I swallow a Birth-Control-Pill today

[Pug]

No, but the adult who is giving her the birth control pills should be able to.

I agree an adult ought to do better. It makes me wonder, who is a mandated reporter (of suspected child abuse)? Is it any school worker (and so most likely includes the school nurse or whomever is giving the pills)? Are doctors?

 

[jmcrae]

I agree an adult ought to do better. It makes me wonder, who is a mandated reporter (of suspected child abuse)? Is it any school worker (and so most likely includes the school nurse or whomever is giving the pills)? Are doctors?

Even if it’s not “mandated” you’d think that anyone with any human feeling would call the police and report it.

 

[Pug]

Even if it’s not “mandated” you’d think that anyone with any human feeling would call the police and report it.

Why I asked is maybe we need to investigate if it ought to be law for more people to report it, to help guide people. Law does seem to function that way. That’s one reason why the legality of abortion is such a shame. It is guiding the wrong way.

 

[TZiggy]

It is not swallowing the pill that is the sin. In fact, I heard a discussion of this on Catholic Answers radio which indicated that for certain medical conditions a woman might take oral contraceptives for a brief period of time, and as long as she and her husband were abstinent during that time, no sin was committed. BUT you stated in your hypothetical that the intent to prevent pregnancy was there, and that intent would be a sin, regardless of whether you had intercourse or not.

Just an FYI in case someone is struggling with a medical issue. Taking “the pill” doesn’t always mandate absinence.
Jim Blackburn http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/statusicon_cad/user_offline.gif vbmenu_register(“postmenu_211778”, true);
Catholic Answers Apologist
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http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon1.gif Re: Is it OK to take birth control pills for medical reasons?
When taken as necessary for therapeutic reasons, use of “the pill” is not immoral. Humanae Vitae states, “the Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from—provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever” (HV 15).

Also, in such circumstances, abstinence is not required. For more on this see the post Pill allowed as an abortifacient?

For alternatives to the pill check out Pope Paul VI Institute.

God bless everyone who struggles with this. It’s well worth the moral consternation.

 

[laurenzia]

two more questions to add to your list of hypothetical scenarios!

what about taking the pill to prevent bleeding during extended travelling through third-world countries with very minimal hygiene?

what about the morning after pill for a rape victim?

 

[estesbob]

two more questions to add to your list of hypothetical scenarios!

what about taking the pill to prevent bleeding during extended travelling through third-world countries with very minimal hygiene?

what about the morning after pill for a rape victim?

Taking of the Pill for non-birth control purposes is accptasbe;. the moting after pill canbe an abortificant so it is wrong to take it on two counts.

 

[phantom]

You have to have numbers?

I’m in RCIA and was on BC for two years(no never married, very bad I know) How am I supposed to know how many sins I commited there? I mean, it was definitely a lot.

I’m honestly very nervous about confession. Like, what to say and how and such. Then again, I have 20 years of confessing to do.

Not trying to jack the thread or anything. Just confused I guess about the…what has to be done/said.

Very good question BTW OP!

The first time was the easiest…u kind of get to just hit the highlights. Besides, you never knew any better before you became a Catholic, right?

 

[buffalo]

hmm, so then by that definition, NFP, would also fall under the category of sin because if we intentionally search out if one is ovulating with the intent to not have sex if conception is a greater possibility, then we sin in doing this.

I am not saying that NFP is a sin, only that your definition does not really hold up.

NFP can indeed be sinful if done without a properly formed conscience.

 

[buffalo]

two more questions to add to your list of hypothetical scenarios!

what about taking the pill to prevent bleeding during extended travelling through third-world countries with very minimal hygiene?

what about the morning after pill for a rape victim?

If you take the morning after pill and abort the baby after a rape then two crimes have been committed. The rape and then the killing of the baby,

For a good treatment of this read:

Why Can’t We Love Them Both

It is excellent.

 

[Wendy-Kay]

I get the whole rape/incest argument all the time from so-called pro-lifers that are also pro-plan B and pill. It is rather short-sighted and poorly thought through. It is like saying, “I am for the life of the child, provided it was conceived in the appropiate manner.”

 

[AkronPonderer]

buffalo:

I agree with you. But, there is this interesting statement/teaching from the American bishops:

nccbuscc.org/bishops/directives.shtml

Go down and read #36.

 

[Karin]

buffalo:

I agree with you. But, there is this interesting statement/teaching from the American bishops:

nccbuscc.org/bishops/directives.shtml

Go down and read #36.

WOW!
That made for interesting reading…
" A female who has been raped should be able to defend herself against a potential conception from the sexual assault. **If, after appropriate testing, there is no evidence that conception has occurred already, she may be treated with medications that would prevent ovulation, sperm capacitation, or fertilization. **It is not permissible, however, to initiate or to recommend treatments that have as their purpose or direct effect the removal, destruction, or interference with the implantation of a fertilized ovum."

 

[AkronPonderer]

Karin:

I think I’ll create a new topic about it.

 

[Karin]

Karin:

I think I’ll create a new topic about it.

Please…only because it would seem to go against everything that we are taught as Catholics regarding Birth Control!

 

[phantom]

Hypothetical:

I’m married and swallow a BCP with the intent of preventing any pregnancy that may otherwise occur.

I swallow another pill for the next 29 days in a row.

I never actually have marital relations in those 30 days with my husband or anybody else.

On day 31, I go to Confession. How many sins do I confess to the priest?

None, because you never had sex. So, why do you even take the pills?

 

[AkronPonderer]

phantom:

It’s a hypothetical question. I claim there is no sin if I never had sex. At worse, it is a “near occasion of sin.”

Others claim taking a BCP with the intent of preventing any pregnancy that might otherwise occur, is a sin in and of itself.

 

[phantom]

phantom:

It’s a hypothetical question. I claim there is no sin if I never had sex. At worse, it is a “near occasion of sin.”

Others claim taking a BCP with the intent of preventing any pregnancy that might otherwise occur, is a sin in and of itself.

That is fine. I like to place my thoughts down in writing to get a better understanding. Let me ask you something, please. I agree with you, if you are on the pill and you abstain from sex then you haven’t committed a sin. Now, what if you went on the pill or any form of artificial birth control, you and your husband abstained from sex or used natural family planning, but your husband didn’t know you were on the pill? Would that be an unthinkable thing to do? Would it be a sin? Since you know neither of you want to have more children, does it matter that he doesn’t know? Or the situation could be reversed, the husband could use some birth control Please don’t be offended by this question, it is just hypothetical, but how often do you think this scenerio is going on?

 

[franksta]

phantom:

It’s a hypothetical question. I claim there is no sin if I never had sex. At worse, it is a “near occasion of sin.”

Others claim taking a BCP with the intent of preventing any pregnancy that might otherwise occur, is a sin in and of itself.

Sounds like a lot of sophisticated maneuvering, and to what end? As I mentioned in a previous post, the whole issue of “preventing any pregnancy that might otherwise occur” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. If one is married but abstinent for a period of time, what pregnancy “might otherwise occur”? If one is single and abstinent, and not living in war-torn Somalia, same question?

 

[AkronPonderer]

phantom:

The scenerio you described is discussed in specific Church documents, although I don’t have them readily available. I believe the non-contracepting spouse commits no sin.

franksta:

Commentors insisted I give an “intent” for taking the pills. I did so.

 

[franksta]

If your aim was to demonstrate the potential moral neutrality of the act of taking BCP, it might have been better to bring up issues such as medical reasons for taking BCP or the raping of nuns up front. Absent such a motive, your stated intent sounded a little fishy. Preventing pregnancies that “might otherwise occur” sounds like (a) the married couple thought they might lose their resolve (for abstinence) and therefore expected to have contraceptive sex; or (b) the same for an unmarried couple except it adds the sin of fornication.

So, yeah, swallowing the pill is morally neutral. But it’s very, very rare that it represents a neutral intent.