Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 976 | Birth Control: What the Media Won’t Tell You

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

Today, we're discussing the Washington Post's pro-birth-control article that leaves out some important details. The author of the article claims that conservatives like Brett Cooper are peddling misinformation about birth control – but is this true? We look at some of the research that proves hormonal birth control's damaging effects. Plus, a gay man in Chicago was recently arrested for plotting to abuse the newborn child he planned to adopt via surrogacy. We discuss how this demonstrates the danger of treating children as commodities. And should Christians reconsider if life begins at conception? Politico, unsurprisingly, seems to think so. --- Timecodes: (00:30) Introduction & Easter (04:35) Gay predator tries to buy baby (19:43) Washington Post birth control article (25:00) Why women are put on birth control (28:57) Fact-checking WaPo (37:36) Politico: “Christians should reconsider life at conception” --- Today's Sponsors: My Patriot Supply — prepare yourself for anything with long-term emergency food storage. Get your new, lower-price 3-Week Emergency Food Kit at PrepareWithAllie.com. Cabrini — visit Angel.com/ALLIE to purchase your tickets for "Cabrini," the newest film from Angel Studios. Focus on the Family — the new podcast, "Practice Makes Parent" brings you real, practical, and biblical advice. Tune in every Wednesday on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcasting platform. Find the podcast here: https://podcasts.focusonthefamily.com/show/practice-makes-parent/?refcd=1674101&utm_source=blaze&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=relatable --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 959 | Birth Control is Making People Bisexual | Guest: Emily Detrick https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-959-birth-control-is-making-women-bisexual-guest/id1359249098?i=1000647441400 Ep 810 | Detoxifying Your Life: Birth Control, Cleaning Chemicals, & Fake Food | Guest: Shawna Holman https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000614201869 Ep 254 | Birth Control, IVF, & Surrogacy https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000475691301 Ep 919 | No Good Surrogacies: A Surrogacy Baby Speaks Out | Guest: Olivia Maurel  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-919-no-good-surrogacies-a-surrogacy-baby-speaks/id1359249098?i=1000637866783 Ep 836 | Surrogacy Horror: Gay ‘Dads’ Demand Abortion | Guest: Brittney Pearson  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-836-surrogacy-horror-gay-dads-demand-abortion-guest/id1359249098?i=1000620814003 --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed.

You can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. The Washington Post wants you back on those birth control pills. Also, a very disturbing story of two men buying a baby via surrogacy reminds us why this terrible practice needs to be banned. We've got all of that and more on today's episode of Relatable. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Thursday. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. We are going into Easter weekend Resurrection Sunday. I was at In-N-Out the other day and they had these little signs saying, happy Resurrection Sunday. Isn't that amazing? I love In-N-Out. You know, I've thought about this before with In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A and a few other businesses that are Christian run, how they're not just, just outspoken about being Christian in and out more so than Chick-fil-A now, but they also

are just run better than everything else. Because Christians do things well. We do customer service well. We make good products. We are the hardest workers. We should be, by the way. We should be those things. That's not always true across the board, but Christians have historically built really good things and they cease to be good. They cease to be excellent when they cease being Christian. I mean, look at every university. Look at a lot of the hospitals that started out Christian. Then when they abandoned their original mission, it's interesting that the quality also fades. That's just a little random aside that I was thinking about. But go in and out. Thank you for proclaiming the truth about Jesus that he was raised from the dead three days after

he was crucified on our behalf. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend this weekend as you are celebrating that reality with your families. On Monday, we've got a great episode coming out that's going to be a little bit about just the truth of the resurrection and what that means, but also about apologetics and answering some of your biggest apologetics questions, how to defend the faith. And so it's going to be a great episode. So be on the lookout for that. Unfortunately, today, we've got to talk about a couple of dark things. It's not going to be exclusively dark and depraved, but as you know, sometimes we have to wade into the darkness and depravity, remind ourselves of the light and the truth and the hope that's coming in Christ.

But we have to realize the pain, the sorrow, and the sadness and the sickness that's happening here because part of why we're here is to do something about it, to actually shine light on it so that we can make sure that we are doing what we are called to do and being an advocate and a refuge for the most vulnerable, namely children. So the theme of this episode, in some ways, the theme is really kind of like the consequences of reproductive technology and messing with that. But also, children are always what? The unconsenting subjects of progressive social experiments, that is true with reproductive of technology. It's true with abortion. It's true with COVID policy. It's true with gender transition. Children are the unconsenting subjects of progressive social experiments. And we've talked most about this in the

past few years in relation to surrogacy, in relation to IVF, in relation to sperm and egg selling. And I've got an especially egregious example of what baby selling in the United States can look like and the repercussions of having basically a wild west of reproductive technology in the United States where it's basically unregulated, where anyone, if they want to buy a child via surrogacy, via sperm and egg selling, they can without a background check. If you've got the money for it, you can buy an egg, you can rent a womb, you can take that child away, both from her biological mother and the mother who gestated her for nine months and you can raise her as you wish. It's really disturbing, really disgusting that that is legal at all in the United States.

It's also, as I said, very unregulated. And here's an example of the repercussions of that. So this is according to CBS News. Chicago area veterinarian Adam Stafford King arrested Friday on child pornography charges and accused of chatting about planning to sexually assault, this is dark, I'm just preparing you for it. Sexually assault, his newborn son, federal prosecutors announced on Monday. He's a veterinary ophthalmologist from Elburn who is also judge national dog shows. And he's not just a judge of national dog shows.

He is specifically a judge for national dog shows where the owner, the trainer of the dogs are children. ages about five to 11 years old. King is well known in the dog showing community. He has also been featured on podcasts. According to the charges against him, the FBI began investigating King in October as part of a child pornography investigation in New York. I typically say child sex abuse material because child pornography implies that there is like actual sex being had or there's consent there and a child can never consent to sexual relations. And so anytime there is sexual interaction between an adult and a child, it is always abuse. It is always rape.

It is always assault. So agents learned a subject in the New York case had been chatting with King using the dating app scruff and the messaging app telegram. And King had sent that person several videos of child abuse. After that person was arrested, the FBI agents posed as him online, so basically took on his identity to continue to talk to King. During those chats, King used the handle. of chai guy, so like Chicago, and wrote that he prefers children under age 10. In one message,

King wrote, uh, zero to nine years old, my fave boy and girl, though prefer boy. Ugh. King also claimed he had drugged and sexually abused his nieces and nephews, uh, using Benadryl. He also claimed that he and his husband, so called, were expecting the birth of a child. by surrogate on March 29 and that he planned to sexually assault the child after it is born. In a message he thought was to another pedophile, he wrote, this is really difficult to get through. Maybe you'll get to meet my boy, crying, laughing emoji. Might have to come and visit my boy when he's born,

winking tongue out emoji. King was arrested on Friday, days before he was scheduled to fly to California to visit the surrogate mother ahead of his son's expected birth later this week. his initial court appearance on Friday, prosecutors asked him to be held in custody without bond, according to court records. He had posted pictures of his future son's onesie on these chat rooms with people who ended up being federal agents who he thought was pedophiles. And oh my gosh, I've got so much, I've got so much to say about this. First of all, I am so thankful. I know that we talk a lot about the corruption in the intelligence community in the FBI and the CIA.

That's absolutely there. I am so thankful, though. I am so thankful for them in this case. I am so thankful they did what they had to do to ensure that this person was locked up and that nothing happened to this poor baby, that he was about to buy from this woman in California that he had already promised to sexually assault. This is not the first case like this. This is not close to the only case like this. We've talked about several cases. of men buying babies, purchasing children either via adoption or surrogacy and pimping them out in this way. It's really disgusting and it's really tough to even think about that this is happening, but we have to think about it because if there are children that have to endure it,

there are adults that at least have to think about it and at least have to talk about it because it is going to require our voices in our political power to ensure that baby buying through surrogacy in the United States is illegal. And that when it comes to adoption, there's a lot of conversations that we can have about that, about who should be able to adopt. But at the very least, there needs to be a lot more thorough investigations. However, there's not because in the name of inclusion,

in love, and empathy, intolerance, no one dares question a man or two men purchasing children. You're not allowed to do that because we're all inclusive. and we all have to just assume that this is all normal and good, that children don't need a mother and father, that there are no red flags here, so you're not allowed to ask questions. You can't do background checks. You can't dig into it. Obviously, I know there are some background checks that come with adoption, and that could be a difficult process for a lot of people. But there's not enough. And there are no regulations when it comes to surrogacy. So again, they bought the eggs from one woman. They rented the womb of another woman. That's how this process works. They were going to forcibly take that child away both from the biological mother, which is the egg cellar, and this gestational carrier, the surrogate, with whom this boy had been bonding for the last nine months whose smell and feel and heartbeat he knows, rip him from her chest at the point of birth, crueler treatment than we give to puppies and kittens, take him away only to sexually assault him and pimp him out to his friends. That's what was going to happen in this case. And it almost happened if these FBI agents had not realized that this was happening in these chat rooms. Now, let me be clear.

I am not saying that all men or all couples who use surrogacy are doing this. I'm not saying that at all. I'm not making a blanket statement about gay couples. I'm not making a blanket statement about everyone who uses surrogacy. I'm not making a blanket statement about what their motives are and what they end up doing with these children. I'm saying that it is enough of a problem that we need to care about it. I'm saying if it happens at all, then that should sound some alarms in our head. and we should say, hmm, how are we going to stop this from happening?

And I think no matter who you are, no matter why you are using surrogacy or egg or sperm selling, that it should be illegal. I do. I do. I don't think that we should be buying children. It's basically human trafficking. I don't think that you should be able to take a child away from their biological parents, the egg or sperm seller, and put them in an incubator.

that they will never know. Again, that's worse treatment than we give puppies or kittens. By law, we have to keep them with their mother for at least, what, six to 12 weeks? And we don't do that with babies who are purchased in this way? I mean, how many of these cases, these extreme awful cases, have actually come to fruition because the person didn't get caught. This is a form of trafficking, of legalized trafficking in the United States that in some cases, like in this one can turn into sex trafficking. And you're telling me there's nothing that we should do about it in the name of love, inclusion and empathy and just, oh, well, they want to be a parent.

So I guess that we have to be okay with it. I mean, this poor child. Like we should probably ask the question, what's going to happen to this child now? What's going to happen to this child now that the father or at least one of the men who is going to raise him is going to be in prison? What's going to happen to this child? Is this mother going to have to abort the baby? Is the baby going to be able to live with the other man who probably might have the same issues?

I don't know. Or at least is married to someone who has those issues. You can't tell me that that's a safe environment for that child. So what's going to happen to this child? And these are all the kinds of questions that should be asked before we say okay to legalizing something like surrogacy. I've talked to a woman before. She was carrying a baby for two men, for two gay men, and it ended up that she was diagnosed with cancer. And they were afraid that something was going to happen to the baby.

And she was going to have to deliver this baby early because of her diagnosis. But the baby was going to be okay. It was a healthy baby. They were going to wait as long as they could to make sure that even though he was premature, that he was going to be healthy and get all the medical care that he needed. while this gay couple didn't want that. They didn't want a baby who was pre-me. They didn't want a baby with special needs.

And so they pressured this woman to abort. That happens many times a year in this country. And it is perfectly, totally legal. It's advocated for by the same people who say, my body, my choice. So you believe in her body, her choice, unless she's a surrogate, then she has no rights over her body at all? It's really, really depraved. I don't think that we have even begun to. scratch the surface of the evil that is underneath the surrogacy, the reproductive technology

industry. All of it requires the sacrifice of children, the literal sacrifice of children in their lives, like when we talk about or when we think about the embryos that are discarded, the millions and millions of embryos that are discarded through a eugenics process every year in the IVF industry. And when we talk about the sacrifice of the rights of these children, the right of these children to have a mother and a father. We have to start thinking about all reproductive technology through the lens of the rights and the well-being and the needs of the child, not the wants of the parent. And that is not just true when it comes to a gay couple. That's true of any couple. We have to start thinking when we're talking about reproduction,

about what is best for the child, what is least risky for this child. We have to start thinking, not well what do the parents want and unfortunately even Christians I think messes up a lot well being a parent is a great is a great desire so we should just be able to fulfill it well something could be a great desire that doesn't justify in any means necessary approach to fulfilling it so I know the story is especially disturbing I don't want to think about it either thank God for law enforcement in this case and I just pray that law enforcement always catches evil people like this. And I personally believe that the production of child sex abuse material should get you the death penalty. I do. I mean, I think that the death penalty should

only be reserved for the most heinous crimes. And this is one of them. That's why in the state of Florida, they passed the law that says that you can be eligible for the death penalty if you raped a minor under the age of 12. That's going to have to make its way to the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court has already ruled that that's unconstitutional, which is ridiculous. But if it does make its way to the Supreme Court and that case is overturned, well, then that could open up the door to other states passing the same law that you should be eligible for the death penalty if you commit that kind of crime against a minor. I would say any minor. And that would be a good thing. That would be a just thing. I promise you the prevalence of child sex abuse would go down

if we consistently applied the death penalty to child sex abusers. Try to explain to me the downside of that. I don't know of any. So death penalty for child sex abusers ban all surrogacy. If those two, if those two things just happened, maybe that would be if I were running for president, those two things would be at the top of my list. We would probably save a lot of children's lives, a lot of children's lives because of that. Church, we have always been a refuge for children. We have always advocated on behalf of children. We have always been the voice for the voiceless and the power for the powerless,

especially these adolescents who do not have the mental or the physical capacity to defend themselves. That has been the history of the church. And it must still be our calling now. It must still be our calling now. And that includes not just speaking up for the orphan in the orphanage or the poor child in Africa who is starving, but the fatherless and the motherless here who are forced into a purposely fatherless home, forced into a purposely motherless home in the name of love and inclusion and tolerance and LGBTQ equality. these things still matter, even if they're unpopular and inconvenient. All right.

I just wanted to give you another reminder of why surrogacy needs to go away forever and ever and ever in all situations, no matter what. You can go back and listen to some previous episodes we have on that if you're curious as to why I have such a hardline stance on that. Hey, this is Steve Deast. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's

unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this Steve Day show right here on Blaze TV, or listen wherever you get podcasts, I hope you'll join us. Okay, I know that y'all probably saw this Washington Post story. Women are getting off birth control amid misinformation explosion by Lauren Weber. Weber, not sure how to pronounce her last name. Birth control is something that we've been talking about on this show since 2019 or maybe

beginning of 2020. What birth control is, hormonal birth control, what it does to your body, how there is an abortion, abortifacient aspect to it. There's the possibility always of birth control actually making your uterus inhospitable to an already fertilized egg, which is ethically and morally problematic for those of us who believe that life starts at conception, life starts at the point of fertilization. And so I think a lot of women have started to think more thoroughly about hormonal birth control, whether they ethically align with it and

what has actually been doing to their bodies. And the Washington Post, of course, is very upset about this. So here's what they say. A search for birth control on TikTok or Instagram and a cascade of misleading videos vilifying hormonal contraception appear. Young women blaming their weight gain on the

pill right-wing commentators claiming that some birth control can lead to infertility. Testimonials complaining of depression and anxiety. Physicians say they're seeing an explosion. of birth control misinformation online targeting a vulnerable demographic people in their teens and early 20s who are more likely to believe that what they see on their phones because of algorithms that feed them a stream of videos reinforcing messages often divorced from scientific evidence.

Of course, one of the doctors that they're talking about or that they're talking to about all of this misinformation will put his picture up on YouTube and you can tell me women whether you would trust this person with your body. do you trust this person to tell you about birth control? He's got this little sign that says facts are important. Facts are important. And I guarantee you he probably has his pronouns in his profile. He's got a little rainbow flag there waving behind him. I mean, just stare deep into this person's soul and tell me whether or not you give a flying rip about what he's got to say about what birth control does for your body.

He says people are putting themselves out there as experts on birth control and speaking on things that the science does not bear out. I am seeing the direct failures of this misinformation. Physicians and researchers say little data, this is what the article says, say little data is available about the scale of this new phenomenon, but anecdotally, more patients are coming in with misconceptions about birth control fueled by influencers

and conservative commentators. I will just say, like, I was totally snubbed here. I was totally snubbed. That I was not included in this article because we were way ahead of the curve when it talks, when it comes to who was talking about birth control and the dangers of all of this stuff. I will just say, but that's okay. We'll keep going. Prominent conservative commentators have seized upon mistrust of medical professionals

sewing misinformation as a way to discourage the use of birth. birth control. Brett Cooper gives an example of the Daily Wire. A media commentator says that argued in a viral TikTok clip that birth control can impact fertility, cause women to gain weight and even alter whom they are attracted to. They list other people like Candace Owens, Brittany Martinez, founder of Evie Magazine. And Brittany said women have been silenced and shamed by legacy media, the pharmaceutical industry, and in many cases by their own doctors who have gaslit them.

And so this person is discrediting all of this, saying that this is just viral misinformation. This is all just manipulation tactics to, I don't even know what the intent would be. What would the intent behind this be to try to get women to accidentally get pregnant? I guess they're trying to say that, I don't know, these influencers really believe what they're saying, but it's just the wrong information.

And unfortunately, they're convincing other. people of their lives. All forms of medication, including hormonal birth control, can have side effects. Of course, this is true. This is exactly what these influencers are saying, and this journalist is admitting that. Some are rare but serious. Birth control pills that contain estrogen can lead to blood clots and strokes. IUDs can perforate the uterine wall. And then the article described as a 24-year-old who was surprisingly diagnosed with blood clots in her leg in both lungs caused by her birth control. The Food and Drug Administration points out that the risk of developing blood clots from

using birth control pills remains lower than the risk of developing blood clots in pregnancy and in the postpartum period. Okay. What relation does that have? I guess you're trying to say, look, this is better than getting pregnant because your likelihood of having blood clots is actually lower. lower than that. But there are still risks there. And many women are put on birth control, not because they're having sex, not because they're trying not to get pregnant. Women are put on birth control,

basically like they're given tick tax, told this will clear up your acne. This will regulate your period. Doesn't regulate your period because you don't have a period on birth control. There's not a period. That's a withdrawal bleed. It's not an actual period. And so your body isn't going through the cycle that God made it to go through every month. Of course, there's a period. There's a period. There are going to be effects on your mind, on your body when you mess with that natural cycle. Now, I understand there are also some benefits that some people say that they get from birth control. They say that it helps with your endometriosis symptoms. I want to be clear about that.

Birth control doesn't fix anything. It's not healing you. It might manage your symptoms. And that could be very helpful for people. And I'm not denying that. but it's not actually fixing anything and it can actually cause real problems. But it is not going to get to the root cause of your preexisting problems. They talk about the effects that this has had via social media.

Talks about, you know, women who are having unplanned pregnancies because of this. But they don't actually discredit anything that any of these commentators are saying. In fact, they admit that. some of these side effects are real. They might say that they're rare, but they are in fact real. This is a tactic that you see a lot in the media to say there's no evidence saying that. But saying there's no evidence of something does not mean that there's evidence proving that there's not. So they might say there's no evidence to show that birth control can cause depression. Okay, maybe there aren't.

studies done on that, although I believe that there are. But say that there aren't studies done by that. That just means that that study hasn't gotten the funding. Big Pharma probably doesn't want to study like that being out there. That doesn't mean that it's not true. That doesn't mean that there is evidence discrediting that. I mean, when enough women say this, and this was so common when I was in college, women saying, oh, my birth control pill is making me crazy or my dermatologist put me on a birth control pill and I'm just getting used to it. Or, oh my gosh, well, I can't lose weight right now because I just switched birth control pills. I mean, this happened to so many of my friends when a doctor in high school who probably

just assumed that everyone was having sex secretly and wanted to make sure that they didn't get pregnant at 16, just put them on birth control. Really for no health reasons. She would say, oh yeah, it's to regulate your period because, I don't know, at the age of 15, someone missed their period for some reason. So she would use that as an excuse to put people on the birth control pill. And it caused in some cases years of problems for these girls who were still developing at this time. To mess with the natural cycle, to mess with hormones, especially when a young woman is still developing.

Just because you think that you're being a hero and possibly preventing an unwanted pregnancy, it is absolutely evil. So it is a great thing that women are waking up to this, that women are realizing that what we put in our bodies actually matters. It actually makes a big difference and that it can be detrimental to us, even though we have been gaslit by our doctors for so many years into believing that it has no negative effects whatsoever. This is a good thing. And the people at the Washington Post who probably have a pretty cozy relationship with the pharmaceutical companies, they just don't. like this. So just some fact-checking. Studies have shown that the pill does in fact change the pheromones emitted by a woman's body. It can influence how partners are chosen, according to a 2018 study published in the National Library of Medicine. So we've talked about this before.

We have talked about how women who are on the birth control pill are actually more likely to have bisexual feelings and to be attracted to more effeminate men than women who are not on the birth control pill. That's pretty wild and kind of scary. A 2008 study also found a correlation between birth control and women's taste in men. A 2013 study from psychoneuro endocrinology found initiation of birth control pill used significantly decreased women's preferences for male facial masculinity but did not influence preferences for same-sex faces. So the study says, interesting, interesting. According to the Mayo Clinic, weight gain, breakthrough bleeding, headaches, nausea, elevated blood pressure, and bloating are common side effects of combination

birth control pills, which contain both estrogen and progestin. The pill can also increase the risk of blood clots, heart attacks, and other health issues. Of course, it increases, you can find this anywhere, increases the likelihood of breast cancer as well. And these are all things that most women are not told by their doctors. They're not given a list of side effects. They're not told, okay, you should be careful about this. They're just given the pill, said, this saying, you know, this will clear up your acne. So the Washington Post made no mention of these psychological effects on birth control that, as I said, women have reported many times.

But a 2016 study published in JAMA psychiatry looked at over a million Danish women over age 14 and found all forms of hormonal contraception were associated with an increased risk of developing depression with higher risks associated with the progesterone-only depression, or forms, including the IUD. This risk was higher in teens, ages 15 to 19, and especially for non-oral forms of birth control, such as the ring, patch, and the IUD. Dr. Sarah Hill, professor of social psychology at TCU, wrote a book, How the Pill Changes Everything, Your Brain on Birth Control. She said she's not against it, but that her research has shown that birth control has had a huge impact on women's relationships and sexual affection, as well as stress responses. She describes how the pill

affects women's brains. The pill works by mimicking the second half of a woman's monthly ovulatory cycle using artificial progesterone, which shuts down the brain signal and prompts egg development. This also means the ovaries aren't producing estrogen, the hormone that dominates the first half of a woman's natural cycle, and contributes to a woman's feeling of libido and energy. While most pills use some synthetic estrogen primarily to offset progestin's unpleasant side effects, women can still feel the lack. She did an interview in 2019 on the Today Show where she said pill used prior to the finalization of brain development influences women's brain health long term. So these doctors that are putting these teenagers on birth control pills because they think that they're doing something

valiant, you are actually messing them up for the rest of their lives. Like I told you about my friends and I who all happen to see the same doctor, none of us were having sex. And yet, for all different reasons, for a missed period, for acne, for cramps. She would just put us on Yaz. And now you see the commercials. Were you affected by Yaz? Did you develop cancer? I mean, it's crazy.

And were we told, were our parents told about any of these side effects? No. And that was back in the day where you just listen to your doctor. And you kind of have white coat syndrome. And you just assume that they're always right. Now, think the Lord. I realized very early on that I, didn't want to do this anymore, that there was no reason for me to be on birth control. And so after a

few years, I stopped. And I was like, I don't, I don't need that. I remember being afraid that I was going to get acne that like everything. I don't know. I just thought that everything was going to be horrible. But I got off birth control and I was fine. Now, that's not the case for some women. Some women get off birth control. When they're married, they're ready to have kids. And then it takes them forever to get pregnant or they can't get pregnant at all. Their body doesn't even know how to have a natural cycle anymore. And so it's got to learn for several months how to do that again. And we're just told that this is all worth it. It's all well and good. It's all fine. I remember also when I was in high school and I started this, I just remembered this.

And this is a very like common story. I remember I would wake up in the middle of the night. So sad. I was scared. And it was just random. I'm remembering that because I remember talking to my talking to my mom about that. And I remember this girl in college who was on my hall freshman year who told me, oh, I'm on this new form of birth control and I just can't stop crying. I keep getting in fights with my boyfriend about it, about, you know, her moodiness, her mood swings. This is ruining people's lives. Ruining people's lives. And Washington Post is mad about this? Of course they are. Of course they are because they're always on the side of pharma. They're always on the side of less control. It's so interesting.

that these same people who say, my body, my choice, and bodily autonomy and women's rights and women taking charge, they are against women taking charge of their bodies when it comes to understanding the negative effects of the hormonal birth control pill? What? It's crazy. It's crazy. Get off the pill. Get off the pill. Now I know I'm going to hear from some of you who say it changed your life because you had debilitating cramps or whatever. Look, I'm not denying that. I would just say, I would suggest as a non-medical professional that you go to a functional medicine doctor and you get to the root cause of those issues. What is causing those debilitating cramps? What is causing the symptoms that you are having?

Because again, the birth control might be masking those symptoms, but they are not fixing it. They're not fixing it. And so I know that we're not allowed to talk about root causes. We're not allowed to talk about alternative medicine. We're not allowed to talk about anything other. than what the pharmaceutical companies approve. But if we care about our body, if we care about our long-term health, if we care about our daughters, if we care about our ability to have children, all of those things, that we have to care, of course, with what is going into our bodies.

And of course, we didn't even discuss that much, again, that abortifacient aspect of it. You really need to consider that. If you are married and you're having regular sex and you're on this birth control pill, there is a possibility that that birth control pill is causing an abortion. And so it's just, it's something to, I think, correct in your life. And I'm not saying it's going to be easy. And there's lots of conversations. I know that we haven't had yet really on this podcast about other forms of birth control. Like, when is that okay biblically?

When is it okay to stop having children? I get this question a lot, what I think about the soctomies and all of that. And we'll have to do an episode dedicated. dedicated to that specifically because that's a little bit. I mean, it's a big topic. It's a complex topic, but it's also a sensitive topic. So I want to make sure that I approach that with care. But yeah, get off the birth control pill.

All right. We got one more story to get into. And that also has to do with reproduction. Politico, not surprisingly, wants to make sure that Christians no longer believe that life begins at conception. this is an article by Bradley Onishi. He is an ex-evangelical. A former evangelical minister, he is the author of preparing for war, the extremist history of white Christian nationalism. And what comes next, he is the co-host of the straight white American Jesus podcast.

Ooh, so edgy. He teaches at the University of San Francisco. In 2004, this article says he debated whether to vote for John Kerry or George W. Bush. but he came back to the idea that had been ingrained in him as a youth pastor at a Southern California megachurch, abortion is murder. And so that's what was making him lean towards George W. Bush. And he says the belief that abortion is murder founded on the premise that life begins at conception. The premise drove my evangelical politics as a zealous young convert and it continues to motivate millions of Americans when they go to vote in local state and national elections.

It's easy to think that the premise that life begins at conception is a timeless theological component. of Christian belief, but it's not. He writes to the Protestant forefathers like Caught Mather, John Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards were more likely to believe that abortion, while inadvigable, was not murder until the quickening of the child when the mother feels it moved, somewhere near 18 weeks of pregnancy. Well, that's because they didn't know. They didn't know anything. They didn't have ultrasounds. So they weren't able to see that beating heart at six to eight weeks gestation. They didn't have the textbooks that we have. They didn't have the science that we have.

And by the way, they were against abortion. This idea that we just became against abortion in the 1970s is just not true. Look back to the 1500s. So the time of the Protestant Reformation, you did see the reformers. And of course, many of the early church fathers too. But if we fast forward a bit to the reformers, we do see an absolute condemnation of abortion. For example, Martin Luther, when he was talking about Genesis 25, 1 through 4, he said, God wanted to teach in a task that the beginning of children is wonderfully pleasing to him in order that we might realize that he upholds and defends his word when he says, be fruitful. He is not hostile to children as we are.

How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature is, how many girls there are who prevent conception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God. In 1542, Luther wrote a pamphlet. He distinguished between women who suffer miscarriages through no fault of their own and those who, quote, females who resent being pregnant, deliberately neglect their child or go so far as to strangle or destroy it. Also in a letter that he wrote in 1544, Luther strongly condemned a woman who had been guest in his house for asking his maid to jump on her body to kill the baby. And so he was obviously condemned. abortion from the very early stages. We also have John Calvin. He wrote a commentary on Exodus 21, 22. He says, the fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being. And it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life that it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus. To destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light. And so what this author of the political article is

trying to get you to think is that all throughout church history, um, that Christians really have thought about abortion being okay until about 18 weeks. That's not true. It does have a complex history within the church with some people believing that it's not murder until that point of quickening. But again, even then, they did not have the science to know what was really happening inside the womb. And even those who also didn't have that science in the 16th century, there were many of them who did believe that abortion from any stage in pregnancy was murder and was wrong. Of course, what he's trying to say, as he goes on to argue in this article, that in the 1960s and 70, Southern Baptists and other historically conservative

Protestant denominations held that abortion was not only permissible, but also should be left to individual choice. And then in 1968, a group of evangelical leaders wrote a Protestant affirmation on the control of human reproduction. But then, of course, he argues that all of that changed in the name of wanting political power. And Southern Baptists and evangelicals changed their position on abortion just in order to secure their Republican vote for their own purposes. He says there is a widespread and nuanced theological debate about the beginning of life in the history of Christianity. The idea. idea that life begins at conception is far from a universally agreed upon matter of historical

Christian doctrine. When viewed in the long history of the Christian tradition, it is actually a minority opinion. He says since the fall of Roe, it is clear that the logic of the movement is headed in a direction that will cause problems both theologically and politically. Once they understand the implications for IVF, birth control, and even on abortions and extenuating circumstances, many Protestants, including evangelical and charismatic, might want to reconsider whether they really want to make the things. theological case for extending personhood to embryos. All right.

We just have to think about it for a second. If life doesn't start at conception, then when does it start? If personhood isn't granted to a human when they become a human, then when is it granted to them and why? If you become a person any time after you become a human, then it becomes really arbitrary. Like, shouldn't we be safe rather than sorry? shouldn't we make sure that we are advocating for the most life-saving position possible? I don't really care what Jonathan Edwards has to say about abortion.

And when he thinks life begins, there are other things that I disagree with Jonathan Edwards on when it comes to the value of human life, too. Why is that going to make me take the completely incongruent position that some magical time, arbitrary time, after conception, suddenly that human being becomes a person with rights. That doesn't make any sense. I just, I can't comprehend that. In my mind, the only logically and morally and theologically consistent place to say that a human becomes a person is when a human becomes a human, which is the point of fertilization. At that point, they've got their own unique DNA, their eye color, their hair color,

everything right then is determined. that little person from the earliest stage of development is made in the image of God. And therefore, of course, I believe that it is wrong to kill that person. And yes, it has implications on IVF and on birth control. Yes, it does. I understand that. Not everyone understands that, but we're getting there. And just because it might be politically inconvenient to advocate for those little lives

doesn't mean that is inconsistent. Does it mean that we shouldn't do it? Doesn't mean that it's theologically incorrect. in any way. Of course, this person is just pro-abortion. And so they want Christians to vote Democrat. They're not coming to a conclusion in this article except for, well, this is so nuanced. It's really too complicated for you to have a firm position on. And so you should just vote for the party that unapologetically celebrates abortion through all nine months. No. I'm sorry. This is a stupid argument. They've tried to do it so many times. And we're smarter than this.

All right, y'all. Thank you all so much for listening. It's been a jam-packed week. Gosh, we've had so much to talk about. And we still did not get through everything that we wanted to talk about. I know that we didn't discuss Nickelodeon this week. And I said that we would discuss the Nickelodeon documentary. And we will, I promise, we just need a little bit more time. We weren't foreseen the whole Candice Owens Crisis King subject taking up the entire episode on Tuesday. But of course, it did. And so we'll try to get into that next week, although you just never know what's going to happen, the demands of the news cycle and what goes on and what you guys want me to talk about. They keep us really busy and keep the episodes really full. So just remember

Monday we're having an apologetics conversation with Dr. Jeremiah Johnston. If you've got any questions, any apologetics questions, like how do I answer this or I've always had a question about this? Send it in my way. You can DM me on Instagram and we will go through those on Monday. It's going to be really, really good. All right. I'll see you guys then. Happy Resurrection Day. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself.

On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.