NFP Week: Women Don’t Need Contraceptives

August 3, 2017 SAFAFamily

In honor of NFP week, let’s talk about how women don’t need contraceptives. In our culture, contraception has become synonymous with “women’s health.” The world thinks that fertility is a disease which need to be cured.

Most American women use some form of contraception. But how many women actually know what it does to their body?

Estrogen-Progesterone Oral Contraceptives are on the list of the American Cancer Society’s known carcinogens — substances that are known to cause cancer in humans. They’re on the list with tobacco, UV tanning beds, asbestos, and many others. These pills cause cancer in humans!

Here are some of the other risk factors:
Blood Clots
Liver Tumors
High Blood Pressure
Stroke
Cancer of Reproductive Organs
Breast Cancer
Ovarian Cysts
Ectopic Pregnancy

And some side effects:
Nausea, Vomiting, Stomach Cramps
Breakthrough Bleeding
Mood Swings
Breast Tenderness
Yeast Infections/ Vaginal Itching
Headache/Dizziness
Interference with Contact Lenses/Vision
Loss of Scalp Hair and Increased Body Hair Growth
Decreased Libido

All of these show that contraception does not improve women’s health.

In addition to this, Pope Paul VI’s four primary predictions about the consequences of contraception in Humanae Vitae have all come true:

“Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards.

Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law.

Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.

Consequently, unless we are willing that the responsibility of procreating life should be left to the arbitrary decision of men, we must accept that there are certain limits, beyond which it is wrong to go, to the power of man over his own body and its natural functions—limits, let it be said, which no one, whether as a private individual or as a public authority, can lawfully exceed. These limits are expressly imposed because of the reverence due to the whole human organism and its natural functions, in the light of the principles We stated earlier, and in accordance with a correct understanding of the “principle of totality” enunciated by Our predecessor Pope Pius XII. (21)”

It’s time to put an end to the myth that women need contraceptives. There is another, better option for women’s health. Natural Family Planning is a healthy, even ‘green’ way to space pregnancies. It doesn’t come with a horrible list of side effects, and it won’t cause you cancer.

To learn more about NFP, visit the Couple to Couple League website.