"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." ~ Genesis 2:24
"Before I formed you in the womb I know you, before you were born I set you apart." ~ Jeremiah 1:5
I was very happy to hear the Supreme Court's decision in the Hobby Lobby case this morning. The court decided 5-4 that "closely held" for profit corporations have a right to religiously object to government regulations, in this case the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act, "OBAMA Care". Being a practicing Catholic woman, I can feel the government breathing down my neck and the necks of every religious person in this country. Attempting once more to squash religious freedom. This time they lose!
So, the Affordable Care Act, OBAMA Care mandate that nonexempt employers are generally required to provide coverage for the 20 contraceptive methods approved by the FDA. These methods include the four that may prevent an already fertilized egg from developing any further by inhibiting its attachment to the uterus (implantation). Religious employers, such as churches are exempt from this mandate.
The four contraceptive methods include two types of "morning after pills, and two types of intrauterine devices or IUD's.
Why am I so happy? The decision on the Hobby Lobby Case is having people look more deeply into the truth of contraception. Well, as I look back on my years as a young woman, I was Catholic without a true understanding of the depth and beauty of Catholic teachings on life and contraception. It was in my late twenties when I started listening to Catholic Family Radio. That was when I began to have my eyes slowly open up. In fact, I soaked up everything that I didn't know about my faith, and it was a lot! Up until that point I had made many mistakes in terms of respecting and understanding God's will for me and the sacredness of my body and of life.
In time I began to understand what the sacred covenant of marriage is and why I should have respected and cherished chastity before marriage, and why artificial contraception is so wrong. I gained an understanding of the Church's teaching on birth control. Unfortunately, this knowledge wasn't openly talked about in the church as I was growing up, and to a large degree, it still isn't. It really took radio programs with Catholic theologians and apologists, to instill in me a desire to learn more. Since then, I have learned a ton about my faith and the teachings of the church, and I'm still learning!
Okay, so growing up, my mom always told me to be good. That was it! I knew that she meant not to compromise my chastity, but she never said why. So here's what I have to say as about sex in marriage and why contraception is wrong. I didn't get to be 53 without learning a thing or two!
The Church teaches us that sex is a gift from God, intended for couples to enjoy inside the sacrament of marriage and marriage only. There are two things that must be present with every sexual act. The first is that the act must be "procreative"( meaning open to life) and it must also be unitive ( the actual physical union of a husband and wife). Anything outside of this diminishes its beauty, intent, and deliberately takes God's Will out of it.
Every act must be open to life. That's why barrier protection (condoms and spermicides), withdrawal, and all forms of hormonal contraception and abortifacient drugs are forbidden. That is why surrogacy, and related acts, invitro fertilization and some fertility practices are forbidden by the Catholic Church. This is not to say that the Church is against helping you figure out how to overcome infertility. In fact, check out this awesome new practice, NaPro Technology (
Natural Procreative Technology) to learn about why the Church endorses this fertility treatment. NaPro has had almost an 80% success rate, much higher than the 20-30% success rate of average fertility treatment, while also upholding the dignity of the woman's body and using her natural self to solve her infertility. (http://www.naprotechnology.com). Also, direct sterilization is not allowed, and we know this is because we have taken measures to say that we will not be open to God's plan for us to have children, and have taken the procreation part of the sexual act out.
With artificial birth control, couples engage in a unitive act that is frustrated by a contraceptive. They are unable to give themselves to one another fully, saying I accept all that you are with your fertility as a gift given to me by God. By engaging in barrier methods or artificial birth control you are saying, "I take you, but not your fertility" and the chance that you are upholding one another's dignity as a whole person is compromised. Hormonal birth control "the pill" is a Level 1 Carcinogen (cancer causing drug) that is deemed by the World Health Organization on the same level as asbestos. Also artificial birth control places a woman's body in a natural state of pregnancy, so it is possible that if she becomes pregnant (fertilized egg) her body already thinks she is pregnant and does not permit that egg to implant. Now that I say the Church doesn't permit these forms of birth control you might be saying, this is madness! How can I plan my family in a way that works? People who use birth control often say that natural birth spacing and artificial contraception are the same. They are NOT!
Well the Church does allow married couples to abstain from having sex during the fertile time of a woman's cycle, the most natural way to plan a family. In fact if you look at birth rates prior to the 20th century before artificial birth control and formula became rampant, most children were naturally spaced about 2 years, which is aligned to lactation (breastfeeding) amenorrhea, a woman's natural way to space children and give her body a break. So don't fear, without barrier methods and artificial birth control there are other ways to plan a family. The most effective of which is Natural Family Planning, a scientifically proven method where a couple shows self-restraint and abstinence during a possible fertile time and engages in union the rest of her cycle. It is a prayerful decision by a couple to have self-restraint and the interesting part is that couples who engage in NFP are less likely to have divorce than couples who use other forms of artificial birth control. Now we are seeing why the Church endorses NFP over contraception!
There are several birth regulation methods approved by the Church such as Natural Family Planning, the Ovulation Method, Creighton Model , and the Billings method. These methods can also help couples to conceive. I encourage you to contact someone at your church who can direct you to learning more about these methods. Better yet check out this link to learn from the Couple to Couple League which is an awesome partner to the Church for teaching Natural Family Planning: http://www.ccli.org.
It's a little ironic that Americans are so health conscious, eating only organic foods, exercising, using products free from chemicals or unwanted additives. Yet, young girls and women don't think twice about putting dangerous and or carcinogenic products into their body. For what? For the "freedom to have sex whenever or with whomever they please." This is not an act that honors God and the sacred body He gave us.
So why does this all matter?
Well this particular Supreme Court Case that ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby sets an important precedent for our country, one of which shows that religious liberty is an important part of our constitution that we need to uphold regardless of executive governmental demands.
Another is the recognition of the conversation that needs to be held by our people in our communities about these particular 4 forms of devastating and damaging forms of artificial birth control. They are put into the category of an abortifacient, a drug that can cause an abortion (early term). How? The hormones in the hormonal IUD work to prevent typically ovulation but could work to prevent implantation. The morning after pill, Plan B or Ella, is an extremely high dosage of the same hormone in the hormonal contraceptive "the pill", which works to prevent ovulation, but if you read up on the studies of it or take a look at the back of a box it says that it prevents implantation of a fertilized egg. The copper IUD, perhaps the most dangerous birth control, sometimes works to actually cause an abortion itself if you become pregnant with it in. Both IUDs are there to make the uterus a hostile environment, and have hormones in them that are toxic to the sperm. Why do we care about these four? Because once conception occurs,t the egg is fertilized, it is a life, a person! An innocent life that has a unique purpose, dignity, and deserves the same rights as each of us humans. God our Father siad
"Before I formed you in the womb I know you, before you were born I set you apart." Jeremiah 1:5 Isn't that awesome! So women, lets take charge of our bodies, embrace our fertility, and find a less invasive way to plan our families. One that will strengthen our marriages!
Thank you to the Green Family, owners of Hobby Lobby, for standing for life and against abortifacient drugs that are dangerous to women. I think it makes sense that the majority of attorneys for Hobby Lobby were women, because they saw this as common sense legislation for our country, that will protect women and religious freedom!
Following the teaching of the Catholic Church brings only unity and a holiness to the marital relationship. It honors and protects life, while fostering a caring loving sacredness to the marital relationship. It honors our Lord God!
I encourage you to look deeper into the truth of artificial contraception and the teachings of the Catholic Church. Until next time, you are in my prayers.
Yours in Christ, gg
