The best way to describe my current state of mind is "astonished".

I just finished reading this article and am dumbfounded at the measures the Catholic Church is taking to discourage women from taking control of their own fertility.

A report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano is claiming that the contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility.

From the article:

The pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report.

"We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill," he said, without elaborating further.

The article was promptly dismissed by several organisations.

"Once metabolized, the hormones contained in oral contraceptives no longer have any of the characteristic effects of feminine hormones," said Gianbenedetto Melis, vice-president of a contraceptive research association, quoted by the ANSA news agency.

Is this outrageous or what?

I wish I could say I was even mildly surprised at the straws being grasped at by the Catholic Church, but they have a well documented history of going to extreme lengths to keep women from having an actual CHOICE in their own reproductive health. It's beyond disgusting.

I mean look at their cockamamie statement. they didn't even back their shit up with any concrete proof!

Hmph could that be because....THERE ISN'T ANY???

Dicks.

This church promotes a culture of baby having BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. They oppose birth control with no exceptions. Even in marriage!

So using their logic, let's look at their stance. A married woman (fully sanctioned to have sexual intercourse with her husband by their "rules") is not within her rights to control her fertility via the pill or any other medical intervention. The church has no regard for whether or not the woman and her husband are mentally and emotionally ready to bear children, whether or not they are financially capable of supporting a child, whether or not they even DESIRE to have a child intruding upon every aspect of their lives for the next 20 years. They don't give a shit about any of it.

Their only option under the rules of the Catholic Church is to either NOT have sex or to have unprotected, contraceptive-free sex and be involuntarily "blessed" with children whether or not they desire them, are mentally ready for them, can afford them, etc.

Bullshit.

Completely destructive for the parents and the potential spawn. Do they care? Nope. It's NOT their problem. Do you get that? Whether you can take care of those kids they are insisting you have is of no consequence to them.

They aren't satisfied until people's homes are overrun with children.

What disturbs me just as much is their endless talk about "charitable works" and helping others, yet they spread outright lies about contraception and try to ban birth control among their parishioners and do nothing to help promote adoption or fostering orphaned kids. Apparently, as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, adoption and fostering be damned, be fruitful and multiply OR ELSE!

So, sorry all you prospective parents of the Catholic faith who'd prefer to adopt and save a few of the million abandoned children of the world, rather than contributing to overpopulation and having your own. Your church does not support your use of birth control under any circumstances, even if it serves the greater good for you to adopt kids that are already here rather than spawning new ones.

And these days, even though mindless breeding is still rampant, there ARE people who desire to become parents in a more noble, conscientious way and prefer to adopt rather than procreate. It's rare to see but they are out there! I have a great deal of respect for people like that and it bothers me that people of this mindset could abandon those plans due to the poisonous lies this church is now spreading about birth control.