Pro-life teens challenged

Contraceptive mentality has led to abortion, out-of-wedlock births

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Drayton Valley

That message was given to some 140 young people, aged 12 to 20, who attended the fifth annual pro-life conference at St. Anthony's School here Oct. 15.

Elizabeth Daub and Mark DeYoung, both members of the Virginia-based American Life League, spent the day with the teens, giving them information and encouraging them to action.

Daub, 25, said the introduction of contraception has led to a culture of death in which it has become acceptable to prevent or end life at our convenience.

She called on young people to help replace that culture for one that respects life "from fertilization to natural death."

Abortion is now demanded precisely because contraception - which people were told would eliminate the need for abortion - fails, she said.

Documents she handed out show out-of-wedlock births in the U.S. jumped dramatically from 202,000 in 1957 to 1.3 million in 1994, the same period during which contraceptives became commonplace.

The number of abortions continued to climb during the 1970s and 1980s, rising from an estimated 744,600 abortions in 1973 to an estimated 1,608,600 in 1990.

Also on the rise as a result of the contraceptive mentality are infanticide, euthanasia, child abuse and teen suicide. Daub also warned against cloning, saying, "the minute we try to take from God the ability to create, we begin to head into a very dangerous path."

"The hope is in you guys," she told the crowd. "There is hope and there is truth and you have it."

Daub defined the contraceptive mentality as a state of mind characterizing those people who believe that their "responsible" use of contraception entitles them to be free from the burden of unwanted children.

"Contraception," she said, "is the rejection of the 'unwanted' child in theory; abortion is the rejection in practice."

Daub cited research showing approximately 80 per cent of all adults in the United States now use some form of contraception, including sterilization.

"The use of contraception goes against natural law, against the natural order that God established," she said.

She charged that Planned Parenthood and the big corporations that promote contraception are "exploiting women" and attacking motherhood.

"There is no greater connection to God than motherhood and they are attacking it."

As Pope Paul VI predicted in his encyclical Humanae Vitae, "the acceptance of contraception has brought a widespread increase in marital infidelity and an overall decline in morality," Daub said.

She also cited a general loss of respect for women, saying men have come to think of them as "mere instruments" of selfish enjoyment as opposed to their respected life-long companions.

In the 1960s there were only two know forms of sexually transmitted diseases (STD). Today there are 32 forms of STDs. "That's a gift of this contraceptive mentality," Daub said.

Another "gift" is infanticide, or "abortion outside the womb," which has become an epidemic in America.

"Many young women are delivering their babies and then killing them because they don't want them," Daub lamented. She cited the example of a young couple who crushed their baby's head with baseball bat minutes after the baby's birth.

"It's society saying it's okay to dispose of babies either inside the womb or outside the womb," she said. "Abortion is infanticide."

Pro-choice advocates argue every child should be a wanted child. However, child abuse in the United States has risen by 600 per cent since 1973, Daub said, noting the figure blows to pieces the pro-choice argument.

In an interview, Daub and DeYoung, the American Life League director, said young pro-life activists will change the culture by speaking the truth everywhere and by defending all life. "Pro-life is not only abortion. We must treat everyone with dignity," DeYoung said.

He said pro-life activists should put on their pro-life T-shirts and get active in front of abortion clinics with signs and prayer. They should also pass out pro-life literature in schools and join every debate and conversation where they can circulate their views.

"We are encouraging them to speak the truth in every possible circumstance," DeYoung said.

Jesse Paulin, 16, finds it "terrible" that society allows abortion to be used as a form of contraception. "It is our moral duty to help stop the killing of the unborn. As Christians we are accountable to God and we can't allow that."

Andrew Hamoline of Drayton Valley says it's "absolutely wrong" to kill unborn babies and is ready to join the battle against abortion.

"I'm going to try and help," the 13-year-old said. "I'll go up downtown and hold up signs. And I'll go on the Internet on some chat lines and talk to people about it."

Suzan Pinkosky, a 19-year-old student at Radway's John Paul II Bible School, said the conference helped her to refocus. "It kind of pumped me up again to go out and help change this culture of death," she said.

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