Oral Contraceptive Question

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I am against oral contraceptives for a number of health reasons. I have been having bad problems with my periods; I have now been on my period for almost 2 weeks. I am anemic with a heart murmur, so this amount of heavy blood loss every day has been making me weak, tired, and sick.

The doctor is sending me to an OB/GYN, who will likely prescribe me birth control in order to control and regulate my cycle. Is this morally permissible?
 
I am against oral contraceptives for a number of health reasons. I have been having bad problems with my periods; I have now been on my period for almost 2 weeks. I am anemic with a heart murmur, so this amount of heavy blood loss every day has been making me weak, tired, and sick.

The doctor is sending me to an OB/GYN, who will likely prescribe me birth control in order to control and regulate my cycle. Is this morally permissible?
If there is a good medical reason for it, yes it is. The most important thing to do so as you do not commit sin is not to engage in sexual activity. Since the evil comes from contraception, if you do not have sex then there is no possibility of conception, then there is no sin committed.
 
So let’s say I get married, but have to stay on the pill in order not to bleed to death each month. Will I be unable to have sex with him at all unless I decide to stop taking my birth control for a month or so? I’m afraid if I stopped I might start back with the heavy bleeding, which I really cannot endure anymore.

I’m so sad, because I don’t see how my dreams of a normal marriage are even possible anymore
 
So let’s say I get married, but have to stay on the pill in order not to bleed to death each month. Will I be unable to have sex with him at all unless I decide to stop taking my birth control for a month or so? I’m afraid if I stopped I might start back with the heavy bleeding, which I really cannot endure anymore.

I’m so sad, because I don’t see how my dreams of a normal marriage are even possible anymore
Don’t worry about being sad for something that may or may not be in your future! How much sense does that make? That’s like saying, “I’m so sad…I might crash a car that I have in my dreams…” :). Don’t fret: this kind of thing actually happens to lots of women. If a doctor prescribes you an oral contraceptive as a treatment for this problem, then it is likely with the goal of stabilizing a hormonal issue, and it is very (very) likely that you won’t be on this the rest of your life, by any means. You’re all worried about things that aren’t even part of your life right now. You need to chill out.

As far as the morality, the other poster is quite right: you must not engage in sex while on oral contraceptive medication, because oral contraceptives are abortifacients, meaning that they don’t just prevent ovulation and thus contracept, but even if conception occurs, they can kill the baby. You wouldn’t want to do that, dear, and you couldn’t enjoy sex with your husband if you knew that was going to happen, anyway. Believe me.

You’re not married right now, so you are called to a life of chastity, like everyone else. Your situation is not better or worse. Don’t worry about all these things that might or might not happen: after all, you haven’t even visited this other doctor yet, and you’ll all upset about what might happen! 🙂 C’mon now…relax. You need to trust in Jesus, and say so to Him, often: say “Jesus, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I don’t have to know. I trust in You.”

God doesn’t give anyone any more than we can handle. If it is part of his plan that you are to get married and have children, then these medicines will not be something that you need in the future. Your biggest dream should be being a saint in Heaven with God (not anything in this short life!), and that only happens when you submit to God’s will like Mary, and say, “Lord, let it be done unto me, according to Thy will,” …not “my will.”

Life is really a lot easier when you just relax. People want too much, if you ask me. By the way, I myself have a genetic bleeding disorder, so I know exactly what you are going through: I even have to get blood transfusions! And iron IV’s, and potassium chloride IV’s, and all that. All the medicine in the world won’t “cure” me! And I have this for life. But, so what? Its really not that bad, especially when you consider the suffering that other people endure. Some things you just learn to live with. I’m alive, and had I been born 25 years earlier than I was (or in an unindustrialized nation even today), I would have never survived my condition. But here I am. So, hey, what more can I ask for?
 
I’m so sad, because I don’t see how my dreams of a normal marriage are even possible anymore
You are sad because of your misunderstanding of what a ‘normal’ marriage is. Consider this: St Joseph and The Blessed Virgin had a ‘normal’ marriage.
 
You are sad because of your misunderstanding of what a ‘normal’ marriage is. Consider this: St Joseph and The Blessed Virgin had a ‘normal’ marriage.
Alright, can I revise that to “society’s definition of a normal marriage?” There’s nothing wrong with desiring that.
 
Alright, can I revise that to “society’s definition of a normal marriage?” There’s nothing wrong with desiring that.
If what you desire is ‘of the world’, then why worry about contraception?
 
It is incorrect that if you are taking the Pill for valid medical reasons that you must not have sex. THe Catholic Church does not teach that.

Here is the same question which was directed to one of the apologists.
 
It is incorrect that if you are taking the Pill for valid medical reasons that you must not have sex. THe Catholic Church does not teach that.

Here is the same question which was directed to one of the apologists.
Thanks. This is what I’ve hoped for, and seeing as it comes from respected Apologists quoting Humanae Vitae, I trust it. It does seem as if there’s a wide misunderstanding about this issue, then; everyone else gave me the opposite answer.
If what you desire is ‘of the world’, then why worry about contraception?
I’m not sure what you mean? I need contraception for a medical reason, but I also desire a loving, sexual relationship with a husband which might lead to children and a family. It is a basic human desire.
 
Talk with your OB/GYN about all the options, there is no way that oral contraception is the only option, then talk with your priest or a spiritual advisor, discuss it with him as well.

Discuss all the options with your doctor, tell him if you have any objections to a specific treatment. Just because a doctor prescribes a certain treatment, does not mean that is the only treatment. If he prescribes “the pill” talk to him about it and see if there are other methods that are just as effective.
 
Thanks. This is what I’ve hoped for, and seeing as it comes from respected Apologists quoting Humanae Vitae, I trust it. It does seem as if there’s a wide misunderstanding about this issue, then; everyone else gave me the opposite answer.

'm not sure what you mean? I need contraception for a medical reason, but I also desire a loving, sexual relationship with a husband which might lead to children and a family. It is a basic human desire.
To the poster above who placed the link to what “theologians” have taught: the Catholic Church doesn’t go by what “theologians” teach on areas of defined faith and morals. No theologian can contradict the infallible teaching that abortion and supporting abortion, including by use of abortifacients, is wrong and a violation of the Sixth Commandment, as well as the commandment to love others as yourselves (including and especially “these little ones”). You cannot with a good conscience engage in sex while taking a medication specifically designed to abort fetuses. This is not even logical, and while these “theologians” might be teaching it, what their fallible pens write means nothing to the infallible and unchangeable teaching of the Church. But again, you don’t even need a “theologian” to see how illogical it is.

This might be presumption, I admit, on my part, but to the original poster, I think you’re sticking around here waiting for someone to give you the green light to something you know by your God-given reason to be wrong. You won’t fool God, if that is the case. You ought to think about that for while. But also I go back to my original response that you need to chill out and stop worrying about burdens that you don’t even have right now, and maybe think about the suffering of others.

And, yes, the other poster is quite right about Our Lady and Saint Joseph. That’s a great point! And Our Lady had a lot harder than any of us, that’s for sure.
 
To the poster above who placed the link to what “theologians” have taught: the Catholic Church doesn’t go by what “theologians” teach on areas of defined faith and morals. No theologian can contradict the infallible teaching that abortion and supporting abortion, including by use of abortifacients, is wrong and a violation of the Sixth Commandment, as well as the commandment to love others as yourselves (including and especially “these little ones”). You cannot with a good conscience engage in sex while taking a medication specifically designed to abort fetuses. This is not even logical, and while these “theologians” might be teaching it, what their fallible pens write means nothing to the infallible and unchangeable teaching of the Church. But again, you don’t even need a “theologian” to see how illogical it is.

This might be presumption, I admit, on my part, but to the original poster, I think you’re sticking around here waiting for someone to give you the green light to something you know by your God-given reason to be wrong. You won’t fool God, if that is the case. You ought to think about that for while. But also I go back to my original response that you need to chill out and stop worrying about burdens that you don’t even have right now, and maybe think about the suffering of others.

And, yes, the other poster is quite right about Our Lady and Saint Joseph. That’s a great point! And Our Lady had a lot harder than any of us, that’s for sure.
What I posted is the official teaching of the CC on this point. Perhaps if you want to dispute that you can post something which says otherwise.
 
This might be presumption, I admit, on my part, but to the original poster, I think you’re sticking around here waiting for someone to give you the green light to something you know by your God-given reason to be wrong. You won’t fool God, if that is the case. You ought to think about that for while. But also I go back to my original response that you need to chill out and stop worrying about burdens that you don’t even have right now, and maybe think about the suffering of others.
Yes, that is a presumption, but thanks for your opinion.
 
What I posted is the official teaching of the CC on this point. Perhaps if you want to dispute that you can post something which says otherwise.
Sure, I’ll post something which says otherwise. The most important one already did, which was the Sixth Commandment: Thou shalt not kill. You’ll notice there aren’t exclusions there for “therapy.”

But if you need something from Humanae Vitae, I can do that, too:
  1. Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children.
Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as **an end **or as a means.

You quote this part of HV:
  1. On the other hand, 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. (19)
Where in this do you read that abortifacients are “okay”? You (and others, including, unfortunately so many RCIA teachers and even priests) incorrectly lump all “therapeutic means” together, and seem to think that whatever a doctor somewhere labels “therapy” is magically a licit means. This is not true, and has never been time at any time during all of Catholic history. We don’t look to doctors for labels, we look to the Church. We know now for a fact–indisputable fact–that oral contraceptives are abortifacients, which is why the Holy Ghost prevented the council from listing certain therapeutic means, but instead continued the Tradition to referring advances of science firstly to the Church.

Any therapeutic means for any treatment must first be considered against Church teaching, and then against specific restrictions secondly. There are no conditions under which the Church has declared that the use of abortifacients is licit. None. People wrongly drawn this conclusion because are more concerned with labeling abortifacients as “therapeutic” than as what they are, which, again, is abortifacient. Thus, they cannot even be included as licit “therapeutic means” that would be allowed, and so 15 isn’t even talking about abortifacients. Otherwise it would have said “including abortifacient means.” There are plenty of other cases were 15 does indeed apply to treatments that would otherwise be illicit because of their contraceptive quality but that actually have nothing to do with abortion, but instead with the prevention of conception, or “impediment to procreation” as 15 states. I will give more examples if you’d like, but the easiest to cite are medically-necessary sterilizations, as if there is no possibility for conception, then there is no possibility for abortion, and thus therapuetic means can certainly be licit (ie, a complete hysterectomy to treat ovarian cancer).

“Impediment to procreation” means that procreation is impeded: abortifacients do not impede procreation, because procreation has already occured. Abortifacients destroy the already formed product of procreation, and therefore they are NEVER licit when used in combination with the pro-creative act, sex. It is really not that complicated. The text is quite clear, thanks to the Holy Ghost, Who we know from Council appendices, was actually battling the malevolent intent of many Modernist priest and bishops to get verbiage in the document that would make contraception “okay’d”. Even without such verbiage, though, there are still plenty who use their incorrect personal extrapolations of HV to lead others into actually accepting abortion “…but only for ‘therapeutic’ cases.”

I’m really not sure why this is hard for a good-willed person to see. You only need to be logical. And actually, if you don’t have that, just a good heart will work just fine. What about the horrors of chemically- and artificially-induced abortions are people not seeing, that this seems “okay”? And furthermore, what is the big deal about abstaining? You reward in Heaven will be great for obeying God’s will. Because someone wants sex, for love or connection or whatever, is not a justification to risk the chemical, artificial abortion of a little one. People have been living for a very long time without this nonsense, and we can drudge on without it, too. People are trying to make things too complicated, with this “exception” here and “intention” there, when it is obviously a horrible crime, and obviously artificially causes a little one to die. All the legalese and prevarication away from what HV actually says is not going to outsmart God.
 
Sure, I’ll post something which says otherwise. The most important one already did, which was the Sixth Commandment: Thou shalt not kill. You’ll notice there aren’t exclusions there for “therapy.”

But if you need something from Humanae Vitae, I can do that do:
  1. Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children.
Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as **an end **or as a means.

You quote this part of HV:
  1. On the other hand, 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. (19)
Where in this do you read that abortifacients are “okay”? You (and others, including, unfortunately so many RCIA teachers and even priests) incorrectly lump all “therapeutic means” together, and seem to think that whatever a doctor somewhere labels “therapy” is magically a licit means. This is not true, and has never been time at any time during all of Catholic history. We don’t look to doctors for labels, we look to the Church. We know now for a fact–indisputable fact–that oral contraceptives are abortifacients, which is why the Holy Ghost prevented the council from listing certain therapeutic means, but instead continued the Tradition to referring advances of science firstly to the Church.

Any therapeutic means for any treatment must first be considered against Church teaching, and then against specific restrictions secondly. There are no conditions under which the Church has declared that the use of abortifacients is licit. None. People wrongly drawn this conclusion because are more concerned with labeling abortifacients as “therapeutic” than as what they are, which, again, is abortifacient. Thus, they cannot even be included as licit “therapeutic means” that would be allowed, and so 15 isn’t even talking about abortifacients. Otherwise it would have said “including abortifacient means.” There are plenty of other cases were 15 does indeed apply to treatments that would otherwise be illicit because of their contraceptive quality but that actually have nothing to do with abortion, but instead with the prevention of conception, or “impediment to procreation” as 15 states. I will give more examples if you’d like, but the easiest to cite are medically-necessary sterilizations, as if there is no possibility for conception, then there is no possibility for abortion, and thus therapuetic means can certainly be licit (ie, hysterectomy to treat ovarian cancer).

“Impediment to procreation” means that procreation is impeded: abortifacients do not impede procreation, because procreation has already occured. Abortifacients destroy the already formed product of procreation, and therefore they are NEVER licit when used in combination with the pro-creative act, sex. It is really not that complicated. The text is quite clear, thanks to the Holy Ghost, Who we know from Council appendices, was actually battling the malevolent intent of many Modernist priest and bishops to get verbiage in the document that would make contraception “okay’d”. Even without such verbiage, though, there are still plenty who use their incorrect personal extrapolations of HV to lead others into actually accepting abortion “…but only for ‘therapeutic’ cases.”

I’m really not sure why this is hard for a good-willed person to see. You only need to be logical. And actually, if you don’t have that, just a good heart will work just fine. What about the horrors of chemically- and artificially-induced abortions are people not seeing, that this seems “okay”? And furthermore, what is the big deal about abstaining? You reward in Heaven will be great for obeying God’s will. Because someone wants sex, for love or connection or whatever, is not a justification to risk the chemical, artificial abortion of a little one. People have been living for a very long time without this nonsense, and we can drudge on without it, too. People are trying to make things too complicated, with this “exception” here and “intention” there, when it is obviously a horrible crime, and obviously artificially causes a little one to die. All the legalese and prevarication from what HV actually says is not going to outsmart God.
I think you need to look at the term “direct abortion”. Medical use of the contraceptive pill is not direct abortion, by definition.

In any case, try looking at section 15 of HV, which you seem to have ignored. Here it is:

Lawful Therapeutic Means

“15. On the other hand, 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. (19)”
 
I think you need to look at the term “direct abortion”. Medical use of the contraceptive pill is not direct abortion, by definition.

In any case, try looking at section 15 of HV, which you seem to have ignored. Here it is:

Lawful Therapeutic Means

“15. On the other hand, 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. (19)”
You clearly didn’t even read my post, as you would have seen that on the contrary of “ignoring” HV 15, I specifically cited HV 15. Please read what I wrote. And then tell me where in in HV do you see abortifacients as “okay’d”.
 
  1. On the other hand, 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. (19)"
I think the word that everyone is disagreeing on is “impediment.” Is the contraceptive effect of “The Pill” used for therapeutic reasons in marriage considered an “impediment” to life, or something else?

If it could be considered an impediment, then it seems to be covered under such an exception. If it is not considered an impediment, then it is not covered.

Really looking forward to everyone’s insight.
 
Perhaps this will be more clear: HV 15 offers an exception, as “therapeutical,” for the use of contraceptives, that is, means that impede conception.

HV 15 does not offer an exception for abortifacients. To do so would be to contradict defined Catholic teaching on the horrible evil of abortion. No where in HV 15 is there any allowance to kill a conceived human as a side effect of “therapy,” but only to allow for the limited use of therapies that prevent conception as a side effect of their necessary use in therapy. The pill is absolutely not covered by this.

People (deceptive people and confused people alike) have decided by their own faulty minds that “therapeutic” means “anything my doctor gives me.” This is not correct, and has never been. The Church is not second to “doctors.”
 
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