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| November 22, 2008 |
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More Catholic doctors scrub contraceptive scripts
JENNIFER SURGENT | FC PARRISH | For years, Drs. Rebecca and Benjamin Peck were cafeteria Catholics. They chose to believe some of the church’s teachings, but not all, especially those concerning birth control. Although the Pecks attended Mass regularly, the two, who are family practice doctors in Ormond Beach, prescribed contraception. But after studying physical and spiritual consequences of the pill, the Pecks decided it was time to practice what the church teaches. The couple recently joined the ranks of Catholic doctors across Florida and the U.S. who do not prescribe birth control. Last fall, the husband-and-wife team issued a letter to patients describing the side effects of using the pill, which include increased risk of breast and cervical cancer, heart disease, blood clots and death. The pill can also have an abortifacient effect because it does not keep sperm from meeting the egg. Though the principal way the pill prevents pregnancy is by preventing ovulation, it also thins a woman’s uterine lining, making it difficult to impossible for a fertilized egg to implant. JOURNEY TO CONVERSION 
JENNIFER SURGENT | FC 
JENNIFER SURGENT | FC Rebecca Peck was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools, but said the faith didn’t sink in during her youth. By the time she started college, church teachings “went in one ear and out the other,” she said. “I was very sexually promiscuous, I did drugs and I used birth control. I also had an abortion, which I could have cared less about at the time, but when I came back to the faith, it hit me,” she said. “That’s why I can come out to people and say this. I’ve been there. I understand the lure. I understand the whole lie (of contraception). You think you’re going to be happy having this great life, but it led to nowhere. It led to depression and despair.” Rebecca Peck said the grace of God put her on the path toward becoming a doctor. She met Benjamin Peck during their medical residencies and the two married in 2001. They have never used contraception during their marriage, Rebecca Peck said. But for a long time, they continued prescribing it to their patients. Seeds of change were planted when the couple started attending Catholic Medical Association meetings, where they learned about beginning- and end-of-life issues from both medical and Catholic perspectives. They encountered Pope John Paul II’s writings on the Theology of the Body, which says the human body has the ability to express a nonverbal language. The language of sexual intercourse is intended for a husband and wife to communicate a loving, lifelong commitment to one another and also to bring forth new life. According to the theology, using contraception during intercourse turns this language into a lie, Rebecca Peck learned. “Can you imagine talking with someone and muffling their mouth?” she said. The Pecks also studied Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, “Humanae Vitae,” which said contraception would tear apart marriages and families. The doctors soon realized these consequences were right in front of their eyes. “Most of our patients are single mothers and have the hardest lives out there,” Rebecca Peck said. “This is largely because of birth control. A man is not going to stand by a woman. Women are free to have affairs. There is no sense of ‘We’re going to work this out.’” The Pecks gradually became convinced that birth control is wrong. They tried to limit prescriptions to patients who needed birth control for noncontraceptive reasons. But before they could stop prescribing the pill altogether, “we had to be really spiritually fed,” Rebecca Peck said. Later, a priest told the couple about the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, or the Miraculous Medal. The medal, which shows the Virgin Mary standing on a globe, crushing the head of a serpent, was cast after the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Catherine Labouré in France in 1830. Mary told St. Catherine that those who wore the medal would receive great graces. The doctors started wearing the Miraculous Medals, giving them to patients and keeping medals in a dish at their practice. “Miracles happened,” Rebecca Peck said. “We became strengthened. We started saying the rosary every night and opening the Bible every night. We became very much more spiritual in a short period of time. Besides our exposure to the Catholic Medical Association, wearing the medals and giving them to people gave us the strength to make the change.” REACTION About 90 percent of the Pecks’ 4,000 patients supported the doctors’ decision to stop prescribing contraception, the Pecks said. Heidi McCarthy, who has been a patient for more than two years, said she is honored to have Rebecca Peck as her doctor. “In today’s politics of medicine, there are very, very few physicians who will stand up for what they believe in from an ethical standpoint; basically, they take the American Medical Association’s recommendations of everything,” McCarthy said. “(Rebecca Peck’s) decision was partly because of her religious beliefs but also because of her medical-ethical beliefs, and that is tantamount to the Hippocratic oath of first, do no harm.” McCarthy said she trusts Rebecca Peck’s judgment. “I know if there’s a treatment for cholesterol or high blood pressure or whatever that she thinks is dangerous – even though it may be a very new designer drug that companies are offering free trips to Hawaii to prescribe – if she doesn’t feel it is safe for me, I know in my soul and heart that she would not prescribe it to me and that’s very comforting,” she said. Not all patients’ reactions were positive, however. “We’ve had a fair share of people say, ‘I hope you die,’” Rebecca Peck said. But she and her husband would have made the change regardless of people’s reactions. AS THE SPIRIT MOVES The Pecks aren’t alone. In November, obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Angela Flippin-Trainer opened a fully pro-life practice in southwest Florida. Caritas Obstetrics and Gynecology of Naples does not offer birth control, perform sterilizations or provide pregnancy terminations. Flippin-Trainer and her husband, John-William Trainer III, also teach natural family planning. The practice will eventually offer infertility treatments and services that are in line with church teachings. The practice is already serving more than 300 patients, most of whom have been searching for a pro-life OB/GYN, Flippin-Trainer said. “Many of them said they felt like they were on the front lines every time they went to the gynecologist’s office and were asked, ‘What do you use for birth control?’” she said. “It’s really neat to watch the practice grow and to see that people will still come because it’s such a leap of faith,” she said. “There aren’t many people whose obstetricians choose to make this decision.” One More Soul, an Ohio-based Catholic organization that focuses on educating people about the harms of contraception, maintains an online directory of pro-life doctors across the country. There are 520 doctors listed, said Vincent Sacksteder, editor for One More Soul. Before physicians can be included in the directory, they must sign a statement saying they refuse to prescribe or refer for contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization or sterilization. One More Soul lists a handful of family practice doctors in Florida who are pro-life, as well as two obstetrician-gynecologists, including Flippin-Trainer and Dr. John J. Maceluch. Maceluch practices at Coastal OB/GYN in Panama City. Of the four doctors in the practice, he is the only one who does not prescribe birth control or perform sterilizations. Maceluch said he never encouraged or performed abortions, but did prescribe birth control in the past. In October 2004, he decided to stop prescribing oral contraception and performing tubal ligations. Maceluch’s conversion was brought about through his study of “Humanae Vitae” and Pope John Paul II’s writings. “Basically, birth control interferes with God’s plan, as stated in ‘Humanae Vitae,’” he said. “We’re not to interfere with it.” Maceluch said his patients accept his position and that his decision against prescribing birth control has not affected him economically. Doctors around the country have also taken this leap of faith to learn a respect-life approach and open fully pro-life practices. Since 1985, hundreds of doctors, nurses and others from around the globe have trained in Omaha, Neb., at the Pope Paul VI Institute. The institute teaches students the Creighton Model of natural family planning. Medical professionals also learn how to provide infertility treatments and a range of women’s reproductive health services in ways that conform to church teachings. “We have doctors here from Poland, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Ireland and from all the different states,” said Terri Green, executive assistant to Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers, who founded the Pope Paul VI Institute. “The Creighton Model and (natural procreative) technology is spreading all over the world – slowly, but it is spreading.” Green said Hilgers is training new generations of obstetrician-gynecologists in pro-life methods. A new associate is working in his practice and a fellowship program for medical students has been established, she said. In northern Virginia, a group of doctors have put their pro-life knowledge to work. The Tepeyac Family Center in Fairfax, Va., is the largest pro-life OB/GYN private practice in the country. With six full-time obstetrician-gynecologists, the practice serves about 1,100 patients per month, said Bob Laird, the practice administrator and executive director of Divine Mercy Care, which provides Catholic health care to the northern Virginia area. Tepeyac Family Center gives complete obstetrical and gynecological care and offers resources regarding all forms of natural family planning. The 12-year-old practice also focuses on helping the poor, especially women in crisis pregnancies and those without health insurance. Laird said doctors from all over the country have contacted Tepeyac Family Center out of interest in its pro-life approach, which seeks to restore “the integration of the human person by combining the best of modern medicine with the healing presence of Jesus Christ,” according to the center’s mission statement. Two doctors from out of state have said they want to join the practice. Medical and nursing students from local colleges, including The Catholic University of America and Georgetown University, complete internships at Tepeyac Family Center. The practice will soon open a pro-life pharmacy that does not stock any kind of contraception. Demand for pro-life doctors may also be increasing. Dr. John Brehany, director of the national Catholic Medical Association in Wynnewood, Pa., was recently contacted by a medical recruiting agency searching for pro-life physicians. “One of (the recruiters) has now begun developing a whole focus on pro-life doctors who don’t prescribe contraception,” Brehany said. “It’s interesting because (the recruiter) is not Catholic. She’s gotten requests ... and she thinks it’s going to grow. It’s an interesting twist on this whole question. There’s maybe more of a need.” THE FUTURE Drs. Rebecca and Benjamin Peck won’t stop at nixing birth control prescriptions. They plan to teach natural family planning and attend classes at the Pope Paul VI Institute. The couple will also work with medical students in hopes of inspiring more pro-life doctors, and will try to evangelize Catholic physicians in general. “Every day that (a) woman takes the birth control pill, she is saying no to God and she is sinning,” Rebecca Peck said. “That is cutting her off from the graces and blessings she would be receiving. I don’t think people realize the damage it’s doing to them, the health of their marriage and the health of their family. As long as people are trusting birth control instead of God, we’re going to have problems. “I think Catholics have to get back on the ball. God’s calling us all to live the truth. You’ve got to make a stand.” Additional resource informationDrs. Rebecca and Benjamin Peck — Peck Family Practice “Theology of the Body for Beginners” by Christopher West U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
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