Okay, first about birth control. I've never been clear on the IUD. Now, my understanding of this device was that the copper repelled the sperm before it made contact with the ovum, not afterward. The drs. at family planning get really "iffy" on the topic, and won't define if a woman is actually concieving and then the fertilized egg is not able to attach to the uterine wall...I was confused because the metal is supposed to keep the egg and sperm apart, or so I thought. If the egg is fertilized first, I do feel that is abortive. I also can't IMAGINE what that would do to a woman's hormones, mental health, and menstrual cycle to keep having eggs fertilized! How is the pill aborive???? The hormone level is adjusted so that conception does NOT occur, or at least it isn't supposed to. There is the chance that it will fail and the continued use of the pill will cause a miscarriage. In fact, I know that this happens. I had a young woman at work describe this "really weird thing" that happened to her and I said, "You were pregnant. YOu might want to re-think having relations considering the plans you have for your future" (they don't include having children when she is unmarried). What about a woman having her tubes tied? Isn't being "sterilized" better than allowing the chance for an unwanted pregnancy that would end in abortion?

I don't think that the Bible says anything about sterilization--and I think that it is the couple's decision to make together with their family planning. The truth of the matter is that our world IS over-populated. We have fulfilled God's commandment to replenish the earth and then some. There is so much wide spread poverty, famine, lack of education, medicine, etc. among God's children that perhaps we should "sponser" a child instead of adding another to our own. There is adoption, domestic and foreign, there is foster care, sponsering a child, etc. I think we should focus on taking care of the children out there, that exist now, rather than selfishly having a dozen ourselves just because biologically we CAN.