Emergency "Contraception" and Early Abortion

"The encyclical of Pope Paul VI on birth control is true and must be followed by mankind. There shall be no rationalization of sin.” - Our Lady of the Roses, October 2, 1976

The following is a 1998 fact sheet from the NCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, on the proven abortifacient nature of emergency "contraception" pills, such as Plan B. Recently, Pope Benedict warned a group of Catholic pharmacists against dispensing drugs that have the goal of preventing the implantation of the human embryo:

The recent approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of a new drug (Preven), specifically for use as "Emergency Contraception" (EC), is raising questions as to whether the drug's mechanism is contraceptive or abortifacient in nature.

A major problem in this debate is the manipulation of terms. The FDA, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and abortion advocacy groups long ago endorsed a change in the definitions of "conception" and "pregnancy" to confuse the issue. Instead of equating conception with fertilization, and seeing a woman as pregnant if her body contains a living, developing embryo, they equate "conception" and "pregnancy" with the implantation of the embryo in the uterus 6 to 10 days later. Thus a drug or device that destroys the early embryo or disrupts its development is redefined as "contraceptive," even though it is abortifacient in nature.

What is EC?

The new Preven regimen and similar so-called "morning-after" pills, which can actually be taken several days after intercourse, are high doses of ordinary birth control pills containing estrogen and progestin, which have long been known to inhibit pregnancy. In response to years of pressure from some medical and advocacy groups, the FDA recommended six brands of oral contraceptive pills in high doses (Ovral, Lo/Ovral, Nordette, Levlen, Triphasil, and Tri-Levlen) as "safe" and "effective" for use as "postcoital EC" in February 1997.

EC pills are intended for use no later than 72 hours after "unprotected" intercourse. One dose of pills is taken within 72 hours and a second dose 12 hours later. Proponents claim that the pills are 75% effective in preventing pregnancy. Planned Parenthood, which offers the regimen at many of its sites, says that the method is for "special circumstances" such as after "contraceptive failure" or sexual assault. (This raises the question: How can it be contraception, if contraception has already "failed" so that conception has occurred?) The method offers no protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It also poses greatly increased health risks for smokers, although there are virtually no warnings about this, according to Hanna Klaus, MD, FACOG. About half the women taking ECPs experience nausea and 20% may vomit for up to two weeks. Potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy (after a high dose of estrogen) is also among the possible side effects.

How does EC work?

While Preven and other EC pills are FDA-approved as "contraception," medical and advocacy groups admit that the pills work in a variety of ways. While these pills may sometimes have a contraceptive mode of action because they prevent or delay ovulation or fertilization, they are designed to prevent implantation as well.

According to the FDA, "EC pills ... act by delaying or inhibiting ovulation, and/or altering tubal transport of sperm and/or ova (thereby inhibiting fertilization), and/or altering the endometrium (thereby inhibiting implantation)" (FDA Notice, 62 Fed. Reg. 861 [Feb. 25, 1997]).

The Alan Guttmacher Institute's Family Planning Perspectives made the same observation in 1995: "Emergency contraceptive pills, also known as morning-after pills, are a postcoital hormonal treatment that appears to inhibit implantation of the fertilized ovum" (C. Harper and C. Ellertson, "Knowledge and Perceptions of Emergency Contraceptive Pills Among a College-Age Population: A Qualitative Approach," 27 Family Planning Perspectives 149 [July-August 1995]). It is this abortifacient mode of action that EC proponents often downplay.

A recent editorial favoring EC in a major medical journal made a fascinating connection in commenting on the drug's mode of action: "From a medical point of view, the use of emergency contraception should not be considered abortion, since, as demonstrated daily in programs for in vitro fertilization, pregnancy in a woman cannot begin until the fertilized ovum is implanted in her uterus" (P. Stubblefield, "Self-Administered Emergency Contraception — A Second Chance," 339 New England Journal of Medicine 41 [July 2, 1998]). To most people, what IVF has underscored is the fact that a life begins with fertilization (hence the popular name "test-tube baby.") The editorial's analogy only proves that, if we want to call EC "contraception," we must also call it merely "contraception" to deliberately discard and destroy developing human embryos in the laboratory. Congress has never taken this view.

Abortion or Contraception?

A woman who uses EC after unprotected sex clearly intends to prevent pregnancy. However, she may be quite unaware of “where” she is in her cycle (i.e., whether or not she has ovulated). Although she may not intend to abort, the drug's action of altering the endometrium to interfere with implantation may in fact abort the developing embryo.

This point cannot be overemphasized. "Taking a high level of estrogen via ECPs within 72 hours of intercourse once the fertile phase has begun will, in fact, precipitate ovulation. This will make it more likely, rather than less, that fertilization will occur," according to Dr. Klaus. Once an ovum is in the Fallopian tube, the process of fertilization may begin within 15 to 30 minutes after intercourse. Thus some researchers conclude that interfering with the endometrium "could explain the majority of cases where pregnancies are prevented by the morning-after pill" (J. Wilks, A Consumer's Guide to the Pill and Other Drugs at 154 [1997], citing F. Grou and I. Rodrigues, "The morning-after pill: How long after?", 171 Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 1529-34 [1994].) Without implantation, which occurs about a week after fertilization, the embryo cannot develop and will die.

Brown University associate professor of medicine, Ralph Miech, M.D., Ph.D., agrees. "This type of pill causes an abortion," he wrote in the Providence Journal on August 3, 1998. "From a pharmacologic perspective, this type of pill should be called an 'abortion-after pill'."

The question must be asked: "How is this contraception?" Women are being falsely led to believe that these pills are contraceptive in nature. But one of their common and intended modes of action is to prevent the development of the embryo, resulting in his or her death.

October 1998

"We warned you over and over again, through years of visitations upon earth--My Mother going to and fro to warn you, that those who have given themselves over to debasement, by the practice of homosexuality, birth control, abortion and all other aberrations that bring sorrow to My Mother's heart--this must be stopped now. There shall be no excuse accepted in Heaven by the saints, nor by My Mother and I, or the Eternal Father and the Holy Ghost, for what you are doing upon earth now." - Jesus, June 6, 1987

“Permissiveness shall not be accepted by your God. Sin is sin; there is no compromise for sin. Mortal sin is a grievous offense to the Eternal Father. The Commandments shall be followed without permissiveness.” – Jesus, November 21, 1977

Milwaukee Archbishop: You Can’t Call Yourself Catholic and Support Contraception

LifeSiteNews.com reported on December 15, 2009:

The incoming Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, has responded to a campaign by "Young Catholics for Choice" to promote use of contraception and abortion among Catholic youth.

Using media advertising the group is, says the Archbishop-Designate, "attempting to convey the message that Catholics can disregard Church teaching regarding contraception, abortion and human sexuality in general and remain Catholics in good standing." However, "Nothing could be further from the truth."

"While people can call themselves whatever they want, it is my duty as a bishop to state clearly and unequivocally that by professing and disseminating views in grave contradiction to Catholic teaching, members of organizations like 'Young Catholics for Choice' in fact disown their Catholic heritage, tragically distancing themselves from that communion with the Church to which they are called," added the archbishop.

Using language first employed by Catholic dissenters to Humanae Vitae, YCFC calls on Catholics to use an "informed conscience" to decide to use birth control and the morning-after-pill, also called "emergency contraception."

Their ad campaign states: "Young Catholics are having sex. We are using contraception and condoms. We are having abortions. We are bisexual, gay, lesbian, straight and transgender. And none of this makes us any less Catholic than conservative Catholics who speak out against us.

"The truth is, they don't represent what the majority of Catholics - especially those of us in our 20s and 30s - think about sex. It comes down to Catholic teaching on conscience. Basically, every individual has the right and responsibility to follow his or her own conscience - and respect others' right to do the same. With conscience and respect, good Catholic sex is not only possible, it's already happening. "

The group, claiming to be a youth wing of "Catholics for Choice," admits that it's mandate is to "take action to counter the bishops' impact both in the United States and around the world. "

Archbishop Listecki concluded his statement calling for prayers for the YCFC members. "We pray that they may reconcile their position which is contrary to the Catholic Faith they claim to profess."

Vatican: “The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception”

"The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable."

- "Vademecum for Confessors: Concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Conjugal Life," #4, Vatican Pontifical Council for the Family, March 1, 1997.

"From the ethical standpoint the same absolute unlawfulness of abortifacient procedures also applies to distributing, prescribing and taking the morning-after pill. All who, whether sharing the intention or not, directly co-operate with this procedure, are also morally responsible for it."

- “Statement on the So-Called Morning After Pill,” Vatican Pontifical Council for Life, October 31, 2000.

"It is not possible to anesthetize the conscience, for example, when it comes to molecules whose aim is to stop an embryo implanting or to cut short someone's life... I invite your federation [of pharmacists] to consider conscientious objection which is a right that must be recognized for your profession so you can avoid collaborating, directly or indirectly, in the supply of products which have clearly immoral aims, for example abortion or euthanasia..."

- Pope Benedict XVI, address to Catholic Pharmacists, October 29, 2007

On June 5, 1987, Pope John Paul II warned clergy and theologians of their grave obligation to faithfully transmit the Church’s teaching on contraception: “A grave responsibility derives from this: those who place themselves in open conflict with the law of God, authentically taught by the Church, guide spouses along a false path. The Church’s teaching on contraception does not belong to the category of matter open to free discussion among theologians. Teaching the contrary amounts to leading the moral consciences of spouses into error.”

- "The Church's teaching on contraception is not a matter for free discussion among theologians," L'Osservatore Romano, July 6, 1987, p. 12.

On September 17, 1983, Pope John Paul II told priests in Rome that “contraception is to be judged objectively so profoundly unlawful as never to be, for any reason, justified. To think or to say the contrary is equal to maintaining that, in human life, situations may arise in which it is lawful not to recognize God as God.”

- quotation from “The Papal Talk of 17 Sept.,” The [Hartford] Catholic Transcript, David Q. Liptak, January 20, 1984.

"In fact, just as man does not have unlimited dominion over his body in general, so also, with particular reason, he has no such dominion over his generative faculties as such, because of their intrinsic ordination towards raising up life, of which God is the principle. 'Human life is sacred,' Pope John XXIII recalled; 'from its very inception it reveals the creating hand of God.'
"In conformity with these landmarks in the human and Christian vision of marriage, we must once again declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun, and, above all, directly willed and procured abortion, even if for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as licit means of regulating birth.
"Equally to be excluded, as the teaching authority of the Church has frequently declared, is direct sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary, whether of the man or of the woman. Similarly excluded is every action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible."

- Pope Paul VI, encyclical Humanae Vitae, July 25, 1968 (#13-14).

Asked what he would do if pushed on the issue by the state, Bishop Sheridan indicated that he would likely rather have the Church pull out of hospitals than compromise the faith. "If I personally were being pushed on this and had to make the decision by myself, I'd have to question whether or not we could continue that particular ministry if the state were going to force us to act contrary to Catholic teaching, to the Catholic conscience," he told LifeSiteNews.com.

Bishop Sheridan concluded, "How could you continue to call yourself Catholic if you were doing things that were contrary to Catholic teaching even if you were being forced by the state to do them?"

- “Colorado Springs Bishop Says He Does Not and Would Not Permit Plan B in Catholic Hospitals”, LifeSiteNews.com, October 10, 2007.

The truth is that there is absolutely no doubt about how the Plan B pills work. Just ask the manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals, whose product insert states: "This product works mainly by preventing ovulation (egg release). It may also prevent fertilization of a released egg (joining of sperm and egg) or attachment of a fertilized egg to the uterus (implantation)." (My italics.) It's that third item that makes Plan B an abortion-causing drug. The same can be said for every chemical contraceptive.

- Human Life International President: "Plan A: Keep 'Plan B' out of Catholic hospitals", LifeSiteNews.com,
October 5, 2007.

“The Vatican did not need to invent any new teaching on the Plan B pills because these pills fall into the category of abortifacient contraception, pure and simple. The consistent teaching of our Church on abortion applies here.”

- Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer, quotation from “A ‘seriously flawed’ decision in Connecticut,” The [Los Angeles] Tidings, October 19, 2007.

"Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection."

- Pope John Paul II, encyclical The Gospel of Life, #73, March 25, 1995.

"The [abortion] excommunication affects all those who commit this crime with knowledge of the penalty attached, and thus includes those accomplices without which the crime would not have been committed."

- Pope John Paul II, encyclical The Gospel of Life, #62, March 25, 1995.

"The Eternal Father command that you stop these murders at once! You will not destroy the lives of the unborn. Human life is sacred in the eyes of your God. No man has the right to destroy a life. The Father, He sends this life to you, and only He will decide when it will return back to the Kingdom.
"Do not, My children, be deceived by the words of the evil ones about you who cry to you of no space left for man. There is space, for My Father has a plan for every life He sends." - Our Lady of the Roses, August 5, 1971

THE UNITED STATES SHALL FALL
"How can a great country like the United States fall, you say, My child? You ask Me in your heart. I read your heart. I will tell you why. Because they have given themselves over to satan. When a country has lost its morality and seeks the pleasures of the flesh, giving over, themselves over, to all manner of abominations, like homosexuality, and condoning this up the highest courts of the land, then that country shall fall." - Our Lady of the Roses, November 1, 1985

DOCTORS
"Doctors now are profaning their profession, those who have given themselves over to destroying human life in abortions." - Jesus, June 6, 1987

FOULEST OF DEEDS
"Our hearts are torn because of the wanton murder of the young by evil man. Abortion, My children, is murder, the most foulest of deeds, that is punishable by death! And what is worse than death of the soul?
"I say unto you, as your Mother, that any man or woman who performs or takes part of this abomination of the murder of the unborn shall be given a heavy penance upon earth, or if this penance is not given upon earth, that person found guilty in the eyes of his God shall suffer eternal damnation in the fires of hell." - Our Lady, December 28, 1976

DESTROYED
"All who become part of or condone abortion, the murder of the young, shall be destroyed!" - Jesus, June 2, 1979

HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED
"The Eternal Father command that you stop these murders at once! You will not destroy the lives of the unborn. Human life is sacred in the eyes of your God. No man has the right to destroy a life. The Father, He sends this life to you, and only He will decide when it will return back to the Kingdom.
"Do not, My children, be deceived by the words of the evil ones about you who cry to you of no space left for man. There is space, for My Father has a plan for every life He sends." - Our Lady, August 5, 1971

WILL NEVER BE CONDONED
"You will remember, My children and My child, to guard the young. Your clergy have fallen into darkness. Abortion will never be condoned. But We must have others who fervently will go forward and bring out to the minds of those who have actually seduced the country and the children--bring them the knowledge of Heaven, hell and purgatory. Then they will not have free license to sin." - Our Lady, May 28, 1983

GOVERNMENT
"For that one reason among many, the United States will suffer unless there is placed into your government a group that fears the Lord if they cannot love the Lord. They will fear Him and find measures to stop the slaughter of the unborn." - Our Lady, April 14, 1984

NUNS
"That is what makes My heart ache, My child. That is one of the reasons Theresa is crying constantly when she looks into the convents and sees what is going on. Many now believe in abortion, the murders of the children; and many have committed this act upon themselves." - Jesus, October 1, 1988

SIXTY MILLION
"I say this for this reason: the Eternal Father is much disturbed at the numbers of abortions being committed throughout your country and the world. These numbers go upwards to fifty to sixty million in one year throughout the world." - Our Lady, June 18, 1986

TREATED AS GARBAGE
"O My child, My tears fall upon you all when I see all of the innocent little babies being slaughtered . . . cast into garbage pails like nothing but dirt and scum. They are living human beings! And all murderers shall get their just recompense." - Our Lady, March 18, 1983

HOLY SPIRIT
"At the time of conception, the Holy Spirit makes the child, and the breath of the Almighty gives it life." - Our Lady, June 18, 1991

LIMBO
"And what, My children, are We going to do with all the aborted babies? O My child, I know you feel as I do, for I can see the great distress on your face. What are We going to do, My child? Do you understand when they come to Us, they must go to Limbo? They are in Heaven, a happy place, but they cannot see God." - Our Lady, October 2, 1987

SORROWFULLY
"Sorrowfully, the penance that is to come upon the world for the murders of the unborn shall be a chastisement far greater in severity than man has ever witnessed in the past nor ever shall pass through again. Your world is plunging into a deep chasm of suffering and destruction." - Our Lady, May 20, 1978

OATH
"Your once loyal to the oath of a doctor, your once loyal doctors are now butchers! For money they kill the young!" - Our Lady, February 10, 1978

WOE TO THE WOMAN
"Know, My child, this simple lesson, that in these days of the latter times, women will seek to cast off their role as mother and a woman. Women will cast it off under the direction of satan, and murder her children. Woe to the woman who does not repent of this vile abomination! She has walked the road to eternal damnation and hell. Repent, O woman, or forever be lost!" - Our Lady, March 18, 1975

Videos online:

Vatican II
Watch here...