A nice anecdote:
When I was about 11 or 12, I asked my mom out right, “Why don’t we go to church?” Her reply? “Because they say I can’t use these,” as she held up her birth control pills. We then had a short chat about how the Church was trying to control her and other women’s lives. How she wanted to be the one to decide when and if she would have another baby (by this time, she had been pregnant 4 times and given birth 3 times with one miscarriage). And I think she ended it by saying that all women should be making this decision, not the church.
For more, go here. (Thanks, Jender-Parents!)
I wonder if really explaining the science of birth control pills would make a difference to those in churches who don’t believe in them. There are groups who honestly believe that birth control pills force abortion, rather than prevent pregnancy from happening.
LaNeshe,
There are certainly groups of people (on both pro- and anti-Pill sides of the issue) who misunderstand how birth control pills work. But I also wonder, like you, whether explaining the science would make a difference to those in churches who don’t believe in them. For one thing, not all of their objections are based on the belief that the Pill is potentially abortifacient. For another, explaining the science would involve explaining that there’s evidence to suggest that Pill *can* be abortifacient in some cases (potential “postfertilization mechanisms”, in the lingo), which might simply confirm the attitude of someone inclined to find the potential for this effect objectionable.