One woman said that she “felt like a woman” when she started taking the Pill. Another said, “The pill has allowed me to become the woman I am today.” These women claim to discover their womanhood by suppressing their fertility, a crucial aspect of their feminine nature. However, true womanhood cannot be found by extinguishing the nature of woman, but rather by embracing it.
This idea is common in a culture in which the birth control mentality flourishes. Too often, women seek their dignity and identity in the suppression of that which makes them female. They try to become more like men, thinking that doing so will somehow raise their worth. The denial of the beautiful natural differences between men and women is illustrated in one woman’s comment, “Birth Control helps me to feel like everyone else, men and women.” Man and woman were not created to be identical; they were made to be complementary. The birth control mentality loses sight of this important reality.
Many women also said that they went on the Pill when they entered a “serious relationship.” Serious here is synonymous with sexual. The obvious implication is that any serious relationship must include sex, and indeed, that a sexual dimension is what makes a relationship serious. With this mindset, the Pill becomes a necessary part of the dating process. The Pill not only accommodates the mindset that dating and sex are necessarily connected, but it fosters it as well.
One woman spoke of using the Pill because she wanted to wait to have children until “after I was sure my marriage was going to work.” This statement is a sad sign of the times. Gone are the days when marriage was assumed to be for life, when husbands and wives were committed to working out their differences, when the words “til death do us part” were real vows that a couple took seriously and upheld in more than 50% of marriages. In a world where marriage is no longer stable, children are no longer welcomed as a blessing.
This false understanding of the value of children is another characteristic of the comments left on Planned Parenthood’s website. The opportunity to bring a new life into the world is not seen a blessing. Rather, women refer to potential babies as “a disaster” and a “burden.” What a horrible disrespect for human life! This “disaster” and “burden” being discussed is a human person! One woman even said, “The fact that I didn't produce any children to contribute to all of the problems caused by overpopulation is the most important accomplishment of my life.” What a sad misunderstanding of human life that would lead someone to think this way. Sadly, the birth control mentality that stresses personal choice and convenience over the sacred dignity of human life cannot see the true value of the human person.
The prevalence of this disrespectful attitude towards human life and the misunderstanding of the beauty of fertility is found in some of the more illogical comments on the site. For example, one woman lamented her mother’s death in childbirth, saying “I am one of her ten children. I can't help but think that my children would have a grandma if the pill had been available to her.” Another woman voiced a similar sentiment, saying, “Sadly the Pill came too late for my grandmother who died in childbirth leaving four children.”