at least more safe...seemed to strike a nerve. Silence followed, and kids made their way to their boxes shortly after, probably feeling overwhelmed, as I did, about the huge need, and their tiny existence. People needed their help. More people than just those at the local Harrisonburg Salvation Army. More people that were...people. Just like themselves.

With the sunrise came a new day. Running on very little energy, the kids spent the entire morning mowing, raking, pulling weeds, planting flowers, and trying to help where they could in the community. Not a complaint was heard.

Even the end of our fast was a learning experience. Instead of us all eating at once and all the same thing, we were split up into groups with red dots, yellow dots and blue dots. The red dots sat at a fancy table and were served pancakes, sausage links, fresh fruit, milk and all kinds of good stuff. They could have as many "second plates" as they wanted. They yellow dots sat at decent tables, had to serve themselves, and got to eat cereal and milk. When the food was gone, they were done. The blue dots, the large majority of the group, had to sit on the floor, and eat burned sticky rice with their hands. The point was to show that the majority of the world lives in poverty while a small percentage holds most of the wealth. It was astonishing to see it played out that way.

Through all of it, I think the thing that I learned the most was that we are all equal. We're all the same. People are people. The only difference between myself and a child in Africa who has nothing to eat today, tomorrow, and many more days to come until his bowl of sticky rice arrives to hold him over till the next meal comes days later, is that for some reason I was born here. Is that fair? Absolutely not.

I want to do something about it.