Dr Rebecca Peck's forthcoming February 2012 Linacre Quarterly
article, "Significant Risks of Oral Contraceptives (OCPs):
Why This Drug Should NOT Be Included In a Preventive Care
Mandate" (co-authored by Charles Norris, and incuding 72
references) will be a powerful tool for us. Her open letter
(below) is a very practical extension of her Linacre Quarterly
article that you have her permission to use as you wish.
Steve Koob and Fr. Matthew Habiger OSB
Download
article, click here.
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Dear Friends,
I just wanted you to
see this thread of a discussion on some points related to the
HHS mandate.
Although the
religious liberty issue is universally compelling, another
crucial point is that birth control is NOT preventative care
(see below). The current administration wants this to be
about the Catholic Bishops denying women their "women’s health".
This is why I feel our recent research article is so timely and
important right now (1). The pill is not a warm little fuzzy
harmless object. It causes significant harm and the American
people have been deceived for long enough. As a practicing
physician, I see the fallout every day—young women with blood
clots in their legs, strokes, early breast cancer, HPV, and
cervical cancer. This is NOT about women's health; it is
about preventing and killing babies. The present
administration will try to pit US Bishops against women and try
to portray the bishops as a bunch of old men that don't want
women to have their "women's health" options, but this has no
credibility.
Every day, I, my husband Benjamin, and other
doctors like us do TRUE preventative care. We do pap smears
looking for cervical cancer, perform breast exams looking for
breast cancer, refer for mammograms, order colonoscopies looking
for colon cancer, and give immunizations to prevent pneumonia
and influenza. These time-tested measures are very different
from prescribing a pill to prevent a CHILD.
A child is not a disease. Pregnancy and fertility
are not disease states; they are normal physiological processes
of the human body.
The point also needs to be hammered home that we
are not just talking about insurance mandated contraception—we
are talking sterilizations, “morning-after” pills, and
abortions. Christians and Catholics can come together on the
abortion issue. Accordingly, the way the pill causes
abortions needs to be explained in a coherent manner (2).
Manufacturers of the current birth control pill formulations
have reduced estrogen content in an attempt to reduce some of
the risks cited above. But, reducing the estrogen increases the
likelihood of ovulation. The pill’s "backup" mechanism then
comes into play by preventing implantation of the several day
old embryo into the uterine wall.
Since life begins at conception, the layperson can understand
that this necessarily means that the new life is aborted.
Finally, regarding the recent decision of Komen
to reinstate support for PP, the hypocrisy of this must be
exposed. Birth control and abortion—PP's 2 major lines of
business—INCREASE the risk of breast cancer (3).
All people of
integrity want women to have options regarding their family
planning, but why are the only discussed options those that are
contrary to the Catholic Church's teaching?
Fertility awareness and modern methods of Natural
Family Planning—over a dozen distinct methods—cause NO harms at
all! All have wonderful benefits for women that empower them,
strengthen their families, and work with their bodies in the
natural way God created them.
Blessings,
Rebecca Peck, MD
PS It should also be
pointed out that HAVING children and BREASTFEEDING—a woman using
her body as it is designed—actually protect a woman's health.
Pregnancy is not a disease; pregnancy
PREVENTS disease.
(1) Peck, R; Norris,
C. "Why OCPs Should Not Be Part of a Preventative Care Mandate:
Significant Risks and Harms of OCPs", Linacre Quarterly, Feb
2012 (forthcoming)
(2) Stanford, J;
Larrimore, W. "Postfertilization effects of OCPs"
www.polycarp.org
(3) Kahlenborn, C.
http://www.polycarp.org/overviewbreastcanceroralcontraceptives.htm
and
http://www.polycarp.org/overviewabortionbreastcancer.htm
