Religion and birth control
Religious adherents vary widely in their views on birth control. This can be true even between different branches of one faith, as in the case of Judaism and Christianity. Some religious believers find that their own opinions of the use of birth control differ from the beliefs espoused by the leaders of their faith, and many grapple with the ethical dilemma of what is conceived as "correct action" according to their faith, versus personal circumstance, reason, and choice. This article will discuss various views on birth control of the major world religions Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Baha'i.
The question of whether contraception is a viable option for participants has a range of different beliefs and arguments, which depend on the religion's views on when life begins, and questions of a God or deity's will for human reproduction. Modern arguments for the woman's health are also considered in many religions as a basis for birth control use.
Christianity
Among Christian denominations today there are a large variety of positions towards contraception that range from the acceptance of birth control to only allowing natural family planning to teaching Quiverfull doctrine, which holds that Christians should have large families. The Catholic Church has historically taught against artificial contraception. The Orthodox Church doesn't permit their use. Contraception was taught against by non-Catholic Christians until 1930 when the Anglican Communion changed its policy. Soon after, according to Flann Campbell, mainline Protestant groups came to accept the use of modern contraceptives as a matter of what they considered Biblically allowable freedom of conscience. Conservative Protestants hold any one of the three aforementioned positions depending on the denomination.Before the twentieth century, most Christian groups opposed contraception, though their positions have since diversified. The Catholic Church still forbids sex outside marriage and views both abortion and contraception as violating God's authority over life. While some Catholics continue to uphold this ban, many now call for a re-evaluation of birth control. Eastern Orthodoxy generally rejects abortion except to save the mother's life, and some Orthodox clergy accept Catholic views on contraception. Protestant denominations vary widely in their perspectives on birth control.
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church is opposed to artificial contraception but supports the use of natural cycles to regulate births. This belief dates back to the first centuries of Christianity. Artificial contraception is taught to not fulfill the ideal of married love, while methods such as natural family planning are in full accordance with Christian doctrine.Pope Pius XI explicitly condemned birth control in his 1930 encyclical Casti connubii, stating:
No reason, however grave, can make what is intrinsically contrary to nature to be in conformity with nature and morally right. And since the conjugal act by its very nature is destined for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose are acting against nature, and are doing something that is base and intrinsically immoral". The Catholic Church raises her voice as a sign of her divine mission, and through Our mouth proclaims anew: any use of marriage exercised in such a way that through human effort the act is deprived of its natural power to procreate human life violates the law of God and of nature, and those who commit such an action are stained with the guilt of grave sin.Pope Paul VI confirmed this teaching in his 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae. The following explains:
Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process has already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to by excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. Equally to be condemned, as the magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man of the woman, whether permanent or temporary.Several other documents provide more insight into the Church's position on contraception. The commission appointed to study the question in the years leading up to Humanae Vitae issued two unofficial reports, a so-called "majority report" which described reasons the Catholic Church should change its teaching on contraception, signed by 61 of 64 scholars assigned to the pontifical commission, and a "minority report" which reiterated the reasons for upholding the traditional Catholic view on contraception. In 1997, the Vatican released a document entitled "Vademecum for Confessors" which states "he Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception." Furthermore, many Church Fathers condemned the use of contraception.
Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.
Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia repeats Catholic teaching and gives guidance in its interpretation. "The complexity of the issues that arose revealed the need for continued open discussion of a number of doctrinal, moral, spiritual, and pastoral questions." He also continues with a warning that: "The debates carried on in the media, in certain publications and even among the Church’s ministers, range from an immoderate desire for total change without sufficient reflection or grounding, to an attitude that would solve everything by applying general rules or deriving undue conclusions from particular theological considerations." The Pope finishes this with "Since 'time is greater than space', I would make it clear that not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium. Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary for the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it. This will always be the case as the Spirit guides us towards the entire truth."
The 1987 document Donum vitae opposes in-vitro fertilization because it is harmful to embryos and separates procreation from the union of the spouses. Later on, the 2008 instruction Dignitas personae denounces embryonic manipulations and new methods of contraception.
Roderick Hindery reported that several 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". 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". According to the American Enterprise Institute, 78% of American Catholics say they believe the Church should allow Catholics to use birth control, though other polls reflect different numbers.
According to Stephen D. Mumford, the Vatican's opposition towards birth control continues to this day and has been a major influence on United States policies concerning the problem of population growth and unrestricted access to birth control.
However, in December 2018, in a responsum, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under its Prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, stated that if the uterus can be found, with moral certainty, to not be able to ever carry a fertilized ovum to the point of viability, that a hysterectomy could be performed because under that very narrow circumstance, it is considered the removal of a failed organ and not per se sterilization since viability is not possible. If a hysterectomy is only done under this circumstance, it does not represent a shift in church teaching.
In July 2023, Pope Francis sent a message to a Natural Family Planning conference in which he upheld the central teachings of Humanae Vitae, warning Catholics that the widespread use of contraception had impoverished many societies and that some countries were now in danger of demographic collapse.
Despite the Church's teaching on contraception, spacing out births by natural means is a behavior that remains in full communion with the Church. Many married couples employ natural family planning Studies show a correlation between the practice of NFP and healthy spousal relationships in married couples who utilize this practice. Regardless of the Church's ideas about contraception, 99% of Catholics have used some type of contraception. About one quarter of Catholics use sterilization, 25% use hormonal birth control methods such as birth control pills and 15% have used a long-acting reversible form of birth control such as the IUD.
Mainline Protestantism
Author and FamilyLife Today radio host Dennis Rainey suggests four categories as useful in understanding current Protestant attitudes concerning birth control. These are the "children in abundance" group, such as Quiverfull adherents who view all birth control and natural family planning as wrong; the "children in managed abundance" group, which accepts only natural family planning; the "children in moderation" group which accepts prudent use of a wide range of contraceptives; and, the "no children" group which sees itself as within their Biblical rights to define their lives around non-natal concerns.Meanwhile, some Protestant movements, such as Focus on the Family, view contraception used outside of marriage as an encouragement to promiscuity. The Waldensian Evangelical Church believes birth control is acceptable.
Sex is a powerful drive, and for most of human history, it was firmly linked to marriage and childbearing. Only relatively recently has the act of sex commonly been divorced from marriage and procreation. Some religious groups express concern that access to contraception may encourage sexual activity outside marriage.