Other “Contraceptives” that Cause Abortions

The IUD, Norplant, Depo-Provera, NuvaRing, and RU 486

Prolifers have long opposed using the IUD, because it does not prevent conception, but keeps the already-conceived child from implanting in his mother’s womb.

A paper by Irving Sivin challenges this understanding.[i] Since other evidence has suggested it is an abortifacient, the jury appears to still be out on the IUD. However, because the stakes are so high, the uncertainty argues against using the IUD.

RU-486, the anti-progestin abortion pill, is a human pesticide causing a mother’s womb to become hostile to her own child, resulting in an induced miscarriage.[ii]

Depo-Provera is a progestin (medroxy­progesterone) injected every three months. It sometimes suppresses ovulation, but also thins the lining of the uterus, apparently preventing implantation.

Norplant is another progestin (levonorgestrel) enclosed in five or six flexible closed capsules or rods, which are surgically implanted beneath the skin. It often suppresses ovulation, but sometimes ovulation occurs, and when it does an irritation to the uterine wall may often prevent implantation.

NuvaRing is a flexible 2” ring in diameter that is inserted vaginally once a month. It releases a continuous low dose of hormones and changes the endometrium which reduces the likelihood of implantation.

The Emergency Contraceptive Pill (ECP) also known as the “Morning-After Pill,” can suppress ovulation, but its main function is to keep any fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.

All of these birth control methods either sometimes or often alter the mother’s womb in a way that causes it to reject the human life that God designed it to nourish and sustain.

Christians properly reject these methods because they know that human life begins at conception, six days before implantation begins. Therefore, anything that interferes with implantation kills a person created in the image of God.

These birth control methods are often referred to as “contraceptives,” but they are not exclusively contraceptives. That is, they do not always prevent conception. Either sometimes or often they result in the death of already-conceived human beings.

The Mini-Pill (Progestin-only)

Progestin-only pills, which have no estrogen, are often called “Mini-pills.” Many people confuse Mini-pills with the far more popular combination estrogen-progestin pills, which are the true “Birth Control Pill.”

Drug Facts & Comparisons is a standard reference book for physicians. It says this under “Oral Contraceptives”:

Oral contraceptives (OCs) include estrogen-progestin combos and progestin-only products. Progestin-only [pills]…alter the cervical mucus, exert a progestational effect on the endometrium, apparently producing cellular changes that render the endometrium hostile to implantation by a fertilized ovum (egg) and, in some patients, suppress ovulation.[iii]

Note that progestin-only pills have as a primary effect to make the uterine lining, the endometrium, “hostile to implantation by a fertilized ovum.” In other words, they cause an abortion of a human being roughly a week after his or her conception.

I have been told that many users of the Mini-pill think their ovulations are being suppressed. In fact, some new mothers have gone on the Mini-pill in order to prevent pregnancy while breast-feeding. However, in his book Gynecology: Principles & Practices, R.W. Kistner says, “Certainly the majority of women using the progestin-only pill continue to ovulate.”[iv]

In his book Hormonal Contraception: Pills, Injections & Implants, Dr. Joseph W. Goldzieher, states, “Endometrial resistance to implantation is an important mechanism of the minipill.”[v]

A 1981 Searle leaflet, packaged with their progestin-only pill, says that product “makes the womb less receptive to any fertilized egg that reaches it.”[vi] 

The Physician’s Desk Reference describes “Progestogen-Only Oral Contraceptives” by saying they “are known to alter the cervical mucus and exert a progestational effect on the endometrium, interfering with implantation.”[vii]

Clearly the progestin-only pill, by its effects on the endometrium, causes abortions and must be added to the list of abortive birth control methods. Like all the aforementioned products, the changes the Mini-pill creates in the mother’s endometrium make the womb hostile to the newly-conceived child, instead of hospitable to him, as God designed the mother’s womb to be.

Excerpted from Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?