How We Chose Birth Control: A Thought on Proposition 26

For those of you not from or near MS, next Tuesday there is a vote to define or not define personhood in the state constitution as beginning at the time of conception. With the increasing debate about the effects such an amendment, I thought it was an opportune time to share how we chose our method of birth control. Needless to say, this post is a little more graphic than some. If you don't like thinking about birth control, you might want to skip this one :)


There are several things a girl does when she is newly engaged. She looks at dresses, sets a date, talks to her wedding party, and dreams with girlfriends about cake and flowers. Another item high on the priority list is a trip the OB-GYN. Unless she has already been taking a birth control pill for a medical reason, her doctor will probably ask her a long list of questions about health and values. She is then, in many cases, prescribed a birth control pill and sent on her way.

This is exactly how it happened for me. My only concern was that is cost $70 a month and I wasn't sure how we were going to pay $840 dollars a year for birth control. Another box on the pre-wedding checklist: marriage counseling. Our counseling was a combination of readings and in-office discussions. The excited bride-to-be that I was, I got right to work with my reading. It was Andreas Kostenberger's book God, Marriage, and Family that gave me pause. In the section on birth control it said that some forms of the pill were abortifacient. What?! Everyone I knew took the pill, almost all of them pro-life!

So I did a little research. There was a fun link explaining in three steps how it was 99% effective. (Here's a different site, the original one was not to be found.) First, the hormones keep you from ovulating. This is the main work of the pill. But then it gives two secondary measures, in case ovulation does occur. It thickens mucus so that the sperm has a difficult time reaching the egg. No problem there. And finally, it changes the lining of the uterus so that, if an egg was released and a sperm made the connection, the newly formed baby would not be able to implant in the uterus lining and be washed away. What?!!!

My doctor didn't tell me about this! After talking to some friends I learned that the drug companies weren't certain how the secondary measures worked, so it may or may not really work that way. But by that time my mind was made up. Dave was already hesitant after watching friends who had taken the pill for years struggle through the emotions and expense of infertility treatment. Of course, there is no proven connection, and infertility has been a reality since at least the times of Abraham and Sarah, but it made us wonder. Neither of us were willing to even chance losing a child because of something I was taking. So after two months, well before we were married, I stopped taking my pills and we chose another method of birth control.

Believers, I hope that as you read the testimonies and see the videos of both sides of the personhood initiative, you will hold the Scriptures more highly than either of them. Studying 1 & 2 Peter with the women of OBC has reminded me that, with Christ's return near, we are to pursue "lives of holiness and godliness" (2 Pet 3:11) and to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pet 3:18).  I ask you to seek growth in your knowledge of Christ as you make decisions about personhood, constitutionally upheld or not, that will glorify the Lord. Most of the arguments out there will ask you to make them based on feelings or personal convenience rather than the truth of Scripture. Treating all people like people will require sacrifice. It isn't the easy way, whether that person is the unborn, of another race, of another belief system, obese, etc. Christ sees these people and loves them, and we should too.

The few people who read this blog will know that we found out we were pregnant with Sarah one month and one day into our marriage. Surprise! It wasn't our timing, and it was a scary year, but could we be any more blessed? That year caused us to cry out to God with our requests and needs like never before. We depended on Him and He grew us in our knowledge of Him greatly during that challenging time. He also gave us everything we needed. I pray that the Lord would grow us in knowledge and courage as we continue to seek His will in every aspect of life, and grow us in grace where we fail.