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On 50th Anniversary, ‘Pill Kills Day’ Exposes Health, Environmental Impact of Birth Control

For National Women””’s Health Week, Women Deserve the Truth, says Group

Washington, D.C. (14 May 2010)  For the 50th anniversary of the FDA-approved birth control pill, American Life League is highlighting the health and environmental dangers of artificial contraception with nationwide protests to mark “The Pill Kills Day” on June 5.

“It is truly hard to believe that those concerned with the environment in which we live are not equally concerned about the environment of a woman’s body, polluted as it is with artificial chemicals that are really nothing more than recreational drugs,” said Judie Brown, president of American Life League.

Marie Hahnenberg, project director of the Pill Kills Day, agreed.

“Women need to talk to their doctors about healthier and safer alternatives than the birth control pill,” Hahnenberg said. “The pharmaceutical industries are doing everything they can to ignore the estimated 25,000 lawsuits in the U.S. alone. During this National Women’s Health Week especially, women deserve to be better informed on what they’re putting in their bodies.”

While it is estimated that over 12 million American women take the birth control pill, the Mayo Clinic warns that birth control use is one of the major contributing factors for pulmonary embolism and blood clots. Hormonal birth control is considered a class one carcinogen “alongside cigarettes” in cancer-causing potential.

Scientists also warn that birth control in the nation’s waterways is wreaking havoc on fish populations—a fact that could have a significant domino impact on the food chain.

A 2006 study conducted in the waters of the Potomac River and its tributaries found that 80 percent of the male small mouth bass were strange intersex fish; these male fish were growing female reproductive parts. Scientists have also found that exposure to estrogen reduces the production of immune-related proteins in fish, making them more susceptible to disease. This could explain why intersex fish, massive fish kills and fish with lesions coexist in the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers.

According to Conrad Volz, co-director of exposure assessment at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute’s Center for Environmental Oncology, “We need to pay attention to chemicals that are estrogenic in nature, because they find their way back into the water we all use.”

American Life League was cofounded in 1979 by Judie Brown. It is the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States and is committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to death. For more information or press inquiries, please contact Katie Walker at 540.659.4942.

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