Choosing to eliminate unwanted daughters

[marietta]

brandymmiller:

After DepoProvera injections, it may take up to 18 months for fertility to be restored; because you have experienced infertility for 11 years since the injections, this could be an indicator of an allergy to medroxyprogesterone acetate, an ingredient in DepoProvera. I honestly don’t know how a physician would determine a patient’s possible allergy to this component of the drug, but what could the other reason(s) be for failure to regain fertility? Are you certain you were fertile before you had the injections? Why did you choose DepoProvera?

The depression is commonly listed as a side effect of the drug. Whenever I receive any drug from any source I request a physician’s insert so I can evaluate my response to the drug and know, roughly, what can be expected in the way of side effects. Before the drug is ever given I will research its efficacy and its appropriateness for me. I choose to be proactive because there are so many options, not all of which will be safe and/or effective for me. If you feel you were deceived, misled, lied to about DepoProvera and its possible side effects, there was a window of opprotunity for you to present your case to Upjohn (now Pfizer), the manufacturer; but as of 8/31/07 they are no longer accepting case inquiries. So this one goes down to God’s will for you.

As for the haranguing, if you tell *every woman you meet *who is considering her birth control options “what lies on that path”, you are making presumptions about her ability to choose for herself and about God’s will for her. To me, this would be akin to doing God’s job rather than doing His work. If someone asks me about my experiences with drugs, alcohol, the law, birth control, abortion, miscarriages, etc., I will then share my experiences. I will not overlay them, unsolicited, on top of someone, male or female, who is trying to make an educated decision about a life option. This is where we differ. Unsolicited “advice” is just a drag, no matter what intentions may fuel it. I don’t feel it’s my place to try to color someone’s perceptions with my typically disastrous experiences. If they ask, I will share. Otherwise, I let them choose unhindered: unharangued.

Now, the people who abandoned you in your early life, the ones you say you forgave for the parts they played in your anger and misery: did you ever confront any of them about their behaviors? Did anyone ever give you a satisfactory explanation as to why they did the things they did that kept you twisting in the wind? Or was forgiveness distributed evenly amongst them in order to shut up the memories? I don’t mean any disrespect here; this is just a tactic some of us use to cope.

One final note: anger in and of itself is not a deadly sin. It is a natural human response to events which occur outside of ourselves over which we generally have no control and which cause distress, discomfort, anxiety, or even rage. Wallowing in anger may be a deadly sin, unprocessed anger may be a deadly sin, neatly cultivated and maintained anger may be a deadly sin, but anger as a stand-alone emotion is not.

marietta

 

[KathleenElsie]

Blue -

I used to feel like you, that the Church was deeming us unworthy somehow to be priests. Now I understand.

We are the Church Militant, and priests are the front line of the Catholic Church. When you become a priest, you paint a large bulls-eye on the front of your chest and open yourself up to the attacks of outsiders and those who would tear the Church apart. God built men to be that front line, giving them flight-or-fight reflexes, strong muscles, and plenty of testosterone.

If we, as women, attempt to join the men in their front line fight, they will be too distracted trying to protect us to do their job as well as they should. We help our men to fight their battles best by doing as they tell us without distracting them by arguing during the battle. Naturally, in a loving relationship such as the one between the Priesthood and the Church, we can tell by our partner’s tone of voice and his body actions how serious the matter at hand is and whether there is room for debate on the topic. However, in the heat of battle, such as we are in now, we need to obey. If we obey, the priests can focus on doing their job. The last thing they need is for us to be attacking from the rear as they attempt to protect us from the attacks from the front and sides.

The best way that we can join the fight and do the most good is to battle from our knees and from our hearts. We must pray for the priests and the deacons. We must defend “our men” when outsiders would attack them with the heart of a lion. We must raise our children to be obedient, and train them to be willing servants of God, even and especially if they feel the call to join that front line of defense. It is our job to protect the little ones of the Church, ensuring that they are hidden in the safety of Her teachings and calling back all of those who have gone astray. We must, in essence, be the heart of the Church, the seat of wisdom, and of love. Fewer priests would go astray if they had more encouragement to stay faithful and to keep going, more women praying for them.

It may be that the reason your priest called for vocations to the priesthood and to the deaconate instead of to the religious life (for women) is that there are more women joining religious orders than there are men. The need for priests is greater at this time in the battle, as so many of our priests are being slain spiritually and we need fresh troops to keep going. There are few deacons, too, and this causes the priests to have to do extra work which makes them burn out more quickly.