October 3, 2011
By Arland K. Nichols and Denise Hunnell, M.D.
A group of physicians in Rhode Island have launched a website, “Ask a Doc RI.” With this new initiative, the doctors aim “to provide a reliable and trustworthy source for reproductive health information for teenagers.” The site features five physicians who field questions from teens on reproductive health, particularly the use of contraceptives. According to the press release, the measure of success for this new endeavor was to be “the number of contraceptive queries obtained through the website.”
The project’s lead researcher, Vinita Goyal, claims that the initiative is necessary. Teenagers, she says, receive misinformation from “incomplete news reports,” “litigious commercials,” and “unreliable…mainstream media and the internet.”
It is surprising to discover, therefore, that the website’s contents are seriously incomplete.
Ask a Doc RI features descriptions of sixteen contraceptive methods. The penultimate method listed is the “rhythm method” which is equated by the authors to “natural family planning” (NFP). Equating the rhythm method and modern methods of NFP, however, is entirely inaccurate, as the rhythm method was developed in the 1930’s and is many years outdated. Today’s modern methods of NFP (such as the Creighton Model or Marquette Model) are based on fertility awareness. They are grounded in science, and numerous studies show these methods, when used properly, to be highly successful in avoiding pregnancy, unlike the rhythm method.
Without condoning the use of natural family planning to avoid pregnancy during premarital sex, it is important to set the record straight on this inaccurate characterization. Such inaccuracy is disappointing, as one would expect physicians board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology to be up-to-date on modern methods of fertility monitoring.
Besides this oversight, there are more serious errors that raise questions about the objectivity of the physicians who are giving advice. When asked about the mental health implications of abortion, the authors claim only that “one study showed that teens did not suffer from depression or low self-esteem after abortion.”
In pointing to only one study, however, the authors ignore the substantial and growing body of evidence that disputes this claim, most notably Priscilla Coleman’s recent literature review of the top studies in the field. Published in the British Journal of Psychiatry this September, Professor Coleman’s review is the largest of its kind, and shows that women who had an abortion were 81% more likely to have mental health problems than women who had not had an abortion. This difference remained statistically significant when the comparison was made between women who had an abortion and women who carried an unintended pregnancy to term—those who chose abortion were 55% more likely to have mental health issues.
Perhaps the most egregious claim made by the physicians of Ask a Doc RI is their denial of the well-documented carcinogenic effects of many contraceptive methods. When asked if these drugs can cause cancer, the physicians answered flatly that “this is not true.” The writers of the post go on to emphasize the fact that women who use the pill suffer a lower risk of ovarian cancer (which accounts for only 3% of cancers in women). While this is true, it is highly negligent to omit the fact that the World Health Organization has identified synthetic estrogen as a “Group 1 Carcinogen,” which increases the risk for the most common and deadly cancers for women—most notably breast cancer, which accounts for 26% of cancers in women. Studies that show a heightened risk of breast cancer for users of oral contraception have been published in the most prestigious medical journals. The National Cancer Institute emphasizes that contraception brings a risk of other cancers including cervical and liver cancer, and notes that teenagers constitute the group whose risk most increases with contraceptive use.
In short, the physicians of Ask a Doc RI completely ignore this inconvenient data when they make their assertion that contraception is not linked to cancer.
How does such an ostensibly well-intentioned group make such blatant errors? It seems that while purporting to provide objective information for the benefit of teenage health, the leadership of this initiative has been anything but objective. Vinita Goyal is a member of both the Society of Family Planning (which promotes the “expansion and dissemination” of contraception and abortion) and of the “Association of Reproductive Health Professionals” (a group founded by Alan Guttmacher as a research arm of Planned Parenthood).
Furthermore, the funding for this project was received from the Lalor Foundation, which has awarded grants to NARAL and Planned Parenthood to the tune of $115,000. All told, this foundation has, since 2002, given more than $1.6 million to similar organizations dedicated to furthering contraception and abortion. Rather than being motivated by the genuine health of teenagers, Dr. Goyal appears to be moved by her ideological commitments.
In short, rather than becoming a reliable resource for teens, the site has become a forum for the same problem it was supposedly created to solve—the dissemination of incomplete and unreliable medical information. Playing fast and loose with medical information, especially when the health of teenage girls is at stake, is the height of irresponsibility. The physicians of Ask a Doc RI owe their audience an explanation for their omissions; and they owe teens credible, unbiased information on the risks involved with contraception and premarital sex.
Arland K. Nichols is the National Director of HLI America. Denise Hunnell, MD, is a Fellow of HLI America. Both write for HLI America’s Truth and Charity Forum.
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Pope Benedict Regarding CondomsThe folwoling is a great analogy from an article in by Dr. Janet E. Smith that helps Catholics explain Pope Benedict’s comments on the use of condoms: If someone was going to rob a bank and was determined to use a gun, it would better for that person to use a gun that had no bullets in it. It would reduce the likelihood of fatal injuries. But it is not the task of the Church to instruct potential bank robbers how to rob banks more safely and certainly not the task of the Church to support programs of providing potential bank robbers with guns that could not use bullets. Nonetheless, the intent of a bank robber to rob a bank in a way that is safer for the employees and customers of the bank may indicate an element of moral responsibility that could be a step towards eventual understanding of the immorality of bank robbing. to read the entire article.VN:F [1.9.10_1130](from 0 votes)