Koelzer told Faithandconscience.com that his reasons for eliminating birth control can be traced directly to the literature found on the insert in most oral contraceptive boxes.

“It came down to God’s teaching through the Catholic Church on the sanctity of all human life and on contraception. The Church teaches that all contraception is intrinsically evil. But, there is yet a further problem with hormonal contraceptives in how they work, which is sometimes killing a newly formed life,” Koelzer related.

“It is the third mechanism of action (the alteration in the endometrium which reduces the likelihood of implantation), which can kill a newly formed member of the human family by not allowing the new life to attach to the mother’s uterus.”

For a time, Koelzer tried to sell contraceptives to only those clients who required them for non-birth control reasons, but he found the process of questioning clients upon purchase to be too strenuous on both his staff and on his clientele. Furthermore, Koelzer reasoned that the group in question only accounted for 10-15% of his birth control prescriptions.

Upon finalizing his decision after “many months of prayer”, Koelzer notified his employees and his clientele with a letter simply stating that the pharmacy would no longer be selling any form of contraceptives.

“Staying close to my focus, I did not go into reasons in the letter but welcomed any questions they may have regarding the new policy,” Koelzer explained.

Critics have been quick to question Koelzer’s decision to eliminate all forms of birth control but to continue to dispense Viagra and other prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction. To these, however, Mr. Koelzer has replied:

“The answer is pretty simple in my mind. [Viagra and other such drugs] help a natural process – they increase a natural process, whereas the birth control pill and other forms of contraception stop a natural process from happening.”

Although in the past individual pharmacists in the US have refused to dispense birth control personally, Kay Pharmacy is the first privately-owned pharmacy to completely pull-out of the birth control business.

While Michigan has no law barring the refusal to dispense birth control as of yet, already California, New Jersey and Illinois have developed legislation making it mandatory for all pharmacies to fill all birth control prescriptions.

Mr. Koelzer stated that his decision was a long time in the making and that despite the negative reactions outweighing the positive ones, he said that God was asking Him “to take His hand and jump.”

“I had to get a clear picture of just what I thought God wanted me to accomplish. I had many options here. I could have chosen to convince everyone to be pro-life, I could have chosen to try to get every customer to agree with my decision, I could have chosen to teach every customer about the beauty of natural law, I could have chosen to convince everyone about the infallibility of the Catholic Church when it teaches on morality, but what I found I really needed to do was to stop selling the contraceptives.”

To send Mr.Koelzer a message of support:
http://kaypharmacy.wufoo.com/forms/kay-survey/

To see video clip of recent coverage on ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson 
http://www.prolifepharmacy.com/

Pharmacists for Life website:
http://www.pfli.org/

The Bishop then quoted Pope Benedict XVI’s message for the January 1 World Day of Peace in 2007.

“Whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what is in effect the primary agency of peace,” the Pope wrote.

“Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of a new life, everything that obstructs its right to be primarily responsible for the education of its children, constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace.”

The Bishop then referenced recent the California Supreme Court decision to override state statutes on the definition of marriage, despite the deciding vote of the people in 2000 to uphold marriage as being between a man and a woman. The Bishop asserted that voting ‘yes’ to Proposition 102 would avoid such “unjustness.”

“By placing this definition in our states constitution,” Bishop Olmsted said, “we can avoid the unjust scenarios that are occurring elsewhere in our country. Where courts are overturning the will of the people and declaring marriage statutes to be unconstitutional.”

“As a matter of fairness, this decision will be decided by ballot vote not by courts; decided by Arizona voters not courts or even future legislature,” said Bishop Olmsted.

“We Catholics have an obligation to exercise our faith in everything that we do. When it comes to voting on November 4th, I urge you to vote yes to marriage, yes to proposition 102. God bless you.”

Stating that her views on reproductive rights are “the same” as those of former American President Bill Clinton, May stated that the Green Party is committed to working towards “safe, legal and rare” abortions.

The news release goes on to say that May’s party seeks “to ensure greater access to abortion” and more reliable “prevention of unwanted pregnancies” throughout rural Canada, in particular.

The Green Party leader’s support of a “woman’s right to choose” is similar to every other major Canadian party platform on the issue. Party leaders from the Liberals, the Tories, the NDP, and the Bloc Quebecois parties have all previously joined the Green Party in voicing their opposition to creating legislation to limit or restrict access to abortion.

Despite the hopes of social conservatives that a Conservative government would work towards placing some reasonable restrictions on abortion in Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly expressed his opposition to any such measures.

In June of 2006 Harper stated, “Let me be very clear on the positions I’ve have taken on [abortion]. I want there to be no misunderstanding. I’ve said repeatedly, that I will not, that my Conservative government will not be tabling any legislation impacting in any way a woman’s right to choose.”

Although court officials claim that the ruling does not mark an attempt at paving the way for unrestricted access to adoption, this is the third case since 1991 in which the restrictions on same-sex adoption have been challenged by circuit court judges who have called them “unconstitutional.”  Another similar case is scheduled for a Miami court next month.

In the yet-to-be formally published ruling from the court proceedings, Judge David J. Audlin Jr., writes that the law serves to punish an isolated group of people: in this case, those homosexual people who wish to adopt children. 

“Contrary to every child welfare principle,” Audlin wrote, “the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that … it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual.”

Florida is one of the two States to have such a ban in place; the other State is Mississippi.

Related LifeSite coverage:

At Least 16 U.S. States Working to Ban Gay and Lesbian Adoptions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06022303.html

36% of the women who gave birth in 2006 were separated, widowed, divorced or never married. Five percent were living with a partner.

The survey also revealed that most women who go on to post-secondary education wait until they are between 30 and 34 to have children. 27% of those women with undergraduate degrees and upwards are childless.

Only the Hispanic and Black populations in the US are replacing themselves with an average of 2.3 and 2.0 children born per woman respectively, making them the only stabilizing force in the American population. At this rate, experts say, whites will be the minority in America by 2042.

Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University whose specialties are family and public policy commented on the newly released numbers, observing that fewer children forebodes a future demographic crisis.

“It means that 25 years from now, there’ll be many elderly people who are childless and who may not have anybody to care for them,” he said.

In a 2006 message to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences Pope Benedict XVI, whose own native land of Germany has seen massive declines in birthrates, remarked that children are too often looked upon in terms of their economic cost and not as gifts from God. This mentality, he says, is not only causing a decline in birth rates, but it is also detrimental to children already born.

“It is children and young people,” he said, “who are often the first to experience the consequences of this eclipse of love and hope.” 

“Often, instead of feeling loved and cherished, they appear to be merely tolerated.” 

It is not only the United States that is experiencing drastic population decline. Last year, surveys revealed that the Canadian birthrates have also hit an all time low, clocking in at an average of 1.5 children per woman, while the European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, has predicted an overall drop in Europe’s population of 7 million people by 2050.

US Census Press Release:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/fertility/001491.html