By Peggy Hartshorn

“Reproductive health” is currently code language for abortion (surgical abortion, and “medical” such as RU486), birth control services, many of which can be abortifacient (such as the “morning after pill”, or emergency contraception), and condoms, ironically referred to as “protection.”

Sadly, these things are in no way “healthy” and, in fact, they lead to health problems, especially for women.

Also, they are not at all “reproductive;” on the contrary, their whole purpose is to eliminate reproduction.

Current research, covered recently even in the secular press, makes it clear how dangerous “reproductive health services” really are.

The New York Post reported that the FDA has linked the aggressively advertised contraceptive patch Ortho Evra with at least 17 deaths of young women [since its release in 2002; in September 2004, a study by the FDA revealed 21 "life-threatening" conditions related to the patch such as blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks. The pill and the shot have also been linked to serious and even deadly conditions].

Reuters has reported that women who use the injected contraceptive Depo-Provera have a higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases. The research team at the National Institutes of Health, University of North Carolina, and Johns Hopkins University, said that they adjusted for various factors (such as condom use, multiple partners, etc.) and concluded that it is possible that Depo-Provera itself causes a susceptibility to STDs.

They expressed particular concern because Depo-Provera or its generic equivalent are being increasingly used in Africa where STDs, especially AIDS, are very common. (Again, the United States is exporting our dangerous anti-life philosophy and products.)

An article in the Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy (2004) by David Reardon and others, “Deaths associated with abortion compared to childbirth: a review of new and old data and the medical and legal implications,” concludes that “mortality risks associated with abortion significantly exceed those associated with childbirth” both in the short and long term. [Two record-based studies show that within the first to the 8th year after the abortion or birth, the maternal mortality rate was 2 to almost 3 times higher for women after abortion than for women who carried to term.]

Pregnancy resource centers are on the cutting edge of redefining “reproductive health” and delivering services to go along with this new definition.

True reproductive health is achieved by [abstaining from sex prior to marriage,] living out marriage between a man and a woman, sexual intimacy, children, and unconditional love, all together. When we separate one or more of the essential things from the “equation,” we have most of the social problems in our culture today. Take out children from the equation and it leads to abortion; take out marriage and it leads to STDs, promiscuity, prostitution, fatherlessness, cohabitation; take out marriage between a man and a woman and you have homosexuality; take out...unconditional love and you have materialistic, hollow marriages often ending in divorce.

The true reproductive health programs offered in pregnancy centers range from Sexual Integrity (for the client who is sexually active but not pregnant) to life-affirming ultrasound and prenatal care, from fatherhood programs to post abortion healing, from fertility care to [other] studies...Simply by doing what [we should] do, we have the power to transcend the providers of the pill and abortion and make true reproductive health care available to the women of today.

The Time for a New Definition of "Reproductive Health" has arrived...

[excerpted from Heartbeat International, Inc., used with Permission]