The Contraceptive Pill: Let's Review the Facts

Abortifacient Contraception

     Infant Homicides through Contraceptives is a thoroughly documented 63-page booklet first published in 1994 and revised in 1998 and 2003 by the Ad Hoc Commission to Study Abortion Deaths. In this booklet the Rev. John A. Hardon, S.J. (now declared a Servant of God), one of the commission’s two spiritual directors, said, “Contraceptives themselves are homicidal drugs and devices. They are more widely lethal than the commonly known surgical forms of killing unborn children.”

    Charles E. Rice, J.S.D. (professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame Law School), one of 12 distinguished Ad Hoc Commission members, said, “Contraception is the defining evil of our time. Its legitimization leads inevitably, not only to abortion and euthanasia, but to a host of other evils, including promiscuity, divorce, pornography, and homosexual activity.”

 

   Another commission member, Eugene F. Diamond, M.D. (professor of pediatrics and past pediatrics department chairman at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine) explained the following:

These so-called contraceptives work primarily by their effect on the prevention of the implantation of the blastocyst. This anti-implantation is an abortifacient effect. To be truly pro-life requires that we go beyond surgical abortions to oppose those early abortions which result from pills and intrauterine devices. … these “silent” abortions.

The evidence speaks for itself

     The booklet’s major section titled “Abortifacient Drugs and Devices: A Short Review,” written by Bogomir M. Kuhar, Pharm.D., B.S. Pharm., F.A.S. C.P., provides a thorough overview of the extensive research and data supporting the above statements. Dr. Kuhar is a clinical and consultant pharmacist, a pharmacology instructor, and the founder and executive director of Pharmacists for Life International (www.PFLI.org). He explains,

Infant Homicides through Contraceptives … clearly and unequivocally [provides] the conclusion that all steroid-based so-called “contraceptives” and many other products are abortifacient in some instances, often more than has been surmised previously.... Having swallowed the poisonous lies of the pharmaceutical manufacturers and their financiers—such as the ubiquitous Rockefeller Foundation, Warren Buffet, and all their fellow travelers—many even so-called “pro-lifers” have fallen prey to the “contraceptive mentality,” which most often leads to the “abortion mentality.”

     Aided by a biostatistician and an environmental epidemiologist from the University of Pittsburgh, a technical consultant from Ohio State University, statistics from contraceptives manufacturers and federal agencies, and voluminous amounts of documented scientific research, Dr. Kuhar describes how abortifacient contraceptives and devices function and estimates approximately how many early abortions they cause.

A staggering death toll

     One of the three mechanisms of action that oral contraceptives (OCs, also known as “the pill”) have is preventing implantation/nidation of the newly conceived baby onto the lining (endometrium) of the mother’s womb. Research into the molecular biology of OC effects has recently elucidated and again confirmed [that] OCs prevent implantation by altering cell adhesion molecules called integrins, chemical receptors which are crucial for uterine receptivity of the newly conceived human being. It has been estimated by various sources that … the abortifacient mechanism of action comes into play anywhere from 2 to 10% (and at times higher) of female cycles per year.

 

   Dr. Kuhar has calculated the likely number of abortions caused by OCs by taking into account the estimated number of OC prescriptions written and refilled each year, data on the breakthrough ovulation rate while using OCs, and the 25-percent overall fertilization rate for “normally fertile couples of average sexual activity.” He estimates that OCs cause 600,000–3,000,000 abortions annually.

     Both Depo-Provera, an injection, and Norplant, an implant, function by the same three mechanisms of action as OCs, including the prevention of implantation. [Norplant was withdrawn from the U.S. market in 2002 and replaced by Implanon which is “a different trade mark for the same basic item” (as per correspondence with Dr. Kuhar on 8/12/12).]  Based on estimated numbers of American women using these drugs, breakthrough ovulation rates for each drug, and the overall fertilization rate, Dr. Kuhar calculates that Depo-Provera causes 1,800,000–2,700,000 abortions in the U.S. annually, and that Norplant (Implanon) causes 330,000–2,100,000 abortions annually.

    With regard to intrauterine devices (IUDs), Dr. Kuhar points out that they are “primarily” [as per correspondence with Dr. Kuhar on 4/28/2012] abortifacients, rather than contraceptives, because “IUDs do not [“primarily”] prevent ovulation (despite a disinformation campaign recently by population control groups and manufacturers.)” Instead, they “kill preborn children … via two mechanisms of action: interfering with enzymatic processes (as in the case of copper) or interfering with implantation / nidation of the 5 to 14-day old embryo (baby) by chemical or mechanical inflammation of the endometrium.” Based on the estimated number of IUD users in the U.S., the overall fertilization rate, and the known “IUD user unplanned continued pregnancy rate,” he calculates that IUDs cause 3,825,000 abortions annually.

     According to Dr. Kuhar’s estimates, which he describes as conservative, in the U.S., between 1973 and 1996, the total number of abortions caused each year by the use of OCs, Depo-Provera, Norplant (Implanon), and IUDs ranges between 6,555,000 and 11,625,000. This figure is significantly higher than the total number of surgical, prostaglandin, and saline abortions committed each year during the same time period (1,350,000–1,400,000, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Guttmacher Institute).

    

Now multiply these figures for contraceptive- and IUD-induced abortions by the number of years since 1973, and you will see the staggering death toll resulting from the intrinsic evil of contraception!

Personalizing the data

     On January 9, 2012, the following email was sent to Dr. Kuhar: “Would you write for me the expected (average?) abortion rate for an individual who uses any of these drugs or any of these devices? This information will personalize/individualize the data for an individual using or considering using them.”

     Dr. Kuhar’s answer came later in the day:

The estimate we developed when writing the original piece in the 1990s was approximately 0.8 chemical/mechanical abortions per year per female user, [which,] rounded up, means approximately 1/abortion/year/user It is only an estimate [emphasis added]. I hope that helps.

     To reiterate: There is approximately one contraceptive or IUD-induced abortion each year among those who use these abortifacient contraceptives or IUDs. There could be more or fewer for each user, depending on the chemicals or devices used, and other factors such as hormonal variations, disease states, nutrition, and use of other drugs. 

     Are the scales falling from our eyes? If not, please reread the previous two paragraphs. Given these facts, the relative silence among most Catholics (both clergy and laity) regarding the intrinsic evil of contraception must be reversed. Our vulnerable young people—our unaware and unsuspecting lambs—must be educated about these realities in every available forum. There’s no time to waste! This is a matter of life and death!

     [This article appeared in large part in Celebrate Life as “The unheard-of holocaust: Abortifacient contraception”, July-August 2012.  Infant Homicides through Contraceptives is available from American Life League (see www.ProLifeGear.com or call 866-538-5483). For more information on the tremendous harm caused by contraception, see also www.ThePillKills.com ]