Deadly health risks for women: The unspoken side of the Obama birth control mandate

By Jenn Giroux

For far too long there has been an ominous silence across America on arguably the most controversial and devastating issue of the day — birth control. As so often we see in history, oppression gives rise to courage and, no question, courage is exactly what we are seeing in Church leaders and layman alike in response to the Obama administration's recent birth control mandate and more recent unacceptable modifications.

The Birth Control Mandate has forced the issue of contraception to move from being the elephant in the room to center stage. Perhaps in time we will see that it was a hidden blessing for our country. For years pro-life organizations refused to discuss or take on this topic despite the fact that free access to birth control increases the number of surgical abortions[1][2]. Most people repeat over and over that birth control decreases the number of abortions. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, today for every child born in the US, there are an estimated 2 children killed in the womb from both surgical and chemical, abortifacient drug abortions [3]. What isn't being talked about is that the new mandate also pre-disposes women to serious long term and permanent health problems. In conjunction with the defense of both religious liberty and the spiritual well-being of women, we must also refute the absurd and deceptive statement that "women are healthier on birth control."

Providing free hormonal birth control to women under the guise of 'preventative services' and 'women's health' is a lie and women of all faiths deserve to know the truth.

Hormonal birth control methods can enter the body in various ways. These ways include 'The Pill' (by mouth), the Mirena IUD (Intrauterine Device), the implant (placed under the skin), 'the Patch' (absorbed through the skin), and the Vaginal Nuvaring. There are many other estrogen -progestin name brands that can be added to this list. Any way you name it, these hormone drugs dispense poison into a woman's body.

Perhaps HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should inform her President of the following before he makes additional statements to the press like "it is cheaper to prevent than to treat." Consider this:

— Since 1975 there has been a 400% increase in "in situ" breast cancer among pre-menopausal women under 50 years old. This mirrors the increased use of birth control over these same years. ("In situ" is a medical term which means "at the location" [4].

— A Mayo Clinic study confirms that any young girl or woman who is on hormonal birth control for 4 years prior to their first full term pregnancy increases their breast cancer risk by 52%. [5]

— Women who use hormonal birth control for more than 5 years are four times more likely to develop cervical cancer. [6]

— The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a research arm of the World Health Organization, classifies all forms of hormonal contraception as a Group 1 carcinogen. This group of cancer causing agents also includes cigarettes and asbestos. [7] Why is it that the FDA can require cigarette manufacturers to place warning labels and real life photos of corpses on cigarette packages to warn consumers of the health dangers yet they, in turn, take an equally harmful substance (hormonal birth control) and force companies to give it away free to young girls without parental consent and woman of all ages?

— For high school boys and men to take steroid drugs, it is a crime. Whereas girls and women taking steroid drugs (i.e. hormonal birth control) are now treated as if they are taking a sacred, life preserving vitamin that women cannot live without. [8]

— In October 2010 the NY Times carried an article about Hormone Replacement Therapy drugs. It quoted the America Medical Association (AMA) as warning women that these post-menopausal drugs which were originally marketed as keeping a women "young and sexy" were discovered instead to be more likely to cause advanced and deadly breast cancer.[9] It stopped short of making one other startling revelation: The only difference between hormone replacement therapy drugs which cause deadly breast cancer and the hormonal birth control drugs (now mandated by the Obama administration) is that the birth control drugs are six times the dosage — and are the very same drug!

Never before has the US government mandated that private companies must provide services and it adds insult to injury when this mandate includes substances that harm women and cause them to unknowingly self-abort their babies a certain percentage of the time when they are using these substances.

How is it possible for women to self-abort when birth control is meant to prevent pregnancy? It is possible because many of these birth control methods still allow the woman's body to ovulate every month. If sexual relations occur during that time, it is possible to get pregnant. Recently doctors tried to figure out why some women could not get pregnant using artificial insemination. They conducted a study which discovered that the lining of a woman's uterus must be at least 8mm thick in order for a baby, in its tiniest form, to implant and grow in the womb. They found that the use of hormonal contraception (in any of the forms mentioned above) generally keeps the uterine lining below 6mm.[10] To be clear, if a baby is conceived by a woman on hormonal birth control the embryo cannot implant and grow to full gestation of 9 months if the integrity of the uterine lining is too thin. Instead the baby, in its tiniest form, is unknowingly self-aborted by its mother. This is what is meant by the word "abortifacient." It isn't just the "morning after" pill or "Ella" that is in the abortion inducing drug category. It is nearly all of the hormonal birth control that is being mandated.

Since Roe v Wade there has been over 55 million surgical abortions. These chemical abortions add an estimated 250 million additional abortions to our nation's holocaust. [11]

This is not information that should be kept from the public. Women deserve to be told the truth. They are not being warned that birth control methods are causing breast, liver, and cervical cancer. They are not being told about the "silent killer" effect which is causing them to unknowingly abort their babies. They are instead being told that they are healthier on birth control because it decreases ovarian and uterine cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, out of 100 women with cancer, 31 have breast cancer, 6 have uterine cancer, and 3 have ovarian cancer. This is not a healthy tradeoff of risks that is worth taking. [12]

If, indeed," it is cheaper to prevent than to treat" then it is time for the White House, Kathleen Sebeilius, and all health agencies within the government to sound the warning trumpet to warn women on hormonal birth control about these devastating medical consequences.

Clearly, birth control does not help women at risk, it places women at risk.

(A shorter version of this Op-Ed piece was first carried in the Washington Times)

Jenn Giroux has been a Registered Nurse for 26 years where she has seen both the physical and spiritual harms of contraception. She also founded the "Speaking of Motherhood" project in an effort to educate women of the harms of birth control and to elevate the profession of motherhood. She and her husband, Dan, live in Cincinnati, Ohio and have 9 children.

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© Jenn Giroux