The Safer Sex Illusion


How the Pill Acts After Conception

Even though there is no way from current medical data to prove precisely how often the endometrial changes of women on the pill cause unrecognized abortion, it is a reasonable assumption that after conception, the pill can cause the death of the embryo prior to, or during, implantation. No method has, as yet, been used to measure directly the rate of this embryo death prior to, or up to, the time of implantation. This could theoretically be achieved by the assay of human gonadatrophic hormone (beta -hcg) but such studies have never been done on women using OCPs. The reason why not, is that this hormone is produced by the embryo after implantation. Implantation takes place approximately 6 days after fertilization. It takes another 6 days before the embryo's trophoblast has invaded the maternal venous system so that the hormone can reach the mother's blood, from which it can be measured.

Even if the endometrial changes which can cause abortion were rare, there are so many women on the pill that this rare effect could cause a large number of abortions. Further, since it is possible that this abortifacient effect can occur in any woman on the pill, is she not playing a game of chance with the life of her child?

No direct evidence of pre-implantation abortifacient effect is available except for washings of the fallopian tube. This has been done in women who have an IUD in place to quantify the rate of fertilization of ova.33 It would be immoral to use this method, however, as it would involve abortion of the embryo. A promising research method involves measurement of the 'early pregnancy factor'. This may help to measure maternal hormones produced or altered after fertilization.34 Other possible methods for measuring the possibility of abortion after implantation, but before signs and symptoms of pregnancy occur, will probably be developed but are not yet in use.35

There are, however, three lines of indirect evidence that strongly suggest that abortion of the embryo caused by the OCP occurs in at least some women taking OCPs.

Three of these integrins have been shown to appear locally in the uterus for a brief interval at the precise time in the menstrual cycle that corresponds to the window of maximal uterine receptivity to successful implantation. They are also conspicuously changed in OCP users, and this fact is believed to contribute to the failure of implantation.45

To sum up, it can reasonably be stated, judging by all the evidence on a microscopic, a macroscopic and an immunologic level, that OCPs can not only prevent ovulation, and therefore conception, but also can, at least some of the time, cause an embryo, which was conceived despite the fact that the mother had been taking OCPs, to be aborted due to the failure of implantation. Further, OCPs can cause an embryo to implant in the fallopian tube, which almost invariably results in the death of the embryo, and occasionally in the death of the mother. These facts are recorded in the Physician's Desk Reference, in Drug Facts and Comparisons, and in most standard gynecological, family practice, nursing, and public health text books. Nonetheless, few physicians and patients are aware of them.

It is important also to realize that the abortifacient potential of OCPs is magnified by the concomitant use of certain antibiotics and anti-convulsants, which decrease the effectiveness of OCPs in suppressing ovulation. These drugs include barbituates, anti-depressants, and virtually all classes of antibiotics. Antibiotic use is not uncommon among OCPs users, such women being more susceptible to bacterial yeast and fungal infections.

The Pill and Cancer Risk Illusion

Women under age 45 who have used OCPs before their first full term pregnancy, or within 5 years after the onset of menstruation have a 40% increased risk of developing breast cancer.46,47,48 Women who have taken OCPs for more than one year have a 70% increased risk of developing cancer in both breasts49. When this analysis was restricted to parous women only, the trend towards an increased risk rose to 110%.50 The use of OCPs can cause liver cancer, especially in Asia and sub Saharan Africa. In developing countries, liver cancer is the seventh most common cancer.51,52 After twenty years of OCP use, young women show a 90% increase in the risk of cancer of the breast.53 Women who use OCPs early in life develop more aggressive breast cancers and a worse prognosis.54,55

When more than one factor effects the risk of developing breast cancer, the risk is calculated by multiplying the independent risk factors. For example, among women with a family history of breast cancer, any woman who uses OCPs for 5 or more years, has a risk of getting breast cancer increased to three times normal. If she has no family history, it would be twice normal. If a woman uses OCPs and has a family history of breast cancer, and also has an abortion before her first full term pregnancy, her risk of breast cancer is greatly increased.56

The 'Abortion is Safe' Illusion

Many believe that a surgical abortion is 'safer than a normal pregnancy'. Accordingly, when contraception fails, many women are tempted to have an abortion. In Canada, one woman in 28, who have had a surgical abortion, is admitted to hospital for an average of two days for severe complications, e.g. hemorrhage or incomplete abortion.57

In a government funded study, researchers at Finland's National Research Center for Welfare and Health examined death certificate records of all women between 15 and 49, who died between 1987 -1994 (9,129 women), and identified those who had abortions within 12 months before death. They discovered that women who abort are approximately four times more likely to die in the following year, than woman carrying their pregnancy to term. They were 60% more likely to die of natural causes, seven times more likely to die of suicide, and four times more likely to die of injuries and accidents, and 14 times more likely to die from homicide.

Women who have had an abortion have a 30% increased risk of breast cancer, and a greater risk of depression, low self esteem, suicidal feelings and substance abuse.58 Abortion causes a 50% increased risk of subsequent ectopic (tubal) pregnancy.59

In Canada, maternal deaths, associated with therapeutic abortion, are not reported consistently. According to Statistic Canada's Selected Therapeutic Abortion Statistics, 1970 - 1991, pgs. 38, 39, there were 66 deaths reported for the period 1975 to 1991, whereas Statistic Canada's Causes of Death, pg. 37, publication, the total number of abortion related deaths was 17 - a difference of 49, or 288%… nearly three times less.

Canadian Government statistics in regard to death and complications caused by surgical abortion are misleading. The true rates are concealed since Canadian hospitals and governments code abortions in accordance with The World Health Organization Classification of Disease (ICD). The rules allow the recording of abortion-related deaths under categories other than pregnancy. For example, if a woman's uterus is ruptured during an abortion procedure, any resulting complications (or death) can be attributed to the rupture of the uterus and not to the abortion itself. Statistic Canada's Therapeutic Abortions 1995, does not include hospital mortality records. It is based only on therapeutic abortion reports submitted voluntarily by provinces, hospitals and clinics.60

Sixty percent of women in one study of 854, experienced emotional distress after their abortions. It was 'severe' in 16%. Those who experienced psychological problems, tended to have a prior history of depression. Some women suffer Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS), a form of post traumatic stress syndrome. Its features include: guilt, remorse, shame, nightmares, hostility towards men, including her husband, crying, despair and depression, even occasionally, suicide attempts.61

The Natural Family Planning (NFP) Illusion

Most people, patients and physicians alike, are either unaware of NFP, or regard it as an old fashioned and ineffective method for the regulation of conception. Less than 1% of couples in the U.S. use modern NFP. The causes are lack of understanding, lack of access at all levels, and a culture saturated in contraception. The result is that the majority of married couples today are not only influenced by the contraceptive mentality of the society at large, but have not been given the information necessary for them to use morally good methods of regulating births when, for grave reason, they are entitled to do so.

There are two main widely known modern methods of NFP:

Each method has a strong base of medical studies demonstrating high effectiveness in avoiding conception. The Creighton method of NFP has been medically studied for over 20 years and has been reported in one meta-analysis, to be more effective than the contraceptive pill in preventing pregnancy.62 The most recent study of the Creighton method in an urban hospital in the Houston area, published in 1999, showed that this form of NFP compared favorably with other methods of family planning, and that women did not need to have regular cycles to use it successfully.63 The Creighton model has also been used successfully in achieving pregnancy in patients with infertility problems. The other form of NFP, the Billings ovulation method, is so simple to teach and to use, that it is taught around the world, even to people who cannot read or write.64


Envoi


I want no heart
To feel the ache of learning
But too late
That true love is
To give, to share
To build, to cherish
To respect
Not
Blinded by feeling
And consumed by self
To seize
To arrogate
To grasp
To take.


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