Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions

drawn attention to this subject. Among other things, organizations fear a loss of financial support
from donors who would object to criticism of the Pill.
We also cannot escape the fact that the Pill is a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry. Its
manufacturers, the drug companies, have tremendous vested interests. So do many physicians
prescribing it. I do not mean by this that most physicians prescribe it primarily for financial gain; I do
mean it is a significant part of the total income of many practices.
An appendix in The Woman’s Complete Guide to Personal Health Care, by Debra Evans, 114 is entitled
“A Physician Looks at Doctors’ and Pharmacists’ Profits from Prescribing Birth Control Pills.” The
writer carefully calculates the costs of various procedures and comes up with a cost summary per
patient. Added to this is the fact that each woman with a family will take her children to the family
practitioner who prescribes her contraceptives, and usually her husband will go to that doctor. Using
averages for frequency of visits, and factoring in word of mouth or patient-to-patient referral, the
writer calculates that income linked to patients for whom the doctor prescribes birth control pills
range from 55 to 74% of his total income.
Because of the Pill’s popularity, physicians who stop prescribing it will likely lose many patients and
their families to other doctors. Even many prolife physicians resist the notion that the Pill causes
abortions and are unlikely to change their position or even share with their patients evidence such as
that presented in this book. (Thankfully, there are certainly exceptions to this.)
Those in the best place to disseminate this information are the Pill-manufacturers. The problem,
however, is that they gain customers by convincing them the Pill works, not by teaching them exactly
how it works. No one takes the Pill because she knows it prevents implantation. But some, perhaps
many, might stop taking it if they knew it does.
Hence, a pharmaceutical company has nothing to gain by drawing attention to this information, and
potentially a great deal to lose. There are many people in America who profess to believe life begins
at conception, and companies do not want these people to stop using their pills. This concern for
good public relations was exceedingly evident to me in my conversations with staff members at four
major Pill manufacturers. It is also demonstrated in the fact that their FDA-monitored disclosures in
the fine-print professional labeling and in the Physician’s Desk Reference all mention that the Pill
prevents implantation, but very few of their package inserts and none of their colorful consumer
booklets say anything about it.
Dr. James Walker, in his paper “Oral Contraception: A Different Perspective,” points out the Pill’s
potential to cause abortion. He then says,
A large percentage of consumers would undoubtedly refuse to use this form of birth control if they were
aware that oral contraceptives worked in this way. Also, a large number of physicians would refrain
from using this method of contraception if they were aware of the abortifacient mechanism of oral
contraceptives…why is the medical (or prescribing) and consumer population so poorly informed It
could be that the pharmaceutical industry is interested in making large profits without regard for the
sanctity of human life. Or it could be that the medical community has become so conditioned to supply
means for instant gratification, that our eyes have been blinded to the eternal consequences of our daily
action. 115
On the most basic level, the widespread ignorance and blindness on this issue among Christians may
be largely attributable to supernatural forces of evil which promote the deaths of the innocent while
lying and misleading to cover those deaths. (I will address this in the Conclusion.)
“I don’t trust this evidence.”
One physician told me that he thinks the evidence I’ve cited is simply incorrect. He said, “I don’t
trust these medical studies. I just don’t think they’re accurate.”