Christian Views On Birth Control

Prior to the 20th century, three major branches of Christianity—Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism—including leading Protestant reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin generally held a critical perspective of birth control (also known as contraception). Among Christian denominations today, however, there is a large variety of views regarding birth control that range from the acceptance of birth control to only allowing natural family planning to teaching Quiverfull doctrine, which disallows contraception and holds that Christians should have large families.

Roman Catholicism

Background

Many early Church Fathers made statements condemning the use of contraception including John Chrysostom, Jerome, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus of Rome, Augustine of Hippo and various others. Among the condemnations is one by Jerome which refers to an apparent oral form of contraception: "Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception." Augustine, in ''On Marriage and Concupiscence'', states that whoever merely involving lust in intercourse without intending procreation, "although they be called husband and wife, are not; nor do they retain any reality of marriage, but use the respectable name f marriageto cover a shame. ... Sometimes this lustful cruelty, or cruel lust, comes to this, that they even use sterilizing drugs." The phrase "sterilizing drugs" (''sterilitatis venena'') was widely used in theological and ecclesiastical literatures to condemn any contraceptive acts and birth control. Augustine utilized the biblical story of Onan as a supporting text to denounce contraception.

The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' specifies that all sex acts must be both unitive and procreative. In addition to condemning use of artificial birth control as intrinsically evil, non-procreative sex acts such as mutual masturbation and anal sex are ruled out as ways to avoid pregnancy. ''Casti connubii'' explains the secondary, unitive, purpose of intercourse. Because of this secondary purpose, married couples have a right to engage in intercourse even when pregnancy is not a possible result:

John and Sheila Kippley from the Couple to Couple League say that the statement of Pope Pius XI not only permitted sex between married couples during pregnancy and menopause, but also during the infertile times of the menstrual cycle. Raymond J. Devettere says that the statement is a permit to undertake intercourse during the infertile times when there is "a good reason for it". The mathematical formula for the rhythm method had been formalized in 1930, and in 1932 a Catholic physician published a book titled ''The Rhythm of Sterility and Fertility in Women'' promoting the method to Catholics. The 1930s also saw the first U.S. Rhythm Clinic (founded by John Rock) to teach the method to Catholic couples. However, use of the rhythm method in certain circumstances was not formally accepted until 1951, in two speeches by Pope Pius XII.

This method has come to be known as "natural family planning." Some studies suggest that couples who practice NFP enjoy an abundance of healthy advantages, the most notable of which might be a reduced divorce rate amongst couples who use NFP. The Catholic Church continues to uphold the practice of natural family planning since it maintains the unitive aspect of the sexual union while still bolstering an openness to procreation.

Current view

The Catholic position on contraception was formally explained and expressed by Pope Paul VI's ''Humanae vitae'' in 1968. Artificial contraception is considered intrinsically evil, but methods of natural family planning may be used, as they do not usurp the natural way of conception.

In justification of this position, Pope Paul VI said:

Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

In issuing ''Humanae vitae'', Pope Paul VI relied on the Minority Papal Commission Report of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control. The minority report argued that:

One can find no period of history, no document of the church, no theological school, scarcely one Catholic theologian, who ever denied that contraception was always seriously evil. The teaching of the Church in this matter is absolutely constant. Until the present century this teaching was peacefully possessed by all other Christians, whether Orthodox or Anglican or Protestant. The Orthodox retain this as common teaching today.

On July 17, 1994, John Paul II clarified the church's position during a meditation said prior to an angelus recitation:

Unfortunately, Catholic thought is often misunderstood ... as if the Church supported an ideology of fertility at all costs, urging married couples to procreate indiscriminately and without thought for the future. But one need only study the pronouncements of the Magisterium to know that this is not so. Truly, in begetting life the spouses fulfill one of the highest dimensions of their calling: they are God's co-workers. Precisely for this reason they must have an extremely responsible attitude. In deciding whether or not to have a child, they must not be motivated by selfishness or carelessness, but by a prudent, conscious generosity that weighs the possibilities and circumstances, and especially gives priority to the welfare of the unborn child. Therefore, when there is a reason not to procreate, this choice is permissible and may even be necessary. However, there remains the duty of carrying it out with criteria and methods that respect the total truth of the marital act in its unitive and procreative dimension, as wisely regulated by nature itself in its biological rhythms. One can comply with them and use them to advantage, but they cannot be "violated" by artificial interference.

In 1997, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family stated:

The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable. Contraception is gravely opposed to marital chastity; it is contrary to the good of the transmission of life (the procreative aspect of matrimony), and to the reciprocal self-giving of the spouses (the unitive aspect of matrimony); it harms true love and denies the sovereign role of God in the transmission of human life.

A summary of the Scriptural support used by Catholics against contraception can be found in ''Rome Sweet Home'', an autobiography by the Catholic apologists Scott and Kimberly Hahn, both of whom are converts to the Catholic Church from Protestantism. They illustrate the results of the research on contraception conducted by Kimberly Hahn as having a pivotal effect on their lives, notably the fact that the Catholic Church is one of the last few Christian groups to take a clear stance on the issue. Among the Scripture included in the book are the following lines from Psalm 127:3–5:

Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies at the gate.

Catholic scholar Cormac Burke has written an anthropological (non-religious) evaluation of the effect of contraception on marital love, "Married Love and Contraception", to argue that "contraception does in fact denaturalize the conjugal act, to the extent that, far from uniting the spouses and expressing and confirming the love between them in a unique way, it tends to undermine their love by radically contradicting the full mutual self-giving that this most intimate act of the marital relationship should signify."

The 2008 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's instruction '' Dignitas Personae'' reiterates church opposition to contraception, mentioning new methods of interception and contragestion, notably female condoms and morning-after pills, which are also "fall within the ''sin of abortion'' and are gravely immoral".

However, Father Tad Pacholczyk of the National Catholic Bioethics Center and sexual assault. This same position has been taken by the Bishops of New York State: that it is not sinful for a Catholic health care facility to "dispense emergency contraception medication as part of its compassionate treatment for a rape victim if, after appropriate testing, there is no evidence conception has occurred already" and that it is "advisable" for a rape survivor to immediately seek out pregnancy prevention.

Condom controversy

In 2003, the BBC's ''Panorama'' stated that Catholic bishops in Kenya have taught that HIV can pass through the membrane of the latex rubber from which condoms were made. It was considered untrue according to the World Health Organization.

In an interview on Dutch television in 2004, Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels argued that the use of condoms should be supported to prevent AIDS if sex with a person infected with HIV should take place, though it is to be avoided. According to Danneels, "the person must use a condom in order not to disobey the commandment condemning murder, in addition to breaking the commandment which forbids adultery. ... Protecting oneself against sickness or death is an act of prevention. Morally, it cannot be judged on the same level as when a condom is used to reduce the number of births." In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI asserted that handing out condoms is not the solution to combating AIDS and might make the problem worse. He proposed "spiritual and human awakening" and "friendship for those who suffer" as solutions. In 2010, Benedict in an interview which was published in the book ''Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times'', when asked whether the Catholic Church were not opposed in principle to the use of condoms, stated:

She he Catholic Churchof course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.

Benedict cited the example of the use of condoms by male prostitutes as "a first step towards moralisation", even though condoms are "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection". In a statement to explain his saying, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirmed that the church considered prostitution " gravely immoral":

However, those involved in prostitution who are HIV positive and who seek to diminish the risk of contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in respecting the life of another even if the evil of prostitution remains in all its gravity.

Dissent

Roderick Hindery reported that a number of Western Catholics have voiced significant disagreement with the church's stance on contraception. Among them, dissident theologian Charles Curran criticized the stance of ''Humanae vitae'' on artificial birth control. In 1968, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued what many interpreted as a dissenting document, the Winnipeg Statement, in which the bishops recognized that a number of Canadian Catholics found it "either extremely difficult or even impossible to make their own all elements of this doctrine" (that of ''Humanae vitae''). Additionally, in 1969, they reasserted the Catholic principle of primacy of conscience, a principle that they said should be properly interpreted. They insisted that "a Catholic Christian is not free to form his conscience without consideration of the teaching of the ''magisterium'', in the particular instance exercised by the Holy Father in an encyclical letter".

Catholics for Choice stated in 1998 that 96% of U.S. Catholic women had used contraceptives at some point in their lives and that 72% of U.S. Catholics believed that one could be a good Catholic without obeying the church's teaching on birth control. According to a nationwide poll of 2,242 U.S. adults surveyed online in September 2005 by Harris Interactive (they stated that the magnitude of errors cannot be estimated due to sampling errors, non-response,etc.), 90% of U.S. Catholics supported the use of birth control/contraceptives. A survey conducted in 2015 by the Pew Research Center among 5,122 U.S. adults (including 1,016 self-identified Catholics) stated 76% of U.S. Catholics thought that the church should allow Catholics to use birth control.

Eastern Orthodoxy

An official document of the Russian Orthodox Church prohibits contraception except when it is specifically approved by a confessor, does not involve the possibility of aborting a conceived child, is for reasons of inability to raise a child, and is done with spousal consent.

Eastern Orthodox believers, on all sides of the issue, tend to believe that contraceptive acceptance is not adequately examined, and that any examination has too often become tied up in identity politics, the more accepting group accusing the categorically opposed group of Roman Catholic influence.

Many Orthodox hierarchs and theologians from around the world lauded ''Humanae vitae'' when it was issued. Among these Orthodox leaders, some teach that marital intercourse should be for procreation only, while others do not go as far and hold a view similar to the Roman Catholic position, which allows Natural Family Planning on principle while at the same time opposing artificial contraception.

Other Orthodox Church leaders maintain this interpretation is too narrowly focused on the procreative function of sex, not enough on its unitive function, and thus allow more freedom for contraceptive use among married couples.

Some Orthodox Christians, like Roman Catholics, consider using contraceptives not only a sin, but also a " mortal sin" in the manner of "unnatural carnal sins", along with homosexuality, bestiality, masturbation, etc.

Oriental Orthodoxy

The Coptic Orthodox Church approves of contraception for health and socioeconomic reasons. It is against all abortion except when the mother's life is in danger.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo is against all forms of hormonal contraception and the only birth control it advocates is abstinence on Orthodox feast days (up to 250 days a year) and when the women are fertile.

Protestantism

As part of the Protestant Reformation, Reformers began to more strongly emphasize the unitive pleasures of marriage. Still, all major early Protestant Reformers, and indeed Protestants in general until the twentieth century, condemned birth control as a contravention of God's procreative purpose for marriage. As scientists advanced birth control methods during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some Protestants continued to reject them, while other Nonconformists welcomed these advances.

Anabaptism

Mennonites

The Mennonite Church USA, the General Conference Mennonite Church, and the Conservative Mennonite Conference have adopted statements indicating approval of modern methods of contraception. For example, while also teaching and encouraging love and acceptance of children, the Conservative Mennonite Conference maintains, "The prevention of pregnancy when feasible by birth control with pre-fertilization methods is acceptable." A study published in 1975 found that only 11% of Mennonites believed use of birth control was "always wrong". The Conservative Mennonite Conference, however, does not represent all Conservative Mennonites (many of whom would view the Conservative Mennonite Conference as a mainline body) and as such, certain Conservative Mennonites, as with certain Beachy Amish Mennonite fellowships, maintain a prohibition against the use of birth control, though natural family planning is permitted. Old Colony Mennonites, like the Old Order Amish, do not officially allow birth control practices.

Amish

Not only are all types of artificial birth control forbidden in Old-Order Amish communities, but any varieties of natural family planning, such as calendar-based methods, are also condemned. However, especially in recent years, more Amish women have begun using contraception. This trend is more pronounced in communities where few of the men earn their living through farming.

Hutterites

The Hutterite Brethren use contraception only if it is recommended by a physician.

Anglicanism

The Anglican Communion, including the Church of England, condemned artificial contraception at the 1908 and 1920 Lambeth Conferences. Later, the Anglican Communion gave approval for birth control in some circumstances at the 1930 Lambeth Conference. At the 1958 Lambeth Conference it was stated that the responsibility for deciding upon the number and frequency of children was laid by God upon the consciences of parents "in such ways as are acceptable to husband and wife".

Baptists

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Baptist denomination in the world and largest Protestant denomination in the United States, initially welcomed the invention of birth control and legalization of abortion, but the rise of the Moral Majority 1980s and increased opposition to abortion led to a more nuanced view which generally approves of contraceptives but rejects abortifacients. In addition, prominent SBC leaders have spoken against a "contraceptive culture", affirming that nothing is inherently wrong with contraceptives, but encouraging couples to still have children and to view them as a blessing instead of an inconvenience.

Irvingism

The New Apostolic Church, the largest of the Irvingian Church

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