Vatican’s real motives for lying about birth control Pill

Last week the Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published an article claiming that the contraceptive pill is causing environmental pollution and sterility in men. They produced no evidence to back up this claim, any more than they did their claim that condoms do not protect against HIV, the virus that causes Aids.

Real scientists quickly rubbished the Vatican’s claims. Gianbenedetto Melis, vice-president of a contraceptive research association said: “Once metabolised, the hormones contained in oral contraceptives no longer have any of the characteristic effects of feminine hormones.”

Flavia Franconi, of the Society of Italian Pharmacology, added: “The hormones contained in the pill such as oestrogen are present everywhere … in plastic, in disinfectants, in meat that we eat.”

The real reason the Vatican keeps trying to start these panics about contraceptives, of course, is that they have reduced the production of new Catholics. The birth rate in Europe has fallen dramatically since contraception was introduced. Despite the Vatican’s total ban on artificial methods of contraception, most Catholics completely ignore it. Naturally the Church sees the rise of Islam — and the size of the average Muslim family — as a threat to its power.

9 January 2009