The Rhythm Method and Embryonic Death

[MountainLaurel]

Some proponents of the pro-life movement argue against morning after pills, IUDs, and contraceptive pills on grounds of a concern for causing embryonic death. What has gone unnoticed, however, is that the pro-life line of argumentation can be extended to the rhythm method of contraception as well. Given certain plausible empirical assumptions, the rhythm method may well be responsible for a much higher number of embryonic deaths than some other contraceptive techniques.

http://press.psprings.co.uk/jme/june/355_me13920.pdf

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Wouldn't that be a kicker, though? If their avenue for contraception that doesn't kill "babies" turns out to actually kill more of them.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. "every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great. If a sperm is wasted,

god gets quite irate"

[realisticphish]

4. Let the heathens spill theirs

on the dusty ground;
God will make them pay for each sperm that can't be found

[waiting for hope]

2. What irony....

my husband's Catholic and had to go through the "classes" before the wedding - sitting through the Rhythm Method one made us both want to vomit because they should a video with a women's fingers apparently covered with vaginal fluid....uucck. We both turned to each other and whispered...Staying on the pill..."

[TlalocW]

6. I had some friends who got married

He's an atheist, and she's a lapsed Catholic, but they had a Catholic wedding to appease her father as he was a bigwig in their town, and it would have looked bad otherwise. They had to go to the classes as well, and at one point, the priest took the men to a separate room to talk about the role of sex in the marriage. One guy wanted to know about "alternate" ways of having sex - ie oral. That flustered the priest who kept dancing around the issue and particularly one word until my friend finally yelled at him, "Ejaculate! The word is ejaculate! Just because you're not allowed to do it doesn't mean you can't say it!"

The session broke up pretty quickly after that.

TlalocW

[MountainLaurel]

8. Oh. My. Heavens.

:rofl:

[Control-Z]

9. My first laugh of the day

:rofl: :rofl: and a good one, thank you.

[TlalocW]

10. Well, let me expand on it

During the time that they were to sequester themselves and write a letter to a loved one, he found some crayons and holding them like a 3-year-old would, wrote in large letters that dribbled down the side of the paper a plea for help from the Catholic brainwashing that he was undergoing and sent it to a mutual friend.

The bride had made the mistake of telling him that when she went in for her dress fitting that the tailoress told her that one of her breasts was slightly large than the other, and they would have to adjust for it. So when she's coming down the aisle, the groom and all his groomsmen at some hidden signal, all tilted their heads to the left and stared at that breast (some with one-eyebrow raised) then brought their heads back up to their normal position. It was done in perfect harmony. I hurt several internal organs trying not to laugh while our mutual friends not in on the joke asked me what was going on.

The best man was gay. The next groomsman was his partner, and the next one is an atheist as well. At the reception, the best man wanted to tell a joke about being excited about coming to a Catholic wedding because he heard the guys were, "hung like this!" (imitated Jesus' body position on the crucifix). He wisely decided not to do it. The atheist groomsman and I stole a fake tree from another mutual friend's business that he had started after college and put it on the gift table. In college, whenever we walked by his dorm room, if his door was open, we would grab the tree and start running to try and put it in the elevator and send it somewhere before he caught us. When he walked in, the reception was going full-bore, but you could still hear him yell, "Hey, that's my damn tree!"

Good times.

TlalocW

[Warpy]

12. HAHAHAHA!

Thanks for that visual. I'm sure most of the other "pre-Cana" couples had exactly the same reaction. Catholics are MORE likely to use birth control than their WASP cousins. Catholics are more educated in the unworkable alternatives.

I remember growing up and hearing that method described as "rhythm and blues," not only for the inconvenience to the male but for the inevitable pregnancies that resulted from relying on it. My own Irish Catholic mother taught me about birth control and told me I was a fool if I didn't use it.

People always run into trouble when they start to lecture other people on subjects they not only know nothing about, but which they have avoided all their lives. I don't give lectures on sports. Celibate men shouldn't give lectures on what women should do with their reproductive health.

[electron_blue]

3. You know, they will still avoid personal responsibility for these deaths

and claim God took 'em.

Still.... definitely something to think about.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

5. I read the article and it seems to be stretching

things to say that rhythm leads to more embryonic deaths than just, say, no method at all. Because if you have sex any time you care to, you will hit those almost fertile periods as well and just as many embryos will die.

What DOES concern me is that the rhythm method seems to assure that the babies that do survive have done so with an old ovum or old sperm. I wonder if there is any higher incidence of birth defects with this method?

[HockeyMom]

11. Yes I have read that

There is a higher incidence of birth defects with the fertilization of an old egg. It could also result in "embryonic death" because if the defects are severe, it could be incompatible with life. But nobody will ever know, since it will just be flushed out in the normal period.

It never ceases to amaze me how their "Life from Conception On" is so simplistic. It just isn't so. For more things can and do go wrong in the very early stages and the woman (or anybody else) will never know.

[zbdent]

7. God is the biggest killer of fetuses, babies, and children

As George Carlin put it, "Let's go out and get this God guy! That's the fifth baby he's killed this week!"

[dropkickpa]

13. There is no embryo created...

...when using birth-control pills. The pill works by preventing ovulation. No egg being released = a load sperm wandering around going "I guess nobody's home" = no embryo. When will the pro-lifers learn how the pill works? It's only been around for most of their lives!

[Nobody]

14. Willful ignorance in some leads to dangerous misconceptions

and yes, the pun IS intended.

The most rabid really don't want to know how it all works. This is why in my state, the pro-mandatory birth crowd in charge of the Health and Human Services Dept put medically inaccurate information of their site. Did I say information? I meant propaganda.

NO. Abortion is NOT a cause of breast cancer. Medical study after medical study refuted this. But still HHS leaves it up there for everyone to read and assume true.

The rabid pro-mandatory conceptionists will not be satisfied until they can ensure that every act of sex leads to conceptions.

[MountainLaurel]

15. "I guess nobody's home"

:rofl:

I just got this visual of a school of sperm looking around and shrugging.

[LisaLL]

16. Funny, Funny Freepers!

The folks at free republic are all in a tizzy about this. They keep harping on the uncertainty of this argument but fail to recognize that it's the *same* argument and *same* amount of plausibility behind their sacred rally that contraception causes the loss of early embryos!!!

In science we use the same rules and standards no matter if we are talking about cholesterol, cancer, or contraception. In pro-liferland, they change the standards, willy nilly, depending on whether they like the results.

Truth is, if contraception were conclusively found to be 100% effective, prevent the loss of fertilized eggs and cure all cancers they would still be against it. It's not about abortion or fertilized eggs for them---it's about a dysfunctional need to control the sexual behavior of others---even if opposing contraception and making abortion illegal causes an increase in the number of abortions and an increase in the number of women dying.