birth control controversial issues

Contraception and its Importance

Contraception, also known as birth control, refers to any drug, system, or procedure used to discourage pregnancy. Women should select the most convenient form of birth control since one method can work on one woman but fail to prevent pregnancy in another. Similarly, some approaches are more successful than others when it comes to avoiding conception. A woman’s form of birth control is dictated by her fitness, ability to have children now or in the future, and need to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. It is recommended that before a woman agrees on the type of birth control she chooses to choose, she consult with a doctor for tests so that she can be advised on the correct method for her body. Birth control has some merits, and they include the prevention of unsafe abortions because it reduces the number of unplanned pregnancies. It has been successful in reducing maternal deaths by lowering the pregnancy chances of women who are at high risk. They include very sick women suffering from a terminal disease such as cancer or diabetes. Most importantly birth control improves child survival by extending the duration a woman waits before getting another child and therefore it gives time between pregnancies (Bongaarts, 2014).

Birth Control and its Impact

Birth control has been a significant tool in avoiding teenage pregnancies, therefore, reducing the number of girls who drop out of school too and take care of their children. It also avoids infant mortality by avoiding teenage pregnancies.
In America, only a third of teenage girls become pregnant every year, and this costs the taxpayers about $12 billion to cater for these unplanned pregnancies. 41 percent of these births are covered by Medicaid in the United States. A big portion of that cost comes from the money spent on providing health care for poor women during and after the birth of their children through Medicaid. In 2008, the average cost for one of providing healthcare for these births was $12,613. Moreover, Medicaid spent an average of $257 to cover birth control for one woman in that same year. The evidence shows that almost $ 3.74 of the funds collected from U.S. taxpayers is spent on birth control through Medicaid (Bongaarts, 2014).

Controversies Surrounding Birth Control

There are many controversies of birth control since its implementation in 1990. The arguments about birth control fall into several categories such as the philosophical arguments, for example, the natural law argument. The second one is the arguments based on diverse ideas of sex, marriage, and the family. A right to life is given by the constitution and does not allow anyone to kill a living human even if it is an embryo.
Human rights arguments for example woman’s right to control her body. Controversies based on the good or bad results of birth control and the opinion of global warming to overpopulation. Religious arguments include Christianity views which do not accept the use of birth control to prevent pregnancy because this is against the will of God.

The Evolution of Birth Control

Women have been doing all kinds of things to avoid getting pregnant, in 1850 BC they were using from using acai leaves as proposed by the Egyptians and during World War one they embraced the use condoms even though they are still used today. People want to prevent getting pregnant by all means. Birth control allows couples, women families, to choose whether or not they want to get a child and there is nothing wrong with doing that. If a woman cannot support a kid, he has a way of preventing the child from being born. Aug. 1, 2012, was a day of the attack on religious freedom and most Christians will live to remember it. By the year 1900, public demand for birth control was increasing, and it was mainly caused by the economy but not feminism (Gedicks & Van Tassell, 2014). Parents realized that bringing up children was becoming quite expensive and therefore there was a need to control the number of kids each family would raise. Durin this time kids were kept in school longer and less likely to support their families with daily chores, while women subjected to more labor to earn wages. Shortly before World War I, local organizations formed a movement called Planned Parenthood that created a widespread birth-control, and it spread across the country. During the period, modern methods of contraception, such as diaphragms, and vaginal pessaries and were becoming available through a black market. However, condoms were available at every drugstore, and therefore families were able to control births.

Christian Perspectives on Birth Control

One of the current controversies is the Christians acceptance of birth control. For a Christian’s couple, the use of chemical methods that affect the normal body reaction is questionable and ethically unacceptable for the Christian couple. Christians believe that it is an act of playing god according to them. On the other hand, some Christians feel that it should be acceptable because it could curb the high teenager pregnancies rate because if affects parent and newborn. They also accept the concept of birth control because it helps in stabilization of an economic tool to improve the issues for women and their families. Christian notions about birth control come from church teachings, not the scripture since there is little information about the issue in the Bible. Consequently, Christian’s teachings on contraceptives are often based on different Christian understandings of the meaning of sex, marriage, and the family (Di Nucci, 2014).

Various Christian Church Views

Christian acceptance of birth is new as all churches disapproved the artificial birth control until the beginning of the 20th century. In modern days different Christian churches hold diverse views about the rightness and wrongness of using contraceptives. According to Liberal Protestant churches, it is acceptable to use contraceptives, as long as it is not used to encourage or permit immoral behavior. Most churches do not approve the use of birth control for people who are married. In many churches, sex outside marriage is regarded as morally wrong; they believe that refraining from sex would be morally better than having sex and using birth control. More traditional churches suggest that birth control should be limited to married partners who are using it to control the size and spacing of their family. They often teach that using contraception to regulate the children altogether is not desirable.

The Roman Catholic Church’s Stand

The Roman Catholic Church only permits natural contraceptives, and this would be having sex during the infertile period of a woman’s monthly cycle. In Roman Catholic, Artificial methods of contraception are barred. Therefore, the only way for Christians to remain faithful to the Church’s teachings on human sexuality and to avoid having children is to using ’natural family planning such as abstinence. Many Catholics have decided to disobey church teaching in this part of their lives, causing a considerable breach between the congregation and the Church establishment.

Arguments Against Birth Control

Some controversies argue that birth control is inherently wrong based on the life and the natural order. Holders of this view argue that the main aim of having sexual intercourse is to conceive a child and therefore using birth control is wrong. Contraceptives are wrong because it interferes with the real purpose of sex to processes of the universe. Although most scientists do not agree with the idea that sex should be aimed at procreation, most Opponents say this is a religious idea (Gedicks & Van Tassell, 2014). Birth control is wrong to interfere with the natural order of the universe. Opponents say that human beings interfere with the natural order of the universe all the time for instance by limiting the number of children a woman should et which is a natural thing.

Controversial Issues Surrounding Birth Control

Contraception is anti-life because families that use them prevent a new life coming into the universe and in this case it has a negative intention of life which is a fundamentally good thing. This argument is based on the principle that life is a precious thing. Holders of this view argue that contraception is morally wrong because.
Birth control is a form of abortion since some birth control methods can operate by stopping the implantation and growth of a fertilized egg. The method is rejected because some techniques such as “morning-after” pill and UCD are capable of preventing implantation of a fertilized egg. These methods amount to an abortion which is considered as a crime and therefore birth control method is also wrong since it also terminates embryos life. Some people argue that birth control poses an immoral culture since people can readily use them to prevent from getting pregnant. Most of the individuals who support this argument are worried that the availability of birth control may lead to promiscuity such as prostitution which may eventually lead to abortion. The birth control methods may bring about a culture that is not conducive to the society. Contraception also increases people capability to have sex outside marriage. This could be certainly true, because sexual intercourse without birth control is associated with a significant risk of conceiving a child, and most people who engage in sex outside marriage regard it as a deterrent. If these contraceptives were not readily available they would be afraid of cheating on their partners because they may give birth to an illegitimate child (Di Nucci, 2014).

Health Risks and Informed Decision-making

Individuals think separating sex from marriage is wrong since it makes depraved conduct less risky by preventing unwanted pregnancies and also sexually transmitted infections. It demoralizes public morality by giving people the freedom to have sex outside marriage and assume that everything is normal. When couples start having sex outside and managing their fertility in different ways families end up weakening and can result in divorce.
Birth control carries health risks which damage the health of those who use it in two ways. One way is through side effects of the birth control methods and the second one is some contraceptives such as condoms are aimed to prevent the people engaging in sexual intercourse from catching a sexually transmitted disease. Not all birth control methods have Side effects that affect the health. Some causes women to increase in size while others experience heavy bleeding during periods. Some contraceptives may cause infertility, especially when used before first giving birth (El Ayadi, Diamond-Smith, Harper, Kohn, & Rocca, 2017).
It is important for users to get a specialist to receive a right prescription for the right birth control that would be effective to her. When one wants to consider a specific form of birth control she should make sure she is aware of its risks and consequences. This knowledge would help her choose the most convenient one with fewer risks. The user can compare the different risks types of birth controls and see what may work best for her. The user can finally compare the risks of contraceptives to the risks that go with having a child and then choose a knowledgeable decision based on that information.

Benefits and Ethical Considerations

This is perhaps not an ethical opposition to birth control itself, though it does include the ethical issue of an informed accord to medical behavior. STDs is the second objection of contraceptives since it increases health risks because it makes it more probable that individuals will have multiple sexual partners. This increases the risk of people grasping sexually transmitted infections and upsurges the chances for such infections to spread in the population. Birth control is not wrong although there are many arguments opposing it. It is morally right for every couple to control the number of children they want to bring in the universe.
There are some positive reasons why society believes that it is right to allow individuals to practice birth control. A human rights benefit is an essential for “procreative liberty” people should be allowed to control their lives, and therefore no one should restrict people a choice on the number of children they want.
Birth control gives women health benefits by preventing the conception of unwanted pregnancies, and as a result, this would reduce the number of possible abortions. It allows women whose health would be at risk if they conceived to carry on having sex. Condoms protect one from catching HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (Di Nucci, 2014). Contraceptives also allow families to enjoy some benefits, for instance, it prevents the fertilization of a child that a family cannot sustain (Bongaarts, 2014). It enables individuals to prevent having more kids than they want. Birth control improves marriage by enabling couples to enjoy the unitive purpose of sexual activity without being worried about conceiving a baby. It also gives the family a chance to plan their expenditure by having fewer kids and thus spend less money on their education and other necessity. Having fewer children creates more family time where the family can spend and have fun as a family.
In conclusion, 99 percent of sexually active women use birth control at some point in their lives. It allows families to enjoy some benefits, for instance, it prevents the fertilization of a child that a family cannot sustain. It enables individuals to prevent having more kids than they want. Human rights arguments for example woman’s right to control her body. Controversies based on the good or bad results of birth control and the opinion of global warming to overpopulation.
Religious arguments include Christianity views which do not accept the use of birth control to prevent pregnancy because this is against the will of God. Although there are numerous controversies of birth control, it is the only way by which women can control their fertility and et children that they can support.

References

Bongaarts, J. (2014). The impact of family planning programs on unmet need and demand for contraception. Studies in Family Planning, 45(2), 247-262.
El Ayadi, A. M., Diamond-Smith, N., Harper, C., Kohn, J. E., & Rocca, C. (2017). Young women’s experience of side effects and contraceptive discontinuation. Contraception, 96(4), 287-288.
Gedicks, F. M., & Van Tassell, R. G. (2014). RFRA Exemptions from the Contraception Mandate: An Unconstitutional Accommodation of Religion.
Lindert, P. H. (2015). Fertility and scarcity in America. Princeton University Press.
Di Nucci, E. (2014). Contraception and double effect. The American Journal of Bioethics, 14(7), 42-43.