William L. Toffler M.D.

have severe bipolar disorder and am unable to go off my medication if I become pregnant. How do medications for this disorder affect pregnancy, or should I even consider having children? The situation you describe is obviously anguishing for you.  I can well imagine that the advice doctors may have given you was based on their concern that any medicine you take for your bipolar disorder would cause birth defects or irreparable harm to a pregnancy.

I have been on the pill for purely therapeutic reasons (prevention of an ovarian cyst from growing), not merely for birth control, or the regulation of my cycle or the easing of cramps. 

The so-called mini-pill is the least reliable in suppressing ovulation. Therefore, its mechanism of action is more likely to be post-ovulatory—that is, abortifacient.

I am a family physician and professor at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. I am also one of the physicians on the Physicians Resource Council (PRC) at Focus on the Family.

There is (at least in my mind and many others) an inconsistency in our position statement. I believe that there is considerable evidence that so-called birth control pills (BCPs) do have a significant post-ovulatory (abortifacient) effect. 

Everyone deserves tube feeding and hydration. Right? Well, yes. Yet, like many seemingly simple questions, the answer may not be quite as simple when we consider individual cases.

As a prolife physician who shares Randy Alcorn and your concerns about "birth control" pills. Some of my thoughts...