A New Big Fat Lie 

8/17/2004 - PST
By John Mallon 

Catholic Online 2004 

There is a Big Fat Lie going around that all Catholics and pro-lifers ought to be alert to. It takes the form of a slogan. (I am convinced that in the vast and tedious bureaucracy of hell there is a Department of Slogans.) There are so many slogans hatched in the pit of hell that we could go on and on, but this particular one is urgent:  "Pregnancy begins at implantation." 

Actually, it's not so new, but a retread of the Big Lie tyrants always use: denying the humanity of those who get in their way so they can be killed.

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I first heard this years ago while attending a United Nations conference which I was covering for Inside the Vatican magazine. My friends and I of the pro-life, pro-family coalition suddenly started hearing this phrase everywhere on the conference room floor. Recognizing that there was something "off" about this phrase, we all started looking at each other, saying, "what's this?" 

And as if all at once, it hit us what was wrong with it. The conference was all abuzz with what they were calling "emergency contraception."

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My friends and I realized that the slogan "pregnancy begins at implantation" was designed to trick those who were used to hearing the truth that life begins at conception. 

The UN conference system is absolutely infested with people from the abortion lobby, radical feminists, population controllers, and promoters of pro-homosexuality public policy. 

These people are forced to couch their agenda in nice-sounding slogans and euphemisms which masks their true meaning and their agenda to the untrained listener. For example, who want to say they are against "women's rights?" But the experienced pro-lifer knows this is a code word for abortion on demand, not equal pay for equal work or some other legitimate cause. In fact the obsession with abortion has no doubt done great harm to genuine women's issues because it trumps all the others in the eyes of the radical feminists. 

As people of the Culture of Death are wont to do, they have to "rewrite reality" to try to get their message across in any kind of acceptable sounding package. 

So, this requires a reality check. 

These folks will tell you that so-called "emergency contraception" does not "terminate a pregnancy" (a nice sounding phrase for abortion) because pregnancy begins when the fertilized egg attaches to the uterine wall. 

This is not true. Once a woman has life inside of her, she is pregnant. When the sperm joins the egg, conception takes place and a new human life has begun. That new human life, a tiny, but growing life, travels down the fallopian tube to attach itself to the uterine wall and settle in for nine months of continuous growth into a fully developed baby. 

When "emergency contraception" (also known as the "morning after pill" and more recently by the brand name "Plan-B") "works," it conditions the uterine wall so that the fertilized egg—a human life—cannot attach to it and is swept out of the mother's body. 

By definition, this is an abortion. It is a very early-term, chemically induced abortion, not a surgical abortion, but an abortion nonetheless. This is what is meant when a drug is called abortifacient—it is abortion causing. 

What I find odd about this is that the woman will probably never know if she conceived or not, or whether she had an abortion or not. I suppose some women might not want to know, not care, but I find that hard to understand. Obviously, if the woman did not conceive there was nothing to prevent but she will never know, in this life at least. 

Proponents of this pill claim that this "wonder drug" would stop so many unwanted pregnancies and wonder (or pretend to wonder) why pro-lifers don't embrace it, and use this "reasoning" to bash their opponents as being "uncaring" about women in difficult situations. These people need to go back and read Horton Hears a Who, by Dr. Seuss: "A person's a person no matter how small." 

It is the same old story. If we don't care about the dignity of even embryonic human life, who's next? 

The proponents of this pill are so obsessed they are willing to overlook the dangers it poses to women—especially very young women. 

This dangerous drug was turned down for over-the-counter distribution in May because its effects on girls under 14 were insufficiently tested. (Yes, they wanted it available over the counter with no age restrictions—like aspirin.) 

Yet, the pill's proponents, like Rep Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) are in full howl over this, and turn a deaf ear to the facts of the pill's dangers. Maloney is trying to get the drug approved for over-the-counter with the proviso that girls under 16 need a prescription. (Doesn't that make you feel better?) 

The dangers are considerable. The Population Research Institute (PRI) of Front Royal, VA, reported these dangers on their website (http://www.pop.org). In PRI's weekly Briefings of March 5, and 12, 2004 report: 

"The risks of emergency contraception to adolescents have never been adequately studied. To gauge the level of risk that the drug poses to teens, one need only to consider the damage caused by Norplant. This progestin-only hormonal contraceptive—the same active ingredient as Plan B (morning-after pills)—is no longer available for use in America because it is so dangerous. Known risks include significant weight gain, ovarian cyst enlargement, gallbladder disease, high blood pressure and respiratory disorders. 

"Among teenagers, some of these common side effects could result in increased rates of bulimia, anorexia, or clinical depression. Also, an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy has been associated with use of Plan B-type emergency contraception." 

Add to that the false security this pill would provide exposing young girls (and women) to sexually transmitted diseases and exploitation by unscrupulous men. 

In more ways than one, the "morning after pill" is not good for children. In fact, it's not good for anybody.

‍ And that's the Big Fat Truth. 

-- John Mallon is contributing editor for Inside the Vatican magazine