Women Deserve Better

Earlier this year, an uproar was sparked because a few Ottawa Doctors are refusing to prescribe contraception or refer for abortions,  and sterilizations. This choice to act in accordance with their conscience for the sake of each of their patients has steadily become a cause for concern with many canadian citizens. A letter provided to their patients read:

Dear Patient,

Please be advised that because of reasons of my own medical judgment as well as professional ethical concerns and religious values, I only provide one form of birth control, Natural Family Planning. In addition, I do not refer for vasectomies, abortions nor prescribe the morning after pill or any artificial contraception. If you are interested in the latter, please be aware that you may approach your own family doctor or request to be seen by another physician.

Some patients also come to a walk in clinic for prescriptions of narcotics. The distribution of those drugs is controlled. Narcotics have a high potential for side effects, including addiction and they should be prescribed by a regular physician who is able to follow you. It is your responsibility to ensure that this physician will be renewing your prescription on time as I won’t do so in a context of walk in clinic.

With deepest respect,

Edmond Kyrillos, B. Eng., MD, CCFP
Ottawa Ontario

As a result of this, there has been a pull from the Conscience Research Group to have the conscience rights reviewed and possibly changed within the Physicians Code of Ethics for the Canadian Medical Association. They note on their website home page that they are “investigating the permissibility of conscientious refusals by health care professionals to provide health care services such as abortions. Our particular concern is with refusals to provide reproductive health care services.”

It is an important thing to question what is motivating a doctor in how they follow their conscience. The removal of the right to follow their conscience, however, will be detrimental. You can see more on this in the first part of this series, “Doctor Dilemma“. In the letter provided to patients, the primary reasons motivating their decisions are due to their own medical judgment and professional and ethical concerns. The “religious” reasons are last in the list. It is listed last because, although it helps to motivate decision making, it is the morals and values surrounding human life, that are further informed by their faith, that motivate their decisions.

These doctors know full well the terrible and masking effects of the pill, how abortion kills children, and how sterilizations for the reason of pregnancy prevention are detrimental to us and society at large. These doctors also know how well modern NFP (Natural Family Planning) benefits all aspects of life, including keeping marriages successful by promoting communication and respect of one another. I am a user of NFP which these good doctors advocate, and have experienced the wonderful effects of it in my own life. Modern NFP is a truly holistic concept. It helps to achieve and avoid pregnancy at a highly successful rate (a far greater rate than the Birth Control Pill), and in a manner that does not pose a threat to a newly conceived child. The method which I use for example is the Creighton Model Fertilitycare System, which can incorporate NaProTechnology. Creighton has a 99.5 % effectiveness rate with perfect use and 96.8% effectiveness rate with typical use. Even more importantly, however, is the fact that it actually helps to diagnose and treat medical issues, even before they can seriously progress.

The Creighton Method is only one of many effective NFP methods (which require total abstinence from sex during the fertile time to avoid pregnancy), but I will speak about this one in particular since I am a personal user of it. I should clarify that modern forms of NFP are not the Rhythm Method; that ancient form of NFP which was almost completely useless and had an extremely high failure rate).  It is also not FAM (Fertility Awareness Method, which rather than abstaining from sex during fertile periods, engages in it, while using “protection”). While the Rhythm Method is based on the assumption that every woman ovulates on day 14 of her cycle, other modern methods of NFP such as Creighton, help a woman to understand her personal cycle so she knows when she is ovulating, and thus how to avoid or achieve pregnancy. It is a personalized method geared to fit every woman and circumstance. This is achieved by tracking cycles. In the case of the Creighton Model, a woman “NaPro Tracks” her cycle, by documenting the observed cervical mucus or lack thereof. The benefit to using the Creighton method is that your tracked cycles are monitored by a qualified teacher, who can help interpret the chart and send the woman to a qualified NaPro trained doctor, should it be necessary. It is these doctors that assess these charts and can see from them the issue that a woman may be experiencing, and they can thereby help her.

I am one of those women. I was familiar with Creighton Model at the time of becoming pregnant with both of my children, though I was not actually using it. After experiencing my second miscarriage, and knowing that low progesterone (an important hormone needed  to achieve a successful pregnancy) was often a cause for miscarrying, I asked the OB/GYN who followed up with me after the second miscarriage about getting tested for it. She said it could not be done, that no one could check for that. Even though I knew she was wrong, I went and got a second opinion. While NaProTechnology considers every miscarriage a problem, most of our “professionals” do not consider it an issue until after a third miscarriage. What woman really has the heart to bear the loss of a child, and then another, and then another, before any typical doctor cares to help?

I was not willing to take this risk, so I went and received a referral to the nearest NaPro doctor. I had my first appointment this past July. He took one look at my chart, saying “I know what this is” and prescribed Metformin due to a “short luteal phase” during the time of post ovulation. Prior to taking this medication, I was experiencing a lot of PMS symptoms. I was extremely irritable and struggled with bouts of depression. I knew my period was coming because I could feel a noticeable change in myself. It was extremely difficult to deal with. With just one cycle (so far) on this new medication, I did not feel the way I did before. I know that my journey has only just begun, but there has already been so many great changes. I would not have known I was dealing with this had it not been for NaPro Tracking and the help of my NaPro doctor.

What has sparked my interest in sharing this with you was a Facebook conversation my husband had online recently. In it, a friend spoke of her fertility issues and the need for artificial birth control to aid in its control. She felt it was necessary that doctors be forced to prescribe these “medical services”, particularly “the pill”, because women like herself “need it to get by”. While I am not denying that it may alleviate symptoms, the pill is not the answer. To help illustrate this point, I decided to reach out to some friends within groups that I am a part of who have had severe cases of Endometriosis and PCOS. These women came to know of their fertility issues by the symptoms and using NFP Tracking. These issues, once properly diagnosed, either required serious surgeries, other medical assistance, or both. Due to the highly successful rates of the surgeries done by the hands of specially skilled NaProTechnology doctors, these women have come back nearly pain free, and being able to successfully conceive and bring the child to term on their own.  I wish to share just a few amazing testimonies which they have given with their permission regarding how effective NaProTechnology really is:

“My story before NaPro includes seeing OB/GYN’s for years (20 to be exact) and being told several untruths:

“Being a woman sucks and you have to get used to that.”
“You obviously aren’t in enough pain that you’ll take the BCP – so I question how honest you’re being about your pain level.”

The most intervention I ever received before NaPro was an ultrasound where they told me everything looked “beautiful and perfect”…. only to find out later from NaPro that I had low estradiol, very low progesterone, an ovulation defect, a luteal phase defect, the endo on my uterine ligaments, lots of inflammation. I was puking about 2 weeks a month, and laboring and passing massive clots. I was not “beautiful” on the inside as they had suggested.

I had endo excision via robot assisted surgery in the end of May 2013. The endo removal almost completely removed the GI dysfunction I was having. My sharp pelvic pain went away. I no longer had stabbing pain running down my thighs either. The really acute pain around ovulation disappeared. And because of the surgery, my NaPro fellow found a uterine infection (via sHSG) and a fibroid. Additionally, my constant nausea disappeared. We found a thyroid disorder and treated it along with my sex hormones. The endo removal was like peeling back the first layer of the onion.

NaPro literally gave me back 2-3 weeks of my life every cycle. And for a long time I didn’t write about my journey because I thought others had it worse. I never knew I didn’t have to suffer like that. Or that suffering like that wasn’t normal. It was the failure of my doctors for so many years to ever make me think it was normal.”

Some other short but awesome testimonies:

“I would have one cycle a year if that. After the OWR (Ovarian Wedge Restriction surgery) I had regular cycles every month and I’ve been pregnant three times now (one miscarriage). My hormones are much more stable and my periods are not excruciating anymore”

Another woman had the same surgery and states:

“I had an OWR. It completely eliminated my insulin resistance and my cycles became really regular (I planned my wedding around them). When I wanted to conceive, I had no problem but needed progesterone support (1 miscarriage and currently 23 weeks.)”

This lady had not had a cycle on her own in years:

“I had an OWR. I hadn’t had a cycle on my own in years. 35 days exactly after my OWR, I had my first un-induced cycle. In the 4 months since my surgery, I’ve had four. Unheard of for me.”

The surgical techniques done for these women by Dr. Hilgers (one of the creators of NaProTechnology, the Creighton Method, and the aforementioned surgical techniques) and his few trained surgeons, are unlike any other. Due to the advanced methods which he pioneered to prevent scarring and adhesions, which result in a lower recurrence rate for endometriosis, these surgeries have allowed for better outcomes for both health and fertility. Who wouldn’t want that? These women will tell you firsthand that Dr. Hilgers and his team are simply the best.

These doctor’s, such as Dr. Edmond Kyrillos, who are refusing these so-called “medical treatments” such as contraception (whether for medical issues or avoidance of pregnancy), abortion, or sterilizations, are in actual fact, looking out for their best interests because they know that these antiquated forms of birth control are doing these women an injustice. Women deserve better, and women deserve real solutions to help them in their reproductive health. Just as we have the right to refuse receiving a treatment that a doctor recommends, life saving or not, they also should continue to have a right to refuse to prescribe, when they know the treatment is not in the best interest of the patient. We need to let doctors be doctors. Health care is not Burger King, and you can’t always have it your way. The customer is not always right in this case. We also need to hold our doctor’s to a higher standard of practicing medicine. St. John Paul II said “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” Taking away the conscience rights of our doctor’s will only serve to harm us and them. Though a patient may not always agree with the opinion of their doctor, they need to have the freedom to care for us to the best of their ability.

 

The Right Hand vs. The Left Hand

“The right hand does not know what the left hand is doing”. This seems to be a common thread throughout the history of the Church.  It will not be until her Bridegroom comes at the end of time that we will see her unified in herself. Until then, it might feel that her members have a bit of a multiple personality disorder.  Instead of looking like the glorious bride that the Church is, especially in the eyes of the world, she may as well be like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. If you don’t believe this, just sit down with your local parish council, and this idea will most likely play itself out in full technicolor.

I saw this really exemplified in an article I read today from Commonweal Magazine concerning the views of some of the more Left-winged, more “progressive” (I call them “modernist”), Bishops in the United States in regards to the 43 Catholic Institutions including 13 Dioceses, who sued Kathleen Sebellius and the Health and Human Services Department of the United States Government, because they are going to force the Church to either include contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs in their health insurance plans, or pay heavy fines. This is known as the HHS Mandate.   In brief, the Catholic Church considers paying into insurance plans that include such things to be cooperation with evil and so forbids the faithful to engage in this.  Cardinal Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington explained in his recent blog about the Lawsuit that:

“The courts exist… to protect the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. Through the legal action filed today, the archdiocese and the other plaintiffs are simply asking the court to review the law to resolve this dispute fairly, once and for all. The Church believes that the core constitutional principles at stake here – the free exercise of religion and the separation of Church and State – merit our participation in this legal action.”

However, according to Commonweal Magazine, this type of action being taken by these outspoken Bishops and Cardinals have caused a rift between them and the more modernist-leaning Bishops, especially those of the West coast.  Bishop Stephen Blaire from the Diocese of Stockton, California stated in an interview in the modernist magazine, America, run by the Jesuits that:

“I think there are different groups that are trying to co-opt this and make it into [a] political issue, and that’s why we need to have a deeper discussion as bishops,” he said. “I think our rhetoric has to be that of bishops of the church who are seeking to be faithful to the Gospel, that our one concern is that we make sure the church is free to carry out her mission as given to her by Christ, and that remains our focus.” Clarke also paraphrased Blaire as believing that “the bishops lose their support when the conflict is seen as too political.”

The lawsuits were done simply because this issue demands immediate action. The HHS Mandate fell upon the Church in America like a thief in the night. For the record, I understand it affects all religious groups, not just Catholic, but the Catholic Church in America remains the loudest contender and is the hardest hit because of her extensive involvement in the world, vis. Schools and hospitals. And so for them, this issue demands action, yet the more politically left minded Bishops think the Lawsuits were “premature”.  With all due respect to their office as Bishop, these lefty Bishops would rather twiddle their thumbs until the year was up and then look around and sheepishly ask, “What did we do wrong?”.  They wished to wait until the annual Bishops gathering in June to “discuss” this issue.  Well needless to say, these Catholic institutions that saw the urgency of the problem took decisive steps to stand their ground and defend religious liberty in the United States before it was too late.

According to Commonweal, “Bishop Blaire believes discussions with the Obama administration toward a resolution of the dispute could be fruitful even as alternative remedies are explored.” This proves one of two things, either Bishop Blaire is simply naive, as everyone knows that Obama himself has stated his stance on the HHS Mandate will not change, or Blishop Blaire is playing the innocent card, knowing full well that if they hold off and do not act, this law will come into effect, and the Emperor of the Totalitarian States of America may just place him in his left pocket.  I am not a political analyst, as I have said many times before, but in the words of Team Orthodoxy’s favourite Cardinal, Francis Arinze, “I smell a rat!”.  I can’t help it.  It stinks.  But it’s the truth.

Commonweal stated that “Blaire expressed concern that some groups “very far to the right” are turning the controversy over the contraception rules into “an anti-Obama campaign.” Over the course of history since the first Pentecost, which we celebrate this Sunday, there have been bad men and women who have risen up and defied natural and moral law, even going so far as to deny the real Jesus Christ, and many times making a new God out of their own ideologies. In these cases, the Church has always spoken in opposition to them.  For a Bishop to somehow imply that we should be silent because we could lose the political battle just makes me laugh.  But here is the thing, according to Commonweal, “For too long, the Catholic Church’s stance on public issues has been defined by the outspokenness of its most conservative bishops and the reticence of moderate and progressive prelates. Signs that this might finally be changing are encouraging for the church, and for American politics”. So let me get this straight.  According to Blair, the Church  should not be involved in overly political issues. Commonweal states that when the Church becomes progressive that it is good for politics.

Basically, unless you’re a progressive minded “Catholic”, who descents from Church teaching on matters of morality which clash with the current societal norms, “GET OUT OF POLITICS!!!   You’re no good to us, politically!”

Though the Church believes in the separation of Church and State, if the state does something immoral, she is going to decry it, and she has for 2000 years.  No Obama, no government sector, no law put in place, will ever shut us up from proclaiming the truth. We’ve shed our blood for this faith before, we’ll do it again.

The good news is, that the Church who to many on the outside may look like Gollum, to us who know and love the Catholic Church,  we see that she still stands, in all of her radiant beauty despite the bickering and backbiting. Though you may have heretics and dissidents that try to take her down throughout her history, even from within, Jesus promises us in Matt 16:18  that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church.

The Church is not going to “get with the times” to market herself better.  She won’t “get with the times” because she is “timeless“.

So, we stand with Cardinal Dolan, Wuerl, the Bishops and Dioceses, and the Catholic institutions who filed the Lawsuit against Kathleen Sebellius and the US Government, because we believe the Church and her freedom of worship and practice is worth the fight.

For more blogs on the HHS Mandate see:

Team Orthodoxy Stands with the US Catholic Bishops

Eating Crow – The US Bishops Make a Stand

The HHS Contraceptive Mandate Vs. The Catholic Church (The Battle Continues)

Divide and Conquer – The Church and the HHS Contraceptive Mandate