Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions

In their article “Estimates of human fertility and pregnancy loss,” Michael J. Zinaman and associates
cite different studies showing spontaneous abortion rates of 15% to 20%, 13% to 22%, 12 to 14%,
and 20-62%. 121
This confirms that there are in fact many early miscarriages. Since this is true, however, does it
therefore follow, “Because God permits—or nature causes—millions of spontaneous abortions each
year, it’s okay if we cause some too”
There is a big difference, a cosmic difference, between God and us! What God is free to do and what
we are free to do are not the same. God is the giver and taker of life. God is the potter; we are the
clay (Isaiah 45:9-11). His prerogatives are unique to Him. He is the Creator; we are the creatures.
He has the right to take human life, but we do not. (See Appendix D: God is Creator and Owner
of all people.)
Nature is under the curse of sin and as a result there is widespread death in this world, both inside
and outside the womb (Romans 8:19-22). God is the Superintendent of nature and can overrule it
when he so chooses. But none of this permits us to say, “Because God lets so many people die, I’ll go
ahead and kill some of them myself.” Spontaneous abortions of women not taking
contraceptives are not our responsibility. Abortions caused by contraceptives we choose to
take and prescribe are.
The same principle applies when someone concludes that since a baby will probably die within a few
days or weeks of his birth, we may as well abort him now. The difference is between losing a child to
death, by God’s sovereign choice, and our choosing to kill that child. This is a fundamental and
radical difference. (See Appendix E: God has exclusive prerogatives over human life and
death.)
I have several letters from Christian physicians and organizations that use the term “micro-abortion”
in reference to the possibility that the Pill prevents implantation. Such semantics minimize the
abortion, as if it isn’t “real” or important like surgical abortions of bigger children. We should avoid
such dehumanizing terms. Though the child is very small the child is still a child and therefore the
abortion is just as big in its importance.
Just because many children die very young doesn’t make their deaths insignificant. True, we may
lose several children we don’t even know about, through early spontaneous miscarriages. But that in
no way justifies choosing to take something into our bodies that puts other children at risk.
“Taking the Pill means fewer children die in spontaneous
abortions.”
A letter from one Christian organization (which I prefer not to name) says this:
It has been pointed out that a woman who is not taking birth control pills is actually more likely to
experience the loss of an embryo—some studies indicate that up to 80% of conceived embryos naturally
fail to implant—than one who is on the pill, which rarely, if ever, permits conception.
The logic seems to be that when we use a chemical that kills some children we can take consolation
in knowing that this same chemical prevents many other children from ever being conceived and
therefore from ever dying. This is convoluted logic, and again it puts us in the place of God.
If there are fewer miscarriages because of the Pill it is not because the Pill brings any benefit to a
preborn child, but only because it results in fewer children conceived. This is an illusion—it’s not that
lives are being preserved but simply that there are fewer lives to preserve. There is less death only
because there is less life.