By Pro-Life Physicians

Introduction: Birth control pills, Depo-provera injections, and Norplant implants achieve their anti-fertility effects primarily by causing temporary sterilization, secondarily by causing abortion by preventing the implantation of the approximately week old human from successfully attaching or "implanting" into the wall of the mother's womb, and thirdly by acting as a contraceptive barrier to sperm by thickening the cervical mucous. That some drugs promoted as contraceptives may really cause abortion has not been clear to many Americans for whom abortion presents serious moral questions.

Background of the Pill

Gregory Pincus, co-developer of the Pill, credits a visit from Planned Parenthood's founder Margaret Sanger who promised research money for the development of the Pill! Sanger, who supported abortion, was concerned about developing a Pill as a means of curbing the "population explosion." Like Sanger, Pill supporters who shared Sanger's demographic concerns, such as Dr. Robert Kistner of Harvard, were less concerned about means than ends: "Our efforts to control population growth should not lead to mass guilt about methodology. It would be tragic if an effective postcoital pill or long-term progestational agent were declared illegal because of its abortifacient effect."

Conflict of Values

Guilt would be a problem for some. In 1962 Dr. Mary Calderone, then Medical Director of Planned Parenthood, said that: "if it turns out that these intrauterine devices operate as abortifacients, not only the Catholic Church will be against them, but Protestant churches as well." Legal problems existed because the language of pre-Roe anti-abortion laws was such that the "broad language of statutes and cases would suggest that to use pre-implantation means on a pregnant woman would be unlawful... manufacturers, distributors or sellers of the pre-implantation means might be prosecuted under statutes prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, or sale of abortifacients."

Technology Meets Biology

Planned Parenthood's Dr. Abraham Stone noted in 1952 that any mechanical, chemical or "biologic method[s] that would prevent ovulation or fertilization merely prevent life from beginning.... Measures designed to prevent implantation fall into a different category. Here there is a question of destroying a life already begun." The federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare also acknowledged this in a survey of birth control research: "All of the measures which impair the viability of the zygote at any time between the instant of fertilization and the completion of labor constitute, in the strict sense, procedures for inducing abortion. Administration of compounds whose mechanism of action is of this character to man either as an investigative procedure or as a practical birth control technique poses legal questions that have as yet not been resolved."

Facts vs. Semantics

With biology such a stubborn thing, Pill promoters turned to semantics for a solution. Swedish researcher Bent Boving, at a 1959 Planned Parenthood-Population Council symposium noted that: "Whether eventual control of implantation can be reserved the social advantage of being considered to prevent conception rather than to destroy an established pregnancy could depend upon something so simple as a prudent habit of speech." The advice was not isolated. At the 1964 Population Council symposium Dr. Samuel Wishik pointed out that acceptance or rejection of birth control would depend on whether it caused an early abortion. Dr. Tietze, of Planned Parenthood and the Population Council, suggested, as a public relations ploy, "not to disturb those people for whom this is a question of major importance."

The Pill and Abortion

The federal Food and Drug Administration approved the Pill for Limited use in 1960. First generation Pills allowed ovulation in 6.8% of menstrual cycles. After much study a 1969 FDA Advisory Committee said the Pill's "high degree of contraceptive effectiveness [was] brought about through interference with several phases of the reproductive process. An influence on the hypothalamus... is probably responsible for the... inhibition of ovulation.... The second major effect is on the endometrium. The progestin acts as an antiestrogen causing alteration in endometrial glands and as a progestin, causing pseudodecidual reactions. Both of these alter the ability of the endometrium to participate in the process of implantation."

Pill Labeling

In December, 1976 the federal FDA proposed mandatory patient package inserts accompany all Pill prescriptions: "Combination oral contraceptives.... Although the primary mechanism of action is inhibition of ovulation, alterations... in the endometrium (which reduce the likelihood of implantation) may also contribute to contraceptive effectiveness... progestin oral contraceptives are known to... exert a progestational effect on the endometrium, interfering with implantation, and, in some patients suppress ovulation."

Physician package inserts for the Pill are still required and they still use language that indicates the Pill, Depo provera and Norplant inhibit implantation. These chemicals "harden" lining of the womb (uterus) creating a hostile environment and thus make it harder for the tiny multi-celled human being to implant in the wall of the womb. This constitutes abortion at approximately one week of life. There is no definitive medical agreement as to in what percent of the monthly cycles this occurs.

We, the undersigned physicians, do therefore declare that the pill and similar birth control products act, part of the time, by design, to prevent implantation of an already created human being. These products clearly cause an early abortion and are — despite the semantic gymnastics of their ardent apologists — abortifacient.

We further declare that the so-called emergency contraceptive products being promulgated on the American people work in the same fashion and are also abortifacient.

Footnotes

1) Gregory Pincus, The Control of Fertility, Academic Press, New York, 1965, p. 6; Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Research Facilities, Activities and Accomplishments, memo, 1/20/53, Margaret Sanger Collection, Library of Congress.

2) Margaret Sanger, Family Limitation, 1st ed., 1914, 15-16, Margaret Sanger collection, Library of Congress (MSCLC); Sanger Speech, Washington DC, (MSCLC) speech was first given in 1916 and delivered 119 times; letter from Sanger to Hanna Stone, 3/10/32 copy to Marjorie Provost (Sanger's handwriting) Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College.

3) Robert W. Kistner, M.D., The Pill, Delacourt Press, 1969, p. 248.