By Bob Sullivan
There was a time, not long ago, when every Christian faith in America considered contraception to be a sin. Even the secular government prohibited it by law. That began to change in the early 1930s. By 1930, when the Anglican Church decided to leave the issue up to the individual consciences of each Anglican, the writing was on the wall. That was a big change to a teaching of Christianity which was 20 centuries old by that time.
Over the course of the following three decades, the federal government and every Christian faith in the U.S. followed the Anglican lead, except the Catholic Church. For Catholics, the use of contraception remained classified as a sin, a grave sin, a deadly sin. One reason for this is because hormonal contraception often results in an abortion when the users are sexually active.
Most Catholics externally accepted the Catholic teaching, while privately adopting the Anglican practice. Others rejected the Catholic teaching inwardly and outwardly and became dissenting (lapsed) Catholics. Even today, there are statistics which suggest that somewhere around nine out of 10 Catholics who are in their child-bearing years, have used contraception at some point during those years. Let he who has no sin cast the first stone, right?
However, with contraception, it is not just a matter of faith. Medically, scientifically, and logically, it is not good to use hormones or other contraception to avoid pregnancy. Contraception has all kinds of negative side effects, provides little or no protection against sexually transmitted diseases, causes a healthy body to actually malfunction, AND constitutes mortal sin.
Do people choose to use contraception because they want to be promiscuous? I doubt it. Instead, a person (either the young woman, the boyfriend or husband, or the parent of a teen) fears the “consequences” of sexual intercourse. I say “consequences” because that is how the culture of death characterizes a baby. Other consequences are the impact on reputation, education, financial resources, relationships, and many other aspects of the young woman’s life.
Instead of leaning into virtue, the young woman is prescribed a pill or given a device which replaces the need for virtue, parenting, self-control, and allows the behavior without the “consequences.” However, no form of contraception other than abstinence is 100% effective, so the same industry which provides the contraception also promotes the back-up plan: Abortion.
In spite of all this, many good and smart people still choose to use, sell, or prescribe birth control, and many of these people are Catholic. So are the customers.
Once again, this has a lot to do with the powers of the soul and the conscience (as discussed in the previous two columns). With abortion, we saw that the will can darken the intellect and causes some doctors to support abortion even though they know it is not the greatest good. With homosexuality, we saw how passions, specifically emotions, take over and cause people to accept the propaganda which says that homosexual acts are tolerable, good, or even noble. With contraception, we once again deal with an imbalance of the powers of the soul in which emotional fear overrides the intellect and turns the will into a slave of the passions.
In most cases, contraception is introduced to a teenager who is not yet sexually active, or who has recently become sexually active. The average age at which women start hormonal contraception in the U.S. is 16 years old, though some begin as early as 13. Some public schools are handing out condoms to students as young as 13 years old.
Lust is not a significant factor leading to contraception use for teenagers who often behave impulsively anyway. However, fear is a serious factor for their parents. In most cases, the parents and the teen want virtue to be the main drive of behavior, but the media, entertainment, marketing, and gossip, inundates the culture with a mantra: “Kids these days.” On top of that, we tend to know someone who had an unplanned pregnancy as a teen, and we are often convinced that that pregnancy was a significant setback for the girl, the boy, and often their parents.
As teenagers turn into 20-somethings, birth control is not only commonplace, it is expected. Strangely, organic and natural foods and remedies are all the rage these days, except when it comes to a woman’s reproductive system.
Adding to the cultural embrace of hormonal birth control is the fact that it can be kept secret. Sometimes young girls receive prescriptions without their parents’ knowledge. Sometimes only one parent knows, and unless the girl or the woman wants to share the fact that she uses contraception, it is actually against the law to disclose her use under the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. This ensures that, if she wants to, the girl or the woman keeps her use of contraception in the dark, so it is only between herself and her doctor (and God).
Satan loves the darkness, because that is where he does his best work in deforming a person’s conscience. This is done through thousands of little lies, half-truths, and justifications. An imbalance in a person’s powers of the soul leaves them extremely vulnerable to these wares of the Devil. “I am not ready to be a parent.” “How could I afford to raise a child?” “The side effects are minimal.” “There are so many health benefits.” “I’m only taking it to treat painful cramping, acne, headaches....” “It may not be right for you, but it is right for me, and it is my own private matter.” “The Church cannot control my private health decisions.” “Times have changed.”
A well-formed conscience and the proper balance of the powers of the soul help see through these lies.
