The Catholic Church and Birth Control
Birth Control and the Church
How did the Catholic Churches opinion change on birth control from the 1930s to the 1960s? I became interested in this topic when I went on birth control when I was nineteen years old. I had, had very painful periods sense I was fifteen, but was never allowed to go to the doctor because my parents did not want me on birth control for several reasons, but mostly religious reasons. When I finally moved out on my own, I made the decision myself to see a doctor and was put on birth control which had my periods completely stopped. Fastforward to earlier this year my roommate who also grew up religious decided she wanted to go on birth control she asked what I suggested because she had heard that it is healthier to have a period. I stated that this was false information and that the only reason they require pills that allow you to menstruate is because the Catholic Church was uncomfortable with the idea of women not having periods. And so, my curiosity was peaked.
On New Year’s Eve 1930, the Roman Catholic Church officially banned any “artificial” means of birth control. (American Experience, The Pill) They went as far as to even ban condoms. They considered it a “mortal sin” to tamper with the male seed and considered it murder. The church believed that if you were willing to have intercourse then you should be willing to take the risk of bringing a child into the world. (American Experience, The Pill) The issue that doctors and the government was running into at the time was the death rate of children and mothers were extremely high. The National Archives Catalog has a recording called the “march of time.” In this recording they talk about how they started noticing that young men were not growing to be as strong and healthy as was expected because their families could not afford to feed them. They stated that the church had the right to their opinion but that it was an uneducated one and that something needed to change. (National Archives Catalog. “March of time” 1934–1951) Even the Baptist church in the United States saw the need for birth control in third world countries. As Melissa J. Wild states in her book Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion. She states that there was great fear of people living and dying in poverty and not being able to feed themselves. (Wild, et. Al. 2020) Although they agreed that overpopulation was becoming an issue, they still wanted to place blame on the poor family’s by stating that if they could simply control themselves, they would be able to control how many children they had. (Wild, et. Al 2020)
The opinion of the church did not change for a long time in 1959 the Catholic times published an article where the pope at the time condemned the United States for using tax payer money to send birth control to underdeveloped countries. The pope stated that the U, S, should help these countries but not like this. (The Catholic Times, December 04, 1959) On July 25, 1968, Pope Paul VI stunned Catholics around the world with his announcement of Humanae Vitae, “Of Human Life,” a document in which he forcefully reaffirmed the church’s previously stated position in the use of artificial birth control, calling it “intrinsically wrong.” (NPR, 1968: How we got here) The Pope thought it was a wrong to decide how many children got brought into the world and this was something that should be left up to God. This brought into question the authority of the church as a moral guide. (Geiringer, et. Al. 2020) By this time at least half of catholic women were using birth control and at least two out of three women were on birth control to regulate pregnancy. Families felt that they had a right to decide how big their families were despite what the church said. (NPR, 1968: How we got here) The catholic church was not able to uphold the ban on birth control much longer after this.
In David Geiringer’s book The Pope and The Pill he recounts an interview with a woman named Margret. She states that for the first ten years of her marriage she fallowed the will of the Catholic Church but she found that “natural family planning” and “Rythm” planning had not worked for her and her husband. They had six children by the time they had been married for ten years and she felt very sexually frustrated. She decided to ignore the church and go on the pill When Pope Paul VI made his statement, she had felt distressed but decided to ignore the statements of the Pope, and do what she felt best for herself and her family. (Geiringer, et. Al 2020) In Leslie Woodcock Tentler’s book Catholics and Contraception she quotes a mother of eight’s story about the shame she felt when she decided to go on the pill that she would now no longer be able to take communion or have Him (God) sustain her. Her priest simply suggested that her and her husband sleep in different bedrooms. (Woodcock Tentler, et. Al. 2018) Many clergy found it hard to combat the discussion of birth control because of their choice to be abstinent as well they felt for these women trying to feed all the children they were having. (Woodcock Tentler, et. Al 2018)
So going back to my question. How did the Catholic Churches opinion of birth control change from the 1930s to the 1960s? To be honest it really does not seem to have changed I feel like they chose to ignore it or their attention switched to things more pressing things like abortion. Part of me also feels that this was the downfall of the church. Many of the testimonials that I read talk about how they felt that the church was wrong about this and that if they were wrong about this what else were they wrong about. I found nothing more recent on what the church thought about birth control this has led me to believe that the church now has no opinion on birth control. The opinion that does seem to have changed is where life comes from. The opinion of the church in the 1920’s was that the male is what created life while now woman is what are acknowledged as life givers. The church still has a long way to go in educating themselves on birth control and womans health as I stated about my own experience there is a lot of misinformation, but my hope is that things continue to get better and that people can do what they believe is best for them and their health without the guilt of what “God” or the “Church” may think of them.
