I went to another clinic to help out with their free pap smear day. We had 130 patients in 6 hours. It was a great event. Still, there were protestors outside with a stack of pamphlets. Several of our patients took the pamphlets when entering the parking lot (to be nice and respectful) but then handed them directly to us when they got inside. So, I read them.

The first pamphlet had to do with abortion. We weren't performing abortions but that's okay. However, in the pamphlet it stated that saline abortions are widely used. Saline abortions haven't been used since the seventies. So, my first question is why lie? It doesn't make sense to me to lie to anyone.

The second, third, fourth, and fifth pamphlets were all about abstinence-only, how great chastity is, and how it should be strived for by everyone who is unmarried. The problem with this, though, is that out of 130 patients, only 3 of them were unmarried. So four pamphlets were only applicable to 2.3% of our patients. In fact, most of our patients were older and brought their children with them.

The sixth pamphlet was about the common, every day birth control pill. The pamphlet stated that the birth control pill causes abortions. This is another lie. There is no medical or scientific evidence that this is true. But, this pamphlet got me to seriously thinking about "prolife" people. If your claim is that you want to end abortions, then shouldn't you support the tools that make unintended pregnancies less frequent? If you want no more abortions to take place, then why wouldn't you support the tool that makes the reason for abortions (unintended pregnancy) to not arise?

The only birth control that the pamphlet was positive towards was "natural family planning" which is known as having a horrible failure rate. 1 in 4 women who try nfp during one year become pregnant. If everyone stopped using hormonal birth control or even barrier methods like condoms and instead switched to nfp, there would be a huge increase in unintended pregnancies which, in turn, would mean that there would be a huge increase in abortions. So, again, if you want to end abortions, why don't you support birth control?

I truly do not understand this. 98% of americans use birth control during their lifetimes (this includes the women who belong to religions who condemn the practice of birth control). Women today have approximately 30 years in which they are fertile (age 15 to 45) and the average woman spends 7 years trying to get pregnant, being pregnant, and nursing. That means that the average woman has 23 years in which she is trying to avoid becomming pregnant. Further, the average american, married or single, young or old, has sex once a week. 85% of americans in some kind of a relationship report having sex at least once a week. If you're going to be having sex at least once a week and you're trying to avoid pregnancy for 23 years (or more) of your life, then you're going to have to depend on some kind of reliable birth control.

.T.H.I.S is the middle ground issue. Everyone likes birth control. Everyone uses birth control at some point. And everyone wants to prevent pregnancy instead of being put in the position to make a decision about abortion. So why not support and encourage consistent use of effective birth control?

Does this make sense to anyone?