Sins of omission/the Pill

[Inklingchick]

Hi,

This isn’t really a general question-- it’s a real moral quandary I’m facing (and wrestling with). It’s weird.

So I found out about the abortifacient aspects of how the Pill sometimes works. And I’ve got it into my head that it’s my obligation to, like, email all the women at my workplace about this, and that if I don’t, I’m responsible for the deaths of any babies who might otherwise not have died. I work in a secular organization, and it would be really inappropriate of me to send this email, but I know God calls us to do hard things sometimes, and that sometimes we have to even violate the law (let alone company policy and social custom) to save lives (i.e. Esther/Ahasureus). I REALLY don’t want to do it, but I want to want to if Jesus wants me to. Although I feel so totally incapable of it that it’d really totally have to be Him doing it through me.

I’m not Catholic, by the way. I’m Evangelical. I’d love any advice you could give me.

This sucks. I feel like a murderer. Please help.

Susannah

 

[1ke]

Do not email everyone at work.

First, people respond to individual conversation, not email blasts to the entire workplace. What you will succeed in doing if you send an email to everyone is earning the reputation of being a nutcase.

Evangelizing people on this subject and changing someone’s heart and mind is something you may be called to do. But, the method you propose is not the **way **to do it on this subject or any other.

On an individual level, please stop beating yourself up. You cannot commit a sin on accident. Without full knowledge and free will, there is no sin. The act remains wrong, but not a sin.
So, now that you are aware, you can change your behavior.

As you know, the Catholic Church teaches that all contraception is intrinsically evil. It ruptures the marriage act and God’s design for intimacy between spouses. I hope that you will investigate why the Church teaches what She does.

I also recommend you investigate natural family planning (NFP), which even non-Catholics who desire natural birth control choose to use.

 

[Inklingchick]

To clarify:

It’s not that I feel like a murderer for using the pill (I don’t use it.) It’s that I feel like a murderer for not spreading the information-- murder by omission, as it were. I know it sounds irrational, and I know if I sent the email I’d seem like a whackjob. But…theoretically and statistically, sending the email could save lives. How can I not send it? You know?

Blech. It is EXHAUSTING inside my head, sometimes. I tell you.

S

 

[Newbie2]

To clarify:

It’s not that I feel like a murderer for using the pill (I don’t use it.) It’s that I feel like a murderer for not spreading the information-- murder by omission, as it were. I know it sounds irrational, and I know if I sent the email I’d seem like a whackjob. But…theoretically and statistically, sending the email could save lives. How can I not send it? You know?

Blech. It is EXHAUSTING inside my head, sometimes. I tell you.

S

Sure, it “could”. You could also quit your job and stand on a streetcorner and watch for kids crossing against the light…that “could” save lives.

You could also quit your job and go out and protest the war. That too “could” save lives.

Tongue-in-cheek examples, but I think the point is clear…just because something “could” work, doesn’t mean you should do it. IMHO email is a lousy way to preach the Gospel. Do it by example. Use your motivation to spend time picketing abortion clinics, working for other pro-life causes.

Sending such an email might leave you unemployed. Better to talk personally with the women at work in an appropriate way i.e. in person, and only if the subject ever comes up over coffee or lunch, not blasting them with some random judgmental email out of the blue.

 

[1ke]

To clarify:

It’s not that I feel like a murderer for using the pill (I don’t use it.) It’s that I feel like a murderer for not spreading the information-- murder by omission, as it were. I know it sounds irrational, and I know if I sent the email I’d seem like a whackjob. But…theoretically and statistically, sending the email could save lives. How can I not send it? You know?

Blech. It is EXHAUSTING inside my head, sometimes. I tell you.

S

Ah, got it. Thanks for clarifying.

As for sending the email… evangelization is a one-on-one activity. If you care for these women, you should cultivate a relationship with them. They will be much more likely to listen to what you have to say with an open heart and mind if it’s friend-to-friend and not some random email that sounds crazy. Remember, our culture has been conditioned to think contraception is a moral good and pharmaceutical companies take great pains to hide the abortifacient properties. So, yes, people will think you are a whack job.

That is why sending an email is the wrong approach. A sincere, one-on-one conversation is a better approach.

Look at it this way, sending an email like that could cause someone who might have been receptive one-on-one to discount anything you say and the contents of the email too. So, someone who could have been fertile soil for evangelization might harden their hearts due to an email blast.

Honestly, it’s a bad idea.

And, you are not culpable for the wrongs of others. It’s not possible to be your brother’s keeper.

 

[Listener]

Whatever you do, don’t send the email! I personally think that this risk you talk about may be blown all out of proportion.

I read in a Mayo Clinic medical book that 50% of all fertilized eggs don’t “take” and pass out with a woman’s period. She never knows that she is pregnant. This would be true for women who are not taking anything.

The pill works by preventing ovulation probably 95% of the time. If there is a slim chance that a woman could be pregnant, and the pregnancy didn’t “take,” that chance is probably about 5%.

I don’t know how anyone would ever prove all of this scientifically unless they took a “First Response” test every month.

If you’re worried about your co-workers, I guess that if the subject came up, you could talk about what NFP is and how it is getting more scientific and reliable. You could say that it is friendly to the environment and that there would be no worries about the side effects of the birth control pill.