The pill: Still source for debate
By TAVIA MALONE
Globe staff writer
Posted May 30, 2002

CARROLL - When Dave Prenger, a parishioner at Holy Spirit here, recently read an article on birth control pills in The Globe, he vehemently disagreed with the author and sent along some facts to support his argument.

Prenger was concerned about a May 16 column by Father John Dietzen, which is distributed by Catholic News Service. In it, Father Dietzen answered a question concerning the pill and any other medical uses it might have and the morality of using it.

Father Dietzen advised readers that there is no moral objections to using the pill for other medicinal uses, even though it can cause infertility.

He also wrote that use of the pill is a controversial subject and that there are several concerns, including abortive function of some other medicines.

"It is virtually impossible to find a version of the pill today that doesn't work to prevent implantation of the new tiny baby," Prenger said.

Prenger also forwarded a booklet to prove his point.

In a booklet by Randy Alcorn, "Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?," it is explained that the pill works in three ways to prevent pregnancy. The pill inhibits ovulation; changes the cervical mucus, which makes it harder for the sperm to enter the uterus; and thins the lining of the uterus, which makes it difficult for a newly fertilized egg to implant.

"The first two mechanisms are contraceptive," writes Alcorn. "The third is abortive."

Prenger brought up the fact that there are other medicines that treat ailments such as acne, migraine headaches and osteoporosis that do not have abortive side effects.

"By taking the pill you are actually increasing the odds that if you do become pregnant that the child will not survive after the first five days," he said. "This is something that Father Dietzen only mentions. He talks like this type of thing only rarely happens, but that is just not true. It happens in close to 99 percent of all birth control pills that are sold today."

Education is the key to letting people know about birth control pills, explained Prenger. He lets other parishioners know about the harmful and abortive effects of the pill through marriage preparation classes that he and his wife teach at Holy Spirit.

"We promote natural family planning to all of the couples that go through marriage preparation," Prenger said. "We really need our priests and our doctors to step up and explain that [taking the pill] is wrong."

While Father Dietzen explained that using the pill for non-contraceptive reasons is morally allowed within the Catholic church, taking the pill for the direct reason of preventing pregnancy is not.

"There are lots of things that are wrong with the pill, but the worst is that we are actually killing babies," he said.