Sexual Misattraction

This news comes from Natalie Stilwell, a graduate student in moral theology in northern Virginia:

Yesterday I came across a striking article from the science news site LiveScience: ” The Pill Makes Women Pick Bad Mates .” The results of a study headed by evolutionary psychologist Stewart Craig Roberts at the University of Newcastle in England indicate that women on the pill are more likely to be attracted to men who are less biologically suited to be their lifelong mates.

How does this happen? Hormonal contraceptives suppress ovulation by shifting a woman’s hormones to mimic pregnancy. This, as with actual pregnancy, shifts the woman’s sense of attraction toward men who “smell” more like a brother or father—someone whose immune defenses are similar to her own. This is thought to be the case because a pregnant woman has no need of being attracted to any man other than the father of her child, and men such as relatives typically represent protection.

But the effects aren’t as fortunate for a single woman in a contraception-induced, pseudo-pregnant state: She is likely to be most attracted to mates with whom she will have more difficulty carrying to term children, and to whom she will have significantly less romantic attraction after ceasing the pill and beginning to ovulate again.

This isn’t the first such study to be conducted that yielded similar results. Vicki Thorn, founder of Project Rachel and Executive Director of the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation & Healing (NOPARH), has been following studies like this for many years. It’s her desire to educate men and women on physiological factors influencing their attractions to one another so they will be equipped to make better choices. She also educates those who minister to post-abortive persons in light of the physiological effects abortion has on mothers and fathers.

In a talk given last year to priests and counselors in Arlington, Virginia on “Assisting the Post-Abortive Person,” Thorn introduced many for the first time to what she calls “The Biochemistry of Sex” or the “Biology of the Theology of the Body.” (A portion of her presentation is available in audio online). Her researched material include such insights as to how men’s hormones are changed by their interactions with their pregnant wives, why women often dress differently when ovulating, and how multiple sexual partners can have a negative impact on a woman’s immune system.

Funny how scientific findings on human biochemistry can augment the Church’s longstanding concerns on how contraception would affect women and men. Just how many other negative effects need to materialize before people start to notice?