top_part.jpg (22221 bytes)








 

Contra-Contraception
A Historical, Theological, and Moral Critique of Contraception Use in America

Click here to start

Part 1: What is Contraception?
Part 2: The Dark History of Contraception
Part 3: Contraception and the Catholic Church
Part 4: Answering Arguments for Contraception
Bottom Line
The End

Outline

Contra-Contraception

A Historical, Theological, and Moral Critique of Contraception Use in America

Part 1: What is Contraception?

  • "Intentional prevention of conception or impregnation through the use of various devices, agents, drugs, sexual practices, or surgical procedures."
    (source www.dictionary.com)
  • These include condoms, birth control pills, spermicides, methods like "pulling out," and surgical sterilization.

Part 2: The Dark History of Contraception

  • Contraception has been historically driven by two desires:
    • Eugenics - The Science of Breeding a Superior Race of Humans
    • Sexual Liberation
  • The three people most responsible for this are:
    • Charles Darwin
    • Margaret Sanger
    • Dr. Alfred Kinsey
  • Charles Darwin
    • Born 1809
    • Trained in medicine, left for biology
    • Pioneer of the Theory of Evolution
    • Darwin applied "Survival of the fittest" to human beings as well as animals.
    • In 1871 he published "The Descent of Man" which fully explored the idea of survival of the fittest among human beings in stark, racist, language.
    • "At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes . . .will no doubt be exterminated . . .
      . . . The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla." (Source: Descent of Man, Chapter 6, pg. 201)
    • In fact, Darwin’s eugenic undertones are even present in his most famous book, On the Origin of Species whose full title is: "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life."
    • The Paradox of Survival in Society: "With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment . . .
      . . . There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man." (Source: Descent of Man, Chap 5 - Pg. 168)
  • Margaret Sanger
    • Born 1879
    • 10 siblings and irresponsible father
    • Grew to despise large families and advocated birth control
    • Eugenics advocate
    • Sanger shared the same eugenic goals as Darwin: "In the early history of the human race, so-called ‘natural law’ reigned undisturbed. Under its pitiless and unsympathetic iron rule, only the strongest, most courageous could live and become progenitors of the race. The weak died early or were killed . . .
      . . . Today, however, civilization has brought sympathy, pity, tenderness and other lofty and worthy sentiments, which interfere with the law of natural selection. We are now in a state where our charities, our compensation acts, our pensions, hospitals, and even our drainage and sanitary equipment all tend to keep alive the sickly and the weak, who are allowed to propagate and in turn produce a race of degenerates." (Source: Margaret Sanger, Birth Control Review, December 1917)
    • Sanger found a solution to the "Survival Paradox" through birth control. Through sterilization, inferior races would stop reproducing at a high rate.
    • Founded American Birth Control League in 1922
    • Renamed Planned Parenthood in 1942
    • Famous Sanger Quotes:
      "Birth Control: To Create a Race of Master Thoroughbreds"
      " . . . we prefer the policy of immediate sterilization, of making sure that parenthood is absolutely prohibited to the feeble minded." (Source: Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger, P. 101-2)
  • Dr. Alfred Kinsey
    • Born 1894
    • Son of a devout Methodist
    • Addicted to abnormal sexual acts during youth
    • Became a zoologist who specialized in the mating habits of the Gall Wasp
    • 1938 - Began "sex studies" at Indiana State University
    • In 1948 he published "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male."
    • He followed in 1952 with "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female."
    • He claimed that 95% of the population engaged in "deviant" sexual behavior like promiscuity and adultery
    • He also claimed that 10% of the population is homosexual
    • Information was gathered through rigorous surveys, (some 300+ questions)
    • Said abnormal sexual behavior wasn’t really abnormal at all, "People needed to be liberated from repressed sexuality."
    • Kinsey received critical acclaim for his books
    • Kinsey’s research led to lowering punishments for sex crimes in the "Model Penal Code"
    • Morris Ernst, the attorney for Margaret Sanger, fought for Kinsey as well. He crusaded for abortion and pornography.
    • Kinsey was a fraud! 1/3 of the respondents in his "surveys" were convicted sex offenders and prostitutes!
    • Experiments recorded in "Table 34" documented adults having sex with pre-adolescent children, including testimony from serial child-rapist Rex King.
      • (In the reports he was called "Mr.. X" and was never turned over to the authorities)
    • The Kinsey Institute lost its funding from the Rockefeller Center in 1954 because of its poor methods. Funding was re-supplied by Playboy magazine.
    • Kinsey’s model of sexuality lives on today in modern sex-ed programs that treat sex as normal for teenagers and contraception as a necessity. (Source: The Kinsey Corruption by Susan Brinkman, and the work of Dr. Judith Riesman)
    • Bottom Line: These three "architects" helped to create a view of sex as a by-product of our animal instinct. They portrayed casual sex as more common and normal than it actually is. They also created a need for contraception to either facilitate a superior race or provide sexual freedom without responsibility.

Part 3: Contraception and the Catholic Church

  • Marriage: As defined by the Church - "The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of their entire life, which is ordered by its own nature to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of offspring, has been raised, between the baptized, to the dignity of sacrament by Christ the Lord." (Canon 1055 of the Code of Canon Law)
  • Children are essential to marriage and using contraception violates the main purpose of marriage.
  • GUTS - The Essentials of Marriage
    • God
    • Unity
    • Toddlers
    • Splural (Everyday)
  • Can’t couples be open to life, just not in every act of intercourse?
  • Can’t couples be faithful to one another, but not in every act of intercourse?
  • Every act of intercourse is a renewal of wedding vows, and contraception prevents couples from renewing their vow to have children.
  • Contraception and Scripture - The Sin of Onan: "Judah got a wife named Tamar for his first-born, Er. But Er, Judah's first-born, greatly offended the LORD; so the LORD took his life. Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Unite with your brother's widow, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother's line.’ Onan, however, knew that the descendants would not be counted as his; so whenever he had relations with his brother's widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother. What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too." (Genesis 38: 6-10)
  • Levirate Law: The Duty of Brothers: "When brothers live together and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not marry anyone outside the family; but her husband's brother shall go to her and perform the duty of a brother-in-law by marrying her. The first-born son she bears shall continue the line of the deceased brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel. If, however, a man does not care to marry his brother's wife, she shall go up to the elders at the gate and declare, 'My brother-in-law does not intend to perform his duty toward me and refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel.' Thereupon the elders of his city shall summon him and admonish him. If he persists in saying, 'I am not willing to marry her,' his sister-in-law, in the presence of the elders, shall go up to him and strip his sandal from his foot and spit in his face, saying publicly, 'This is how one should be treated who will not build up his brother's family!’ And his lineage shall be spoken of in Israel as 'the family of the man stripped of his sandal.’ (DT 25:5-10)

Part 4: Answering Arguments for Contraception

  • 1. "If contraception is wrong then are couples only supposed to have sex when they want kids, and are they supposed to be happy with 12 or 15 children!"
    • Answer: Natural Family Planning (NFP) allows couples to work with God to space out how many children they have.
  • 2. "What’s the difference between NFP and contraception, don’t they do the same thing?"
    • Answer: The difference between NFP and "artificial contraception" is the same as the difference between a miscarriage and an abortion.
    • How NFP works:
      • Women have a natural cycle of fertility and infertility every 7-12 days.
      • NFP involves checking temperature and other body signs that show this cycle.
    • The wedding invitation analogy:
      • Normal sexual intercourse sends an invitation to God to create life. It’s like inviting God to the final part of the wedding.
      • Contraception sends an invitation telling God to stay home. Would you send an invitation to someone (especially God!) telling them not to come to your wedding?
      • Abstinence is just not sending an invitation at all.
      • NFP sends an invitation for God to be a part of the act, but the participants know there is a small chance he’ll show up. But if he does it’s still great (those who practice NFP have surprise pregnancies, not unwanted pregnancies).
  • 3. "NFP is too unreliable. According to the FDA it’s only 80% effective."
  • 4. "The Church needs to get with the times."
    • Answer: No . . . The times need to get with the Church! Until the 1930’s no Christian denomination supported contraception. Now the Catholic Church is one of the few that still oppose it. (Source: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1997/9704word.asp)
  • 5. "Contraception helps marriage by allowing couples to have more worry-free sex."
    • Answer: It actually harms marriage by -
      • Making adultery easier to commit.
      • Increasing divorce rates. As contraception increased from 1965-1975, so did divorce. (Source: Robert Michael, Stanford University)
    • The predictions of Pope Paul VI (1968) on the impact of contraception on society:
      • A general lowering of morality.
      • An increase in the disregard of women’s physical and emotional well being by men.
      • A loss of respect for the human person and an attitude of the body as just a "machine."
  • 6. "Contraception is needed to reduce unwanted pregnancies and subsequent abortions."
    • Answer: History has shown that the opposite has happened. With increased contraception use over the past 40 years, divorce rates and abortion rates have skyrocketed!
  • 7. "The world is too overpopulated, we need contraception to control population growth."
    • Answer: Overpopulation is a myth. There is enough food to feed 10 billion people. The problem is inadequate food distribution in poorer countries. (Source: Council for Agricultural Science and Technology)
  • 8. "What about people who use contraception for health reasons?"
    • Answer: They are permitted to do that under the principle of the double-effect: "... in cases where a contemplated action has both good effects and bad effects, the action is permissible only if it is not wrong in itself and if it does not require that one directly intend the evil result." (Source: David Solomon - The Encyclopedia of Ethics)
  • 9. "Modern contraceptives are a safe form of birth control."
    • Answer: The birth control pill has been linked to increasing the risk of breast and cervical cancer. (Source: National Cancer Institute) (http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/3_13.htm)
    • Other side effects of the pill include:
      • increased irritability
      • increased propensity to depression
      • weight gain
      • a reduced libido
  • Bottom Line - Contraception robs people of the dignity of the person and turns them into sexual objects
  • In order to truly emulate the image and love of God when consummating a marriage, it must be open to creating life, just like God.

The End

Back to The Refutation Station


|Home|Life Is...|Pictures|Calendar|Parents|Extras|Contact Us|

Last updated on Monday, March 28, 2005

chiavi.jpg (7310 bytes)
The Vatican
transparent_cross.gif (4994 bytes)
Diocese of Phoenix
collegelogo.jpg (8572 bytes)
College LIFE
alivelogo.jpg (9282 bytes)
ALIVE!
lifeteen_logo.jpg (6920 bytes)
LifeTeen.org