The following is an article written by Fr. Charlie Goraieb that I found in a Catholic circular. In his discussions with Pastors of local churches, he found that they were in complete opposition to abortion, but that contraception was a "Catholic issue".
"Perhaps the one issue that all Christians can agree on is the evil of abortion. Good and well. But that is only part of the battle. In order to change the culture which gives rise to legalized abortion, we need to go to the root causes. And the widespread use of contraception is undoubtedly one of them. With a huge majority of women - single as well as married, using some form of contraception, one might have predicted that illegal births and abortions would be a thing of the past. Not so. Last year (2004) there were 4.1 million births in the U.S. and a record-breaking 1.5 million of them by unwed mothers. Looks like the revolution failed.
One would think, however that with that many illegal births that the number of abortions would decrease. Wrong again. Each year since 1973 there has been about 1.3 million abortions. This compares to the 200,000 which occurred yearly prior to the Roe v. Wade. Again, we see the wide-spread use of contraception fueling abortion. Let's look at a couple of other, lesser known connections between these two unholy allies.
Legal - The infamous Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion on demand did not arise out of nowhere. The key legal concept that the majority used to justify their decision was the so-called "right to privacy". The first time this right was somehow discovered in our Constitution came in the case of "Griswold vs. Connecticut" argued in 1965. Up to that time the State of Connecticut had a law prohibiting the use of artificial contraception. The plaintiffs argued that the law restricted couples' constitutionally guaranteed "right to privacy", and the court agreed. Never mind that nowhere in the Constitution is this right ever mentioned. Eight years later that same tortured reasoning was trotted out to justify a woman’s right to kill her unborn child.
Medical - We could start with the fact that 98 percent of all abortions are done not because of the mother's health reasons but because of an unwanted pregnancy. In other words, these abortions are nothing more than a gruesome form of contraception.
When it comes to the technology of contraception, the line separating it from abortion is increasingly blurred. For example, there is a strong push to make the emergency contraceptive or "morning-after" pill available over the counter. What this wrongly named chemical does is either dislodge the already fertilized ovum (i.e., a conceived human being) from the uterus or expel it before it can do so. In other words, an abortion.
All oral contraceptives combine estrogen and progesterone which have the effect of preventing ovulation. What many women don't know is that in the very best of circumstances, these pills cause at least 3-5 abortions over a twelve month period, and often many more.
"My ways are not your ways", says the Lord. Let us humbly surrender to His plan. It is our only way out of this!"
FR. Charlie Goraieb goes on to say: "Did you know? More babies are aborted annually because of contraception than surgical abortion procedures".
Note: The word "contra" means against. The word "ception" means fruitfulness. So, contraception means, to be "against fruitfulness". The word "sorcery", originates from the Greek word "pharmakia", which in turn gives us our modern word, "pharmaceuticals". Contraceptives are created by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.
By George Konig
December 11, 2005
www.georgekonig.org
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