MORE garbage from the Vatican – this time in the form of an article in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, which claims that the contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is, in part, responsible for male infertility.
Contraceptive pills are a threat to the environment says Catholic 'expert'
According to this report, the pill, through female urine:
Has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature.
The “expert” who uttered these words is Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations.
Without elaborating further, he said:
We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill. We are faced with a clear anti-environmental effect which demands more explanation on the part of the manufacturers.
The article was promptly rubbished by several organisations.
Said Gianbenedetto Melis, vice-president of a contraceptive research association:
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.
In October last year Pope Ratzinger reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s condemnation of artificial birth control. On the 40th anniversary of a papal encyclical on the topic, he wrote that contraception:
Means negating the intimate truth of conjugal love, with which the divine gift (of life) is communicated.
The landmark encyclical, whose title in English is On the Regulation of Birth, was published at a time when the development of the pill was giving new sexual freedom to women across the world.
Millions of Catholics distanced themselves from Rome as a result.
HAT TIP: Edward Hazzan
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
January 6th, 2009 at 4:58 am
“We have sufficient evidence to state that …”
which for the catholic church is very little evidence indeed. They invented and got rid of limbo with no evidence at all … what’s a little scientific controversy in comparison with that?
January 6th, 2009 at 9:36 am
A few years ago the effects of this were cited as the reason for the rise in baldness among men.
Next year it definitely will be the cause of global warming.
Since when has the vatican needed evidence for anything? It’s been saying that its bible is true for hundreds of years without a jot of evidence.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Well, now we know why the world’s population is plummetting. Is really eerie when I go to the shops or whatever – the deserted streets, abandoned cars, empty buildings. Oh, sorry, I just woke up and realised the planet is wildly overpopulated and the Vatican is at war with reality, as per usual.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
So by this argument would the Vatican collapse if enough angry women pissed on it?
(just an idea….)
January 6th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
This actually has been a problem here locally in S.W. Ontario Canada. It is “suspected” with growing reasons that run off from such drugs have rendered the turtle population to become female, actually changing their sex during maturation. This could be a very big problem. Christians can say that they found it but we have been dealing with this problem for over a decade. They are always just a bit off the truth. Let Science find out what and how, and we can know how to avoid catastrophe. The lazy one can stay at home and pray.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Chad D. I would be very skeptical of the human-hormone changing turtle-sex proponents in your area. I am not a biologist but I think there would be quite a few differences between human and turtle endochinology. The sex of Turtles, (I think I remember from when I did study biology), depends on the incubation temperatures of their eggs buried in the sand. Global warming has changed temperatures worldwide, so I think, without having done any research whatsoever, that this might be a global warming issue rather than a contraceptive ‘run off’ issue. I’ll happily be proved wrong though
January 8th, 2009 at 1:41 am
On the other hand, I’m not so sure the report is worthy of ridicule simply because one doesn’t like religion. What of that news item a few months back (in the U.S) that trace pharmaceuticals can now be found in the water supply? Yes, they are trace, but alaming nonetheless, since such substances are specifically designed to interact with the human body. This Vatican concern seems essentially similar.
http://tinyurl.com/7avz68
Sure, it’s their pet cause. They have their own agenda. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong. Often it takes a biased party to alert the majority to threats they’ve not paid much attention to.
October 28th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
According to an article in Science Daily (April 20, 2009), a survey of the faculty at the State University of New York, which has a very strong environmental science department, the planet’s major environmental problem is overpopulation.. Climate change is second. This echoes the theme of the popular free ebook series “And Gulliver Returns†–In Search of Utopia—(http://andgulliverreturns.info) As one professor at SUNY said “With ten million or even a hundred million people on the planet there would be no warming problem.†It is both the technology and the number of people using it that create so many of our planetary problems.
There is no question that China’s one child policy has helped the world and the Chinese economy. Whenever a country attempts to reduce its population it can expect a two or three generation period of problems while deaths reduce to equal births. I hope that China will recognize this fact and keep its own population on the path to reduction–which should begin by 2050. China’s actual fertility rate is not 1.0 per woman, but 1.8–the same as Norway’s. But that 400 million fewer births since 1980 (equivalent to the population of the U.S. and Mexico) has been a boon for China and the world.