–– Paul Schlehlein

The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Who could be responsible for the majority of worldwide killings? The answer may surprise you.

Today’s greatest global holocaust comes not from Muslim fanatics against Christians, or gun-toting killers against their victims, or even abortion doctors against babies. The most common murders may come from mothers, sometimes Christians, against their own children through abortifacient birth control. 

Sadly, these killings often come through ignorance. Mom and Dad simply didn’t know. These deaths do not grab the headlines as do other, more conspicuous examples, like the drug overdoses and home invasions of today or the gas chambers and guillotines of the past. But they are deaths nonetheless, and the staggering statistics should horrify us.

In his book Epoch: the Rise and Fall of the West, Kevin Swanson writes:

“The sheer quantities of children killed by…the abortifacient effects of the [intrauterine device] and the conception control pill are beyond anything the world [has] ever seen.” 

Churches rarely mention the vice of abortifacient birth control, let alone preach against it. Yet it stands as one of the great hypocrisies in our churches today. The church at large still gives a general lip service to the wickedness of surgical abortion, though its members continue to use abortifacient birth control at an alarming rate. 

Distinguishing Forms of Birth Control

This triggers the question: Which methods of birth control are abortifacients, that is, which drugs or other methods cause abortions? Before answering this question, consider the following three biblical facts. 

First, conception and fertilisation are synonymous. The Almighty God knits a new life in a mother’s womb by taking the male and female genetic offering through the sexual union. Both David and Jeremiah spoke of personhood beginning from the earliest moments in the womb. Psalm 139:13 says: “[LORD], you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” God said in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” 

When the man’s sperm fertilises the woman’s egg, life begins. This opposes the modern view, which distinguishes fertilisation and conception. Modern medicine often defines conception as the implantation of the embryo into the uterus. But biblically, pregnancy exists from fertilisation to delivery, not implantation to delivery.

Keith L. Moore (PhD, Dsc) wrote in The Developing Human: “A zygote [fertilised egg] is the beginning of a new human being. Human development begins at fertilisation….” Jan Langman says in Medical Embryology: “The development of a human being begins with fertilisation.”

Second, according to Exodus 20:13, the intentional killing of innocent life is murder. Third, any drug or device that kills a human embryo is an abortifacient and murder. 

Barrier methods of birth control include condoms, diaphragms, and sponges. These prevent the man’s sperm from reaching the woman’s egg and do not cause abortions. However, all forms of hormonal contraceptives can cause early abortions. 

Hormonal birth control seeks to prevent pregnancy through the following cascade of effects. First, its primary goal is to prevent ovulation. No egg, no baby. Second, it thickens cervical mucus to make it more difficult for the man’s sperm to reach the woman’s egg. Third, it thins the lining of the uterus so that the newly conceived zygote may not be able to implant into the uterus. Babies, like most living things, do better in a lush environment rather than a desert. This final action is murderous because it kills an embryo by preventing implantation. 

Effects one and two do not end life. But these functions can fail. My wife, who studied midwifery at Vanderbilt University, learned how some children were actually born clutching an IUD. 

A contractor may dynamite a building, and the majority of the time, it collapses with no loss of life. But should the building crumble and kill a passer-by, he is culpable for murder because death was a clear possibility from such a dangerous action. In the same way, when functions one and two fail but three succeed, a newly formed human life dies. 

How often does this happen? One test found that .8 post-fertilised babies are lost per woman per year on various IUDs tested. That’s nearly seven million babies per year just by this single contraceptive. This means that there are far more abortions by abortifacient birth control than by surgical abortion. One study reports that of the 926 million child-bearing women in Africa, 314 million use some form of birth control, though it is not clear how many of these women use hormonal methods.

Public lamentations and pulpit rebuke are almost completely absent on the matter of abortifacients. 

Hormonal Birth Control

All hormonal birth control (such as the pill, the ring, and IUDs) has failure rates. None prevent pregnancy with 100% certainty. These forms of abortion are so common among Christians that it could be called “Christian abortion”, not because it is in any way virtuous, but because it is so widely accepted among believers. 

In 2020, a study was performed with the title “People of All Religions Use Birth Control and Have Abortions.” The author’s conclusion was that Christians and non-Christians use birth control methods in a similar way. 

Conclusions

What can we learn from this? First, Christians must hold a high view of human life amidst a world that loves death (Pr. 24:11-12).

Second, the blood of Jesus forgives those who repent of their sins, including the sin of abortion.

Third, Christians should know the proper terminology regarding abortion and birth control so as not to be easily deceived, since many people have never been taught about these things.

Fourth, Christians must reject any methods that undermine or threaten God’s sacred gift of life, which includes all drug-induced methods of abortion, such as hormonal birth control pills and IUDs.

Fifth, read good pro-life resources, including online material like The Human Life Review, Abolitionists Rising, and Eternal Perspective Ministries.

Finally, trust God in both fertility and infertility, praying that Christ will be glorified through it all.