{"id":26453,"date":"2012-02-16T23:25:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T06:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/16\/on-the-whole-contraceptives-abortion-thing.html"},"modified":"2012-02-21T20:37:18","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T03:37:18","slug":"on-the-whole-contraceptives-abortion-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/16\/on-the-whole-contraceptives-abortion-thing.html","title":{"rendered":"On the whole "contraceptives = abortion" thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just my own thoughts on the matter:<\/p>\n

We are talking about, in the cases of contraception that prevents implantation, a cluster of 2 to a few dozen cells, max. I decline to consider that abortion and murder of a human life. <\/p>\n

Yes, if<\/i> left alone, those cells might<\/i> eventually become a human being. But an appalling number of those fertilized eggs miscarry — between a third and a half, from the numbers I've seen. If every zygote is sacred, then we are looking at a massive child mortality rate compared to which the voluntary abortion rate pales.<\/p>\n

But the idea that any zygote is a human being and that it must be protected at any stage as dearly as one would protect a baby is an argument that reduces to absurdity when taken back earlier. The argument against artificial birth control from the Catholic Church is that it prevents what might be the natural result of intercourse, a fertilized egg. It's not just that it destroys that fertilized egg, but even destroying the potentiality of fertilization (e.g., by using a condom or diaphragm) is considered sinful.<\/p>\n

If that's the case, then the logical conclusion is that men and women ought to marry as soon as they become fertile, so as to maximize the potential number of babies that might be produced. <\/p>\n

(How this meshes with Paul, who suggested that a celebate life was actually superior, though "it is better to marry than to burn," is unclear.)<\/p>\n

(How it meshes with the Catholic teaching of the Rhythm Method \/ "Natural Family Planning" to avoid pregnancy is also unclear — avoiding pregnancy through specific actions, with or without technological or pharmaceutical means, seems to be fundamentally the same to me.)<\/p>\n

I think society as a whole has rejected the suggestion that we should be breeding like rabbits ASAP. Nobody is advocating that 9-12-year-olds get married so that they can start producing babies, even if that means that some potential human beings never come to be. The problem here is that there a huge gap between the theological principles that are given such weight and how people behave in their own, personal, messy lives — thus the number of even Catholic women who have used birth control.<\/p>\n

To summarize, if you believe that anything that prevents implantation is destroying a human life — and thus is morally equivalent to abortion — it is difficult to understand how you would allow any contraceptive use (in which area the Catholic Church is somewhat consistent) — and, in fact, why you would not then encourage people to start having babies as soon as they are biologically capable of doing so.<\/p>\n

And I don't understand, if you're not willing to go to that extreme, why you would cavil at people using artificial birth control, and having insurance coverage for it. #ddtb<\/p>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tReligious Groups Equate Abortion With Some Contraceptives<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOpponents of the rule mandating insurance coverage for birth control contend that some contraception methods amount to abortion, but experts say the drugs work prior to fertilization.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just my own thoughts on the matter: We are talking about, in the cases of contraception that prevents implantation, a cluster of 2 to a few dozen cells, max. I decline to consider that abortion and murder of a human life. Yes, if left alone, those cells might eventually become a human being. But an … Continue reading “On the whole "contraceptives = abortion" thing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,134,71],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-26453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-health-care","category-religion-me","tag-ddtb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42234,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/27\/its-a-trap.html","url_meta":{"origin":26453,"position":0},"title":"It’s a TRAP!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-May-14 11:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws are painted as solely for the protection of women, by placing increasing regulatory requirements on clinics that perform abortions. But given the very low rate of actual complications from most abortions, it's an argument that seems very shake vs. the argument that such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6316,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/09\/23\/ayes_and_nose.html","url_meta":{"origin":26453,"position":1},"title":"Ayes and nose","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 23-Sep-04 7:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"Quoth Marn: Before we go any further, here's what I want to say about skin cancer. *Insert sound of soapbox scraping across stage here*. Eighty per cent of the damage...","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49006,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/17\/who-can-take-credit-for-the-decline-in-the-us-abortion-rate.html","url_meta":{"origin":26453,"position":2},"title":"Who can take credit for the decline in the US abortion rate","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Dec-14 4:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It doesn't seem to be the people waving around pictures of aborted fetuses. It so happens that birth rates are down, too, and the overall answer seems to be an increase in the of contraception by the most at-risk-of-pregnancy groups of women.I don't imagine that will get pro-life groups actively\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128315,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/14\/its-not-about-abortion-its-about-sex.html","url_meta":{"origin":26453,"position":3},"title":"It's not about Abortion, it's about SEX!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Oct-15 9:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"Or that's what Monica Miller of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society says is the reason Planned Parenthood must be defunded ASAP:\"Planned Parenthood from the top to the bottom is a corrupt organization, corrupt in its view of the sanctity of human life and corrupt in its view of human sexuality.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/devil-15-c5B15D.gifimgmax%3D660.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51487,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/17\/abortion-is-down-but-not-because-of-anti-abortion-laws.html","url_meta":{"origin":26453,"position":4},"title":"Abortion is down, but not because of anti-abortion laws","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Jun-15 7:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Instead, it seems largely because pregnancy rates are down -- and that's apparently due to increased use of birth control (esp. by teens and by women in areas with stricter abortion laws, facilitated by the contraceptive coverage in the ACA, and encouraged by the Great Recession). The Abortion Rate Is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29988,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/27\/a-consistency-right-or-wrong-of-approach-on-abortion.html","url_meta":{"origin":26453,"position":5},"title":"A consistency (right or wrong) of approach on abortion","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Aug-12 6:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul Ryan is being consistent. He is, in fact, being more consistent than Mitt Romney, or any number of other politicians who favor outlawing abortion except for cases of rape or incest.If you accept the premises that (a) an unborn fetus is a human being and (b) the rights of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}