Women: If You Believe Life Begins at Conception, Don't Take the Pill!

In my discussions with other women, I have found a distressing lack of knowledge as to how the pill, and all other chemical birth control, works. If a woman does not believe that human life begins at conception, I suppose there is not much cause to be well-informed regarding the ways in which pregnancy is avoided. However, if you personally believe that a life begins at the moment of conception, there is reason for you to investigate the mechanisms of chemical birth control, the most popular being the pill, I.U.D., shot and patch.

Birth control is designed to work in three ways which are relied upon in succession to prevent pregnancy.

First of all, hormones and chemicals present in the birth control agent are supposed to prevent ovulation from occurring. Preventing ovulation will always prevent pregnancy. A woman cannot conceive unless there is an egg to be fertilized. It would be wonderful if chemical birth control was a reliable method for preventing ovulation, but this is not the case. As estrogen levels present in the pill have been reduced to combat negative side effects that come with taking birth control, the instances of women ovulating while taking it have risen. Some studies have shown that as many as 40-50% of women on chemical birth control will still ovulate in a given month.

Secondly, there is an additional mechanism which is relied upon to prevent pregnancy, and that is the chemically-induced thickening of cervical mucous. Thick cervical mucous creates a hostile environment in which sperm have a difficult time traveling to the woman's egg. If ovulation has not been prevented by the chemical birth control, creating an averse environment for sperm is another way to reduce the likelihood of pregnancy.

Finally, and most-importantly, there is a third mechanism which chemical birth control uses to prevent pregnancy. This mechanism includes the tearing down and degrading of the uterine wall. This is done so that if and when an egg is fertilized in spite of the first two mechanism, the embryo, or tiny new life, cannot implant along the uterine wall. Implantation generally occurs about 8 days after conception. However, if the vital oxygen and nutrients usually present in the uterine wall are absent, the baby likely will not be able to implant. The result? The newly conceived child dies and is expelled from the body during the woman's next menstrual cycle.

If you believe that life does not begin until after implantation, the point of viability, or even birth, this will not present a moral dilemma for you. However, if you believe that life begins at conception, you can see that taking chemical birth control presents an ethical problem for you, for it is quite feasible that a woman could end her pregnancy due to the effect of chemical birth control in her system, and never know about it. Ask yourself, is it worth the risk of having an unintentional abortion, simply for the ease of using "reliable" birth control? If you consider the methods by which chemical birth control is so dependable, you may re-think your method of family planning.