Contraception as a "Solution" to Abortion: No way!

by Steven W. Mosher President,

Population Research Institute

A good friend—at least I think we're still friends—recently told me that he had decided that the "solution" to abortion was more contraception.  Of course, this solution is not original with him. It has been around for decades and is constantly invoked by the Barack Obamas, the Hilary Clintons, and the Nancy Pelosis of the world.  But as he is a professing Christian (and should know better) I took the time to write him the following note: 

Dear Rich,

You propose contraception as a "solution" to abortion. But without the notion of "unwanted" or "unplanned" children that the contraceptive mentality fosters, there would be no abortion.  In fact, many forms of hormonal birth control can be abortifacient (cause early chemical abortions) by obstructing the implantation of the newly formed human embryo in his or her mother's womb.  After more than 40 years of killing through surgical abortion, and now with the new breed of chemical abortifacients such as Plan B, the Ortho Evra Patch, and Depo-Provera, the link between abortion and contraception is undeniable.  Professor Janet Smith describes the contraceptive mentality in this way:

"The connection between contraception and abortion is primarily this:  Contraception facilitates the kind of relationships and even the kind of attitudes and moral character that are likely to lead to abortion.  The contraceptive mentality treats sexual intercourse as though it had little connection with babies; it thinks of babies as an 'accident' of intercourse, as an unwelcome intrusion into a sexual relationship, as a burden.  The sexual revolution has no fondness —nor room for—the connection between sexual intercourse and babies..."^[1]

Of course, there is big money to be made by Big Pharma in the population control enterprise, especially if governments can be persuaded to buy these powerful, steroid-based drugs (which pollute not only women's bodies but the environment as well) in huge lots and distribute them indiscriminately in the Developing World. A lot of the anti-people propaganda out there is thus profit-driven, which is reason enough to question it.

As a Christian, I do not believe that the same God who created us could have failed to provide us with a planet sufficient to our needs over time as our numbers expanded. Of course we need to intelligently respond to the challenges that our growing numbers cause, and we do, but those solutions should never involve eliminating human beings. Do you really think that the same God who brought us into existence to be fruitful and multiply now wants us to be barren and reduce our numbers? 

 ^[1] "The Connection Between Contraception and Abortion" Homiletic and Pastoral Review, April, 1993

The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation." Find us at pop.org.