Politics
Friday July 4, 2008
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
Foremost Expert on Contraception Says the Pill is Not Working - It's "Outdated"
By Hilary White
LONDON, July 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Pill is outdated and results in unplanned pregnancies; women should get hormonal implants or intra-uterine devices (IUD) instead, says a leading contraception expert in the US. Women do not take the Pill consistently says Professor James Trussell, and it ends up causing more unplanned pregnancies. But rather than encouraging people not to have promiscuous sex or to use Natural Family Planning, what is really needed is a method of contraception that can be forgotten but will still be foolproof, he indicated.
Trussell's statements backed up the observations of those who work in crisis pregnancy centres who say that, despite the government's insistence on more "contraceptive education," a large number of unplanned pregnancies happen while women are on the Pill.
Trussell is the director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University and was speaking in London at the conference of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, Britain's largest abortion-promoting organisation. He said that in the US, a quarter of all pregnancies are "unwanted" and a result of failed contraception. The Daily Telegraph coverage notes that half of unplanned pregnancies in Britain end in abortion.
The morning after pill, or "emergency contraception," that in some cases causes an early term abortion, is also not the solution, he said. The real problem is that there is too much "unprotected" sex going on.
"It is not reduced unintended pregnancies in America or anywhere else that has introduced it. There is so much unprotected sex you would have to use so much emergency contraception to make a dent," he said.
The answer, he says, is more and better contraceptives.
"The Pill is an outdated method because it does not work well enough. It is very difficult for ordinary women to take a pill every single day. The beauty of the implant or the IUD is that you can forget about them."
An IUD is a device that is inserted by a doctor into the uterus that prevents the implantation of an already formed embryo in the uterine wall, and as such is an abortifacient device by definition, and not contraception. In 2001, Britain's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children forced the BBC to change its news coverage and admit that the IUD is not a form of contraception.
But such distinctions are immaterial to Trussell, whose determined advocacy of contraception is not a surprise given his associations with some of the largest abortion advocacy organisations in the world.
In addition to his position at Princeton, Trussell is a senior fellow at the Guttmacher Institute, the research branch of Planned Parenthood, is a member of the board of directors of the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, the Society of Family Planning, and the National Medical Committee of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He serves on the editorial advisory committees of Contraception and Contraceptive Technology Update.
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Pro-life, Pro-family Leaders Praise McCain's Choice of Pro-Life Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for VP Running Mate
- Obama Acceptance Speech Calls for Change, Brushes Over Abortion, Same-Sex "Marriage"
- McCain VP Pick Delivers Hard-hitting First Speech, Calling for End to "Politics as Usual"
- Brazilian Representative Seeks Answers Regarding Suspicious Vaccination Program
- Florida Schools Charged with Violating Students' Religious Freedom by Allowing Student Prayer at Graduations
- Two More Bishops and 19 Congressmen Slam Pelosi Arguments on Abortion
- New Stats: Europe Facing Demographic Winter, Growing Political, Economic Tensions
- Donor Registry Allows IVF Conceived Children to Unite with Biological "Donor" Parents and Siblings
- Montezuma’s Abortion Revenge
- Homosexual Activists Target California Businesses That Support Pro-marriage Proposition
- Going Off the Deep End in Denver: Democrats Walk the Abortion Plank
- Over 100 MPs Oppose Morgentaler Order of Canada
- National Right to Life calls GOP Platform "Strongest Ever" on Life Issues
Most Read this Week
- Biden's Bishop Will not Permit Him, Even if Elected VP, to Speak at Catholic Schools
- Exclusive: Prominent Rabbi Says Lieberman was Excommunicated and it is Still in Effect
- "Catholic" Speaker Pelosi Denies that Catholicism Condemns Abortion
- Cardinals, Bishops and Congressmen Slam Pelosi on Abortion
- Mainstream Media Admits Anti-Family Bias: NBC to 'Gay' Activists: 'Your Victories Are Our Victories'
- Talk a Woman out of Abortion in the UK? Two Years Jail
- Pelosi Spokeswoman About-face: Catholic Church "Clear" on Life Teaching After All - But Catholics Need Not Listen
- McCain Selects Strongly Pro-life Governor, Mother of Five Sarah Palin for Running Mate
- American Apparel Defends "Pornographic" Billboards
- New York Cardinal - Pelosi Not Worthy of "Providing Leadership in a Civilized Democracy"
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.