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Birth Control Pills, Death and Denial
By Judie Brown
president, American Life League
An event such as American Life League's "Protest the Pill Day '09: The Pill Kills Women," observed nationwide on June 6, certainly brings out the worst in some people! What it has most clearly revealed is that many Americans are ignorant or in denial of the fact that the birth control pill can kill women. Essentially, there are two reasons for this phenomenon.
The first is that the U.S. government has subsidized and protected a highly profitable industry that has routinely lied to women about the effects of hormonal birth control since the 1960s, when such products were first marketed. Hormonal contraceptives sometimes allow fertilization to occur, but then prevent the embryo from implanting in the uterine lining, thus causing an early abortion. In September 1965, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued its first Terminology Bulletin, which changed the definition of conception as the union of the male sperm and female ovum to "the implantation of a fertilized ovum." Conception was redefined for the express purpose of concealing the pill's abortifacient effect.
The second reason is that, even though hormonal contraceptives' other deleterious side effects--such as cardiovascular disease, thromboembolism, cancer and stroke--became well documented, the U. S. Standard Certificate of Death was not amended to include
questions about ingestion of these artificial steroids.
Yet, in the U.S. in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21,813 females died from cardiac arrest and heart failure. How many of these women had used the pill? The federal government has a moral obligation to conduct research on this question and to modify the U.S. Standard Certificate of Death so that the right questions are asked.
The underlying problem is a total lack of honesty. Women are regarded as human guinea pigs with no right to be fully informed. Much of the literature about the birth control pill and other hormonal contraceptives is deceptive, because the federal government has no interest in exposing disturbing facts about them. Moreover, birth control pills are treated much differently than other drugs found to have life-threatening side effects, such as Posicor, Baycol and Zelnorm, each of which was pulled from the market for precisely that reason.
Whether it is because the birth control pill permits men to engage in sexual promiscuity without responsibility or because the birth control pill is marketed as liberating women from the fear of pregnancy, the federal government's concern for American women ends where the birth control pill patient information begins. Apparently, the government's interest in helping to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies and pill-pushing organizations such as Planned Parenthood trumps its interest in telling the truth. Until this tragic situation changes, there will be no accurate accounting of exactly how many women the birth control pill has killed.
Judie Brown is president of American Life League and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
By Judie Brown |
June 10, 2009; 8:47 AM ET
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Posted by: rannrann | June 11, 2009 12:22 PM
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Makes one wonder where the protesters were against Vioxx as well as Posicor, Baycol and Zelnorm. Why just the Pill? What is it about drugs used to control pregnancy that are taken by women for personal reasons? Why are only these, including, the morning after pill, which has also received false and scary information about its method of action and side effects, protested and not much more dangerous medication handed out like candy but not for birth control? Maybe its me, but I smell alterior motives.
"Judie Brown is president of American Life League and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life."
Oh, there you go...
Posted by: bevjims1 | June 11, 2009 9:25 AM
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BCP's are hardly the only drugs that can cause a fertilized egg to fail to implant. Are we going to restrict all drugs that could cause failure to implant from use by women of child-bearing age?
Any drug used improperly can kill the person taking it. Some drugs, used properly, can kill the person taking them if the person has undiagnosed drug allergies, unanticipated reactions with other drugs or supplements the person is taking, or undiagnosed underlying health problems.
Every drug comes with risks - it's up to the person takig it to decide whether the risks outweigh the benefits.
Posted by: lepidopteryx | June 11, 2009 9:18 AM
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What about all of the women who have been HELPED by the Pill? Not just for contraceptive purposes, but for endometriosis, abnormal bleeding, etc. I guess that's just "God's punishment" on us and we shouldn't take the pill.
As for the heart disease deaths - coincidence is not causality. Please repeat this often until you get it into your kool-aid soaked brains. Yes, the Pill is a drug. All drugs have potential bad side effects. If you smoke while on the Pill, you run the risk of heart disease. Hell, if you smoke, you run the risk of heart disease!
Face it, all you want to do is stop women from controlling their own bodies. This thing about caring about women's health is a smokescreen and you know it.
Posted by: Athena4 | June 10, 2009 6:14 PM
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Kind of conveniently leaves out that the pill's health risks are significantly less than unintended *pregnancy?*
Never mind a lot of other things advocated as a 'personal choice' by conservatives...
And the risks also go down a lot if you aren't using certain *kinds* of artificial estrogens still plugged by big pharma.
Posted by: Paganplace | June 10, 2009 5:37 PM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
Dear Judie,
The pill kills? So do cars, eating animal flesh, crossing the street.
The pill does have it's risks, it also saves many women's lives and provides them much need time to get themselves together financially, emotionally, and spiritually to become the mothers they choose to be rather than a mother with no voice, no choice, and no hope.
The pill does not kill or cause as much suffering as the ignorance of those who take a stand against birth control, calling it wrong and as sin.
In fact, imo, someone like the Pope who preaches against the use of birth control is not just ignorant, but criminally ignorant because his preachings are the cause of terrible suffering in Third World Countries for woman and children. This kind of criminal ignorance has nothing what-so-ever to do with the "protection of life." It is more like the "protection of the ignorant thinking."