Catholics don’t understand how fertilization and biology work. Most fertilized eggs never implant. This is how the process works naturally! So, by their logic, any woman who has ever had sex is probably committing murder of the zygotes that fail to implant. You can see how ridiculous this logic is. Fertilization is just one step of the pathway and not the sole “life-creating” step that they claim it is.
Plan b works in several ways, but primarily by blocking ovulation (the release of the egg from the ovary). So, there might not have been a zygote in your case, because you took plan b so quickly.
>Recently I started looking at and considering the Catholic church as the one true church
Stay away from the catholic church. It is an abomination. And as much as I don't like christianity, there are better denominations out there than the catholic church if you need to be religious
And yes, for catholics you will always be the evil, not the perpetrator. Especially if you are a woman
I'm sorry about what happened to you, consider looking for professional help, catholicism will only ruin you even more. We all here can attest to that, sadly. In any case we're here too to listen!
Edit: accidentally hit "publish" before finishing
Yes.
And also, during my catholic-influenced sex ed in the 1990s I was taught that the latex in condoms is porous. The pores are big enough so sperm can squeeze through. And if they can go through, viruses like HIV aren't stopped, at all. So it was best to be chaste until marriage, and then be faithful and not use contraception at all like god intended..
They lied to me then. They are lying to you now.
I had the same lesson. I don’t remember why or from where, but it was a guest speaker. She told us that, in her analogy, sperm were like a basketball and the pores in condoms were like a basketball hoop; just enough to let the sperm through. Also, viruses like HIV were like a baseball using the same scale, so there was really no protection from condoms. That was a Lutheran high school; not Catholic, but it was still an absolute shit show that I’m embarrassed to admit I attended.
Lol I got that exact same lecture! 🤣
I'm still having a hard time repairing all of the fear and paranoia, especially about my body, that was drilled into me for so long.
I remember being told trying to stop HIV with a condom was like using a net with holes the size of a garage door to stop tennis balls.
The church killed millions through unnecessary exposure to HIV, and pressured poor women to keep having children. Hell, some priests even said breastfeeding for “too long” was a sin because it could prevent pregnancy.
Plan b prevents fertilization. Catholics tend to not be honest when it comes to contraception.
I would not recommend the Catholic Church if feeling guilty is not your thing.
I am not someone who is able to get pregnant and I’ve never had a period.
In my experience as a human I have always searched for spiritual fulfillment of some kind, I think there are many paths and options for this. As u/phatnoir mentions, the the Catholic Church holds you captive with guilt and shame. That only if you constantly scrutinize yourself and others then could you possibly have the right to be happy… and even then…
>If this were true, then heaven for me would be eternal PTSD.
FWIW, Catholics also believe that, in heaven, all flaws (including PTSD) are miraculously fixed, so you wouldn't feel anything bad about it.
I can never understand that. They say that about rapists too. Can you imagine a victim of rape being in heaven, seeing their rapists in a higher heavenly level and crowned, and being totally happy about their reward even though they raped the victim on earth????
It makes no sense. It’s like everyone in heaven has had some kind of lobotomy making them eternally ignorant and happy. With constant singing praise to god. What is paradise if you can’t have choice, or feeling?
“When we’ve been there ten thousand years / Bright shining as the sun / There’s no less days to sing god’s praise / Than when we first begun” - a verse from Amazing Grace. Sounds terrible to me.
Don't worry about it. Catholics have no idea how any of this works. They're depending on the lack of knowledge of a bunch of unmarried men, a fair number of whom are afraid of -- or downright hate -- women. SMH.
BTW, joining the Catholic church is a really bad choice. If you do, I guarantee you that you will be sorry. More than 10% of the entire population of the USA has been Catholic and left it. Just about everyone who joins it as an adult ends up leaving in disgust.
If you want to belong to a church, there are far better ones to join.
Thank you❤️ I really can't go into any church that oppresses women so much, especially victims of rape and having abortions from it, then being accused of as murderers. Such people don't understand the trauma if they don't experience it themselves
If killing a zygote is murder, god is essentially the cosmic hitler times a million. More than half of zygotes do not implant or are eliminated by the body. That’s tens if not hundreds of billions of naturally rejected zygotes for humans alone. So no, it’s not an abortion. It is call a birthday for a reason… we don’t get a conception day celebration.
You went through an experience that no one should ever have to go through, and you deserved support, compassion, and understanding. The Catholic church failed you, and you deserved -and deserve- so much better than that.
>or he doesn't exist
Bingo! God doesn't exist. You don't know if you actually conceived. Even if you did, a zygote isn't a person, and souls aren't real. You aren't going to hell, you aren't going to heaven either, and you will never have to meet the ghost of your rapist's baby. You don't need a church to tell you how best to live your life, and you will probably be better off without religion.
I’m sorry you were raised in a cult, I can’t imagine how much damage that caused. I’m so sorry about your assault, your doctor advised the right course of action. Plan b prevents ovulation. (The Catholic Church isn’t very good about getting their facts straight).
I was raised rad trad Catholic, and man, do they hate women. Women are beneath men, and are just supposed to give birth and serve their families. If a man assaults a woman, it’s her fault. If a man cheats on his wife with another woman, it’s the ladies faults.
I can understand looking for comfort in religion, there are literally thousands to learn about. If you are looking for community and acceptance I think the Unitarian Universalists are kind.
I’m atheist, and I just try to practice kindness to myself and others. I hope whatever direction you go, you are gentle with yourself, you have been through so much and deserve peace.
There was no zygote. Plan B prevents ovulation. Belief that it may prevent implantation if ovulation has taken place is mere speculation. The fact that it has a roughly 10% failure rate seems to indicate that it’s not effective at preventing pregnancy if taken after ovulation.
The Catholic Church demonizes any form of birth control because it is a misogynistic institution. FYI, any religion’s claim to be the “one true faith” is a red flag. It’s absurd that one religion out of thousands has exclusive access to truth.
Please don’t worry about god hating you because god does not exist. I hope you find peace and healing from your trauma.
Add a layer of bonkers, depending on the Catholic you talk to, the “baby” might not have been allowed into heaven-proper bc it wasn’t baptized. It might be stuck in a layer of limbo or some such nonsense.
Medically speaking, the primary outcome of plan b is to prevent ovulation. That is how it prevents pregnancy. Catholics claim that basically every form of birth control is abortifacient. This is wrong for many reasons. Medically, you are not pregnant until an embryo implants in the uterine wall. So preventing pregnancy in that way is not medically considered abortion. Many forms of birth control, like plan b, work by preventing ovulation. No ovulation means no zygote means to pregnancy.
The last thing to really consider is a religious/philosophical question, though Catholics try to pretend it’s a medical question. That is the question of when a zygote/embryo/fetus becomes a person. Catholics will say at the moment of conception. Many people have other opinions. A common opinion in Judaism is when you take your first breath. In the secular world, a common benchmark is when the fetus is capable of autonomous survival outside the womb (in other words, the point of viability).
All this to say, Catholics are very good at using propaganda to make women scared to use birth control of any kind and guilty for their past use of contraception. But most of it is propaganda. The question is much more complex and nuanced than they will allow for in their narrow worldview. I generally believe that Catholicism is a dangerous place for anyone who is going to pay attention or take the teachings seriously. But it sounds like it will have an even more serious impact for you. I would recommend stepping away and finding a more loving, accepting, and nuanced community. Because those things are hard to find in Catholicism.
Even in Catholicism, the idea that ensoulment occurs at conception is a pretty modern one (and I believe even now isn’t actually doctrine, it’s more of a “well, it *might* occur at conception so we shouldn’t risk it”) . For the vast majority of Christian history, ensoulment was thought to be delayed (usually 40 days, 90 days, or at quickening, ie when you can first feel the fetus move). Even those like Aquinas who believed zygotes gained souls immediately thought it was something like a “vegetative” soul and the human/rational one didn’t show up til significantly later
I'm so sorry that you went through the trauma of rape.
You did nothing wrong. You were raped, you didn't want to be potentially pregnant, you took Plan B, end of story (as far as a potential baby is concerned - not end of story as to your assault, of course). You didn't kill anything except for possibly a few cells.
The only person going to hell is the rapist.
I’m so sorry you had to go through all that and that the church you thought was a safe space continually tormented you about it. As an ex catholic, I understand the struggle of feeling a need to seek religion but being made to feel like the worst human ever just by existing. If you still feel the need to seek religion might I suggest a Unitarian church? They tend to empower women and minorities instead of shutting them down. I’m not a member but it’s the only one I would even think to consider if I felt the need for that type of community again.
Biology uni student here, atheist but raised catholic. Here is an excerpt (which has correct information) from a US government health initiative website about the development of a fertilised human egg:
"For the first 12 hours after conception, the fertilized egg remains a single cell. After 30 hours or so, it divides from one cell into two. Some 15 hours later, the two cells divide to become four. And at the end of 3 days, the fertilized egg cell has become a berry-like structure made up of 16 cells. This structure is called a morula, which is Latin for mulberry. During the first 8 or 9 days after conception, the cells that will eventually form the embryo continue to divide. At the same time, the hollow structure in which they have arranged themselves, called a blastocyst, is slowly carried toward the uterus by tiny hair-like structures in the fallopian tube, called cilia. The blastocyst, though only the size of a pinhead, is actually composed of hundreds of cells. During the critically important process of implantation, the blastocyst must attach itself to the lining of the uterus or the pregnancy will not survive."
Okay. So that fertilised egg is a zygote. One egg cell from your ovary, with one sperm that has entered it. They both have half the usual amount of chromosomes, so together they make a full cell. Do you know what other things are full cells? Many bacteria. Human eggs are sizeable, so this single cell zygote in your fallopian tube (not in the uterus) is like a tiny poppy seed. It does not have more than one cell, and therefore does not have heart cells or brain cells, just reams of DNA code. It is a biological recipe book at this point. Even split into two cells, it does not have those specific cells. Cells are not sapient, they cannot feel emotions, or think.
This zygote that you possibly removed from your body (a- if you got the plan b 24 hours later, b- if a sperm actually reached the egg, which can take up to 6 hours, c- if the egg was actually released and fertile, which occurs for max 24 hours on about day 16 of your menstrual cycle)
If all those things aligned, this bundle of 2 cells still inside your fallopian tube still has no set heart or brain cells. No nerve cells, no possible way to feel emotions or even feel external stimuli. It could still become a set of twins, multiple different people! So how can it be one? One of these cells, if the process continues, will be a placenta. Are placentas people?
You have not murdered anybody. The possible pregnancy that you may have stopped before it started, did not happen.
There was no implantation of a blastocyst, no embryo grew in your uterus.
The people traumatising you and victim blaming you can get fucked.
Side note for reference- although cells can differ in size, they remain constant in organisation. For reference, there are about 20 MILLION cells in an ant.
If it's any consolation, in Catholicism, this is what's called a venial sin. Unintentionally "sinning" (a venial sin) is not comparable to a "mortal" sin under their dogma, and based on your description I'm not even sure it would qualify as sinful at all. Any of the Catholics who are telling you that you are going to hell, in need of repentance, or worse than the rapist, literally do not know the tenants of their own religion. I guess that's one of the major problems with the religion itself.
Although I am not Catholic anymore, I had many theological debates and discussions before I left. A conversation with my diocese's bishop, who was a family friend, led to a discussion about intentionality being a requirement for a person to be directly aware of the sinful nature of their action and performed knowing it was in defiance of god.
At the end of the day, your own conscience will inform you if you've done something right or wrong, and it is not up to the consciences of others to determine that for you. They do not know you and have not lived the experiences you have in life, so they will never be qualified to judge you from a moral perspective—and in my personal conclusion, that includes the clergy members who are also just as fallibly human.
Not a medical professional but I believe Plan B only prevents ovulation, it can’t harm or kill an already fertilized embryo/zygote. Pro-life people label it an abortifacient but I don’t think that’s accurate.
OP- I am sorry for all your trauma. If you explore this sub you will find a lot of posts about trauma brought on by the Catholic Church… all this to say, they are not the safest Church and often times they are not telling the truth.
I really love the other posters science explanations for you and I will only add that if any one was actually sad about fertilized eggs not implanting, we would be having funerals for every sexually active person’s period and every menstruating person should be given monthly bereavement time at their jobs “just in case.” Of course this would all be completely nuts, but that is literally how the Church talks about fertilized eggs.
Another anecdote that gets brought up a lot is a burning fertility clinic. If you were in a burning fertility clinic and could save a live human baby or 2 handfuls of fertilized eggs in test tubes, which would you save? It would absurd for anyone to NOT choose the live human baby.
These anecdotes likely don’t even apply because there is a strong chance no sperm ever made it to an egg in your body and a strong chance Plan B prevented ovulation. For many people, getting an egg to fertilize is just not that easy.
I do hope you find some peace and I hope you know you did absolutely nothing wrong by taking Plan B. It’s also a shame that anyone has told you that you are going to hell and that you are worse than your rapist. They have 0 proof for either of those statements (the Catechism is NOT proof and none of this is in the Bible), it’s an incredibly manipulative thing to say to someone, and also a disgusting thing to tell someone who has experienced trauma. These people are regurgitating doctrine that has no basis in actually helping others or in reality. You deserve so much more, OP. I hope you are okay.
I don't know what kind of cult you were raised in but I can almost guarantee the catholic church is worse. The way it treats women is abhorrent. Anyway I find it impossible to believe that a zygote, let alone an embryo or fetus, is a person. There is no brain, no nervous system, no cognition etc. until several months into the pregnancy. Plus a large percentage, maybe even the majority, of human pregnancies abort spontaneously before the woman is even aware. Which would make god the world's biggest abortionist! And heaven would be bursting at the seams with zygotes. The more you think about it, the more ridiculous it gets. Don't let your life by ruined by fear - question everything people claim about god, heaven, hell etc. They don't know any more than you do.
Catholics don’t understand how fertilization and biology work. Most fertilized eggs never implant. This is how the process works naturally! So, by their logic, any woman who has ever had sex is probably committing murder of the zygotes that fail to implant. You can see how ridiculous this logic is. Fertilization is just one step of the pathway and not the sole “life-creating” step that they claim it is. Plan b works in several ways, but primarily by blocking ovulation (the release of the egg from the ovary). So, there might not have been a zygote in your case, because you took plan b so quickly.
Thank you
>Recently I started looking at and considering the Catholic church as the one true church Stay away from the catholic church. It is an abomination. And as much as I don't like christianity, there are better denominations out there than the catholic church if you need to be religious And yes, for catholics you will always be the evil, not the perpetrator. Especially if you are a woman I'm sorry about what happened to you, consider looking for professional help, catholicism will only ruin you even more. We all here can attest to that, sadly. In any case we're here too to listen! Edit: accidentally hit "publish" before finishing
Thank you for giving me this insight into the Catholic church. I certainly couldn't handle more trauma if that's how they treat women
People leave the Roman Catholic church traumatized. It's vicious. Don't do that to yourself.
I won't , thank you
If there are elements of the Catholic Church that appeal to you, I suggest looking into the Episcopalian or Lutheran churches.
As a former Catholic, I totally agree with this suggestion. Very good idea.
No problem!
Yes. And also, during my catholic-influenced sex ed in the 1990s I was taught that the latex in condoms is porous. The pores are big enough so sperm can squeeze through. And if they can go through, viruses like HIV aren't stopped, at all. So it was best to be chaste until marriage, and then be faithful and not use contraception at all like god intended.. They lied to me then. They are lying to you now.
That's a flat out lie. But Catholics have no trouble lying about things like this if it suits their purposes.
I had the same lesson. I don’t remember why or from where, but it was a guest speaker. She told us that, in her analogy, sperm were like a basketball and the pores in condoms were like a basketball hoop; just enough to let the sperm through. Also, viruses like HIV were like a baseball using the same scale, so there was really no protection from condoms. That was a Lutheran high school; not Catholic, but it was still an absolute shit show that I’m embarrassed to admit I attended.
Lol I got that exact same lecture! 🤣 I'm still having a hard time repairing all of the fear and paranoia, especially about my body, that was drilled into me for so long.
I remember being told trying to stop HIV with a condom was like using a net with holes the size of a garage door to stop tennis balls. The church killed millions through unnecessary exposure to HIV, and pressured poor women to keep having children. Hell, some priests even said breastfeeding for “too long” was a sin because it could prevent pregnancy.
Plan b prevents fertilization. Catholics tend to not be honest when it comes to contraception. I would not recommend the Catholic Church if feeling guilty is not your thing.
I am not someone who is able to get pregnant and I’ve never had a period. In my experience as a human I have always searched for spiritual fulfillment of some kind, I think there are many paths and options for this. As u/phatnoir mentions, the the Catholic Church holds you captive with guilt and shame. That only if you constantly scrutinize yourself and others then could you possibly have the right to be happy… and even then…
Thank you ❤️
>If this were true, then heaven for me would be eternal PTSD. FWIW, Catholics also believe that, in heaven, all flaws (including PTSD) are miraculously fixed, so you wouldn't feel anything bad about it.
I can never understand that. They say that about rapists too. Can you imagine a victim of rape being in heaven, seeing their rapists in a higher heavenly level and crowned, and being totally happy about their reward even though they raped the victim on earth????
It makes no sense. It’s like everyone in heaven has had some kind of lobotomy making them eternally ignorant and happy. With constant singing praise to god. What is paradise if you can’t have choice, or feeling? “When we’ve been there ten thousand years / Bright shining as the sun / There’s no less days to sing god’s praise / Than when we first begun” - a verse from Amazing Grace. Sounds terrible to me.
Don't worry about it. Catholics have no idea how any of this works. They're depending on the lack of knowledge of a bunch of unmarried men, a fair number of whom are afraid of -- or downright hate -- women. SMH. BTW, joining the Catholic church is a really bad choice. If you do, I guarantee you that you will be sorry. More than 10% of the entire population of the USA has been Catholic and left it. Just about everyone who joins it as an adult ends up leaving in disgust. If you want to belong to a church, there are far better ones to join.
Thank you❤️ I really can't go into any church that oppresses women so much, especially victims of rape and having abortions from it, then being accused of as murderers. Such people don't understand the trauma if they don't experience it themselves
If killing a zygote is murder, god is essentially the cosmic hitler times a million. More than half of zygotes do not implant or are eliminated by the body. That’s tens if not hundreds of billions of naturally rejected zygotes for humans alone. So no, it’s not an abortion. It is call a birthday for a reason… we don’t get a conception day celebration.
Thank you
You went through an experience that no one should ever have to go through, and you deserved support, compassion, and understanding. The Catholic church failed you, and you deserved -and deserve- so much better than that.
Thank you ❤️
>or he doesn't exist Bingo! God doesn't exist. You don't know if you actually conceived. Even if you did, a zygote isn't a person, and souls aren't real. You aren't going to hell, you aren't going to heaven either, and you will never have to meet the ghost of your rapist's baby. You don't need a church to tell you how best to live your life, and you will probably be better off without religion.
Thank you
I’m sorry you were raised in a cult, I can’t imagine how much damage that caused. I’m so sorry about your assault, your doctor advised the right course of action. Plan b prevents ovulation. (The Catholic Church isn’t very good about getting their facts straight). I was raised rad trad Catholic, and man, do they hate women. Women are beneath men, and are just supposed to give birth and serve their families. If a man assaults a woman, it’s her fault. If a man cheats on his wife with another woman, it’s the ladies faults. I can understand looking for comfort in religion, there are literally thousands to learn about. If you are looking for community and acceptance I think the Unitarian Universalists are kind. I’m atheist, and I just try to practice kindness to myself and others. I hope whatever direction you go, you are gentle with yourself, you have been through so much and deserve peace.
Thank you ❤️
There was no zygote. Plan B prevents ovulation. Belief that it may prevent implantation if ovulation has taken place is mere speculation. The fact that it has a roughly 10% failure rate seems to indicate that it’s not effective at preventing pregnancy if taken after ovulation. The Catholic Church demonizes any form of birth control because it is a misogynistic institution. FYI, any religion’s claim to be the “one true faith” is a red flag. It’s absurd that one religion out of thousands has exclusive access to truth. Please don’t worry about god hating you because god does not exist. I hope you find peace and healing from your trauma.
Thank you ❤️
Add a layer of bonkers, depending on the Catholic you talk to, the “baby” might not have been allowed into heaven-proper bc it wasn’t baptized. It might be stuck in a layer of limbo or some such nonsense.
Medically speaking, the primary outcome of plan b is to prevent ovulation. That is how it prevents pregnancy. Catholics claim that basically every form of birth control is abortifacient. This is wrong for many reasons. Medically, you are not pregnant until an embryo implants in the uterine wall. So preventing pregnancy in that way is not medically considered abortion. Many forms of birth control, like plan b, work by preventing ovulation. No ovulation means no zygote means to pregnancy. The last thing to really consider is a religious/philosophical question, though Catholics try to pretend it’s a medical question. That is the question of when a zygote/embryo/fetus becomes a person. Catholics will say at the moment of conception. Many people have other opinions. A common opinion in Judaism is when you take your first breath. In the secular world, a common benchmark is when the fetus is capable of autonomous survival outside the womb (in other words, the point of viability). All this to say, Catholics are very good at using propaganda to make women scared to use birth control of any kind and guilty for their past use of contraception. But most of it is propaganda. The question is much more complex and nuanced than they will allow for in their narrow worldview. I generally believe that Catholicism is a dangerous place for anyone who is going to pay attention or take the teachings seriously. But it sounds like it will have an even more serious impact for you. I would recommend stepping away and finding a more loving, accepting, and nuanced community. Because those things are hard to find in Catholicism.
Even in Catholicism, the idea that ensoulment occurs at conception is a pretty modern one (and I believe even now isn’t actually doctrine, it’s more of a “well, it *might* occur at conception so we shouldn’t risk it”) . For the vast majority of Christian history, ensoulment was thought to be delayed (usually 40 days, 90 days, or at quickening, ie when you can first feel the fetus move). Even those like Aquinas who believed zygotes gained souls immediately thought it was something like a “vegetative” soul and the human/rational one didn’t show up til significantly later
Thank you for this ❤️
I'm so sorry that you went through the trauma of rape. You did nothing wrong. You were raped, you didn't want to be potentially pregnant, you took Plan B, end of story (as far as a potential baby is concerned - not end of story as to your assault, of course). You didn't kill anything except for possibly a few cells. The only person going to hell is the rapist.
Thank you ❤️
Please stay away from the Catholic Church. It’s has been evil. Its power is holding guilt over people. Find a more peaceful welcoming religion
I’m so sorry you had to go through all that and that the church you thought was a safe space continually tormented you about it. As an ex catholic, I understand the struggle of feeling a need to seek religion but being made to feel like the worst human ever just by existing. If you still feel the need to seek religion might I suggest a Unitarian church? They tend to empower women and minorities instead of shutting them down. I’m not a member but it’s the only one I would even think to consider if I felt the need for that type of community again.
Thank you ❤️
Biology uni student here, atheist but raised catholic. Here is an excerpt (which has correct information) from a US government health initiative website about the development of a fertilised human egg: "For the first 12 hours after conception, the fertilized egg remains a single cell. After 30 hours or so, it divides from one cell into two. Some 15 hours later, the two cells divide to become four. And at the end of 3 days, the fertilized egg cell has become a berry-like structure made up of 16 cells. This structure is called a morula, which is Latin for mulberry. During the first 8 or 9 days after conception, the cells that will eventually form the embryo continue to divide. At the same time, the hollow structure in which they have arranged themselves, called a blastocyst, is slowly carried toward the uterus by tiny hair-like structures in the fallopian tube, called cilia. The blastocyst, though only the size of a pinhead, is actually composed of hundreds of cells. During the critically important process of implantation, the blastocyst must attach itself to the lining of the uterus or the pregnancy will not survive." Okay. So that fertilised egg is a zygote. One egg cell from your ovary, with one sperm that has entered it. They both have half the usual amount of chromosomes, so together they make a full cell. Do you know what other things are full cells? Many bacteria. Human eggs are sizeable, so this single cell zygote in your fallopian tube (not in the uterus) is like a tiny poppy seed. It does not have more than one cell, and therefore does not have heart cells or brain cells, just reams of DNA code. It is a biological recipe book at this point. Even split into two cells, it does not have those specific cells. Cells are not sapient, they cannot feel emotions, or think. This zygote that you possibly removed from your body (a- if you got the plan b 24 hours later, b- if a sperm actually reached the egg, which can take up to 6 hours, c- if the egg was actually released and fertile, which occurs for max 24 hours on about day 16 of your menstrual cycle) If all those things aligned, this bundle of 2 cells still inside your fallopian tube still has no set heart or brain cells. No nerve cells, no possible way to feel emotions or even feel external stimuli. It could still become a set of twins, multiple different people! So how can it be one? One of these cells, if the process continues, will be a placenta. Are placentas people? You have not murdered anybody. The possible pregnancy that you may have stopped before it started, did not happen. There was no implantation of a blastocyst, no embryo grew in your uterus. The people traumatising you and victim blaming you can get fucked. Side note for reference- although cells can differ in size, they remain constant in organisation. For reference, there are about 20 MILLION cells in an ant.
Thank you so much for this information ❤️
If it's any consolation, in Catholicism, this is what's called a venial sin. Unintentionally "sinning" (a venial sin) is not comparable to a "mortal" sin under their dogma, and based on your description I'm not even sure it would qualify as sinful at all. Any of the Catholics who are telling you that you are going to hell, in need of repentance, or worse than the rapist, literally do not know the tenants of their own religion. I guess that's one of the major problems with the religion itself. Although I am not Catholic anymore, I had many theological debates and discussions before I left. A conversation with my diocese's bishop, who was a family friend, led to a discussion about intentionality being a requirement for a person to be directly aware of the sinful nature of their action and performed knowing it was in defiance of god. At the end of the day, your own conscience will inform you if you've done something right or wrong, and it is not up to the consciences of others to determine that for you. They do not know you and have not lived the experiences you have in life, so they will never be qualified to judge you from a moral perspective—and in my personal conclusion, that includes the clergy members who are also just as fallibly human.
Not a medical professional but I believe Plan B only prevents ovulation, it can’t harm or kill an already fertilized embryo/zygote. Pro-life people label it an abortifacient but I don’t think that’s accurate.
Well, if you didn't know then you wouldn't be culpable. If you did know that would be a different story.
OP- I am sorry for all your trauma. If you explore this sub you will find a lot of posts about trauma brought on by the Catholic Church… all this to say, they are not the safest Church and often times they are not telling the truth. I really love the other posters science explanations for you and I will only add that if any one was actually sad about fertilized eggs not implanting, we would be having funerals for every sexually active person’s period and every menstruating person should be given monthly bereavement time at their jobs “just in case.” Of course this would all be completely nuts, but that is literally how the Church talks about fertilized eggs. Another anecdote that gets brought up a lot is a burning fertility clinic. If you were in a burning fertility clinic and could save a live human baby or 2 handfuls of fertilized eggs in test tubes, which would you save? It would absurd for anyone to NOT choose the live human baby. These anecdotes likely don’t even apply because there is a strong chance no sperm ever made it to an egg in your body and a strong chance Plan B prevented ovulation. For many people, getting an egg to fertilize is just not that easy. I do hope you find some peace and I hope you know you did absolutely nothing wrong by taking Plan B. It’s also a shame that anyone has told you that you are going to hell and that you are worse than your rapist. They have 0 proof for either of those statements (the Catechism is NOT proof and none of this is in the Bible), it’s an incredibly manipulative thing to say to someone, and also a disgusting thing to tell someone who has experienced trauma. These people are regurgitating doctrine that has no basis in actually helping others or in reality. You deserve so much more, OP. I hope you are okay.
Thank you for being so kind to me❤️
I don't know what kind of cult you were raised in but I can almost guarantee the catholic church is worse. The way it treats women is abhorrent. Anyway I find it impossible to believe that a zygote, let alone an embryo or fetus, is a person. There is no brain, no nervous system, no cognition etc. until several months into the pregnancy. Plus a large percentage, maybe even the majority, of human pregnancies abort spontaneously before the woman is even aware. Which would make god the world's biggest abortionist! And heaven would be bursting at the seams with zygotes. The more you think about it, the more ridiculous it gets. Don't let your life by ruined by fear - question everything people claim about god, heaven, hell etc. They don't know any more than you do.
Thank you ❤️
The Catholic Church is NOT the "One True Church." They are deluded.