Any discussion on contraception assumes that it is a purely private matter of an individual or a couple. However, in modern industrial countries contraception and sterilization are practiced on a massive scale, so that we should expect them to have their effect on society as a whole. In fact, these effects are wider and deeper than one would expect at first glance.
Demographic Effect
First of all, there is the effect on the number of babies being born. In previous times we know that families were larger; families with eight, ten or twelve children were not unusual. Today we expect a family to have one, two or at the most three children. Larger families are the exception. The Englishman Andrew Pollard was asked to do a survey for an ice-cream manufacturer. When asked to estimate the number of people in the 18–34 age range some years ahead — those most likely to consume the firm’s luxury ice-cream — he discovered that by the requested date there would be a fall of 20% compared with the time of the survey. The reasons: a dramatic fall in the birthrate. Some would assume that the reason was the introduction of widespread abortion following the British Abortion Act of 1967. However, even if the 6 million children killed by abortion in Britain since then had all been allowed to live, the birthrate would still be below replacement level. Pollard concludes that the reason for the fall is the widespread practice of contraception, and formulates what he calls the Iron Law of Population: “Any country in which the mass of population practice effective contraception and abortion will die.”
But the influence of contraception is wider and deeper. It is not simply a matter of statistics. The practice of contraception leads to the fading of the perception that the sexual act has anything to do with the procreation of children. The act is deliberately manipulated to exclude the possibility. When contraception fails, the resulting baby is likely to be aborted. This is particularly true when conception takes place outside of marriage, in which case there is no proper provision for the upbringing of the child.
Attitude to Sexuality
The perception that sexuality is not connected to reproduction, gives rise to the concept of “recreational sex.” Sexual intercourse is regarded primarily as a source of pleasure. Since “nothing can happen,” i.e. no baby can be conceived, sexual activity is not confined to marriage. This leads to increased promiscuity, adultery and prostitution, and to perverse sexual practices, including homosexual practices, which are even proclaimed as ideal because they are 100% sterile. All these practices lead to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.
Artificial Reproduction
If there can be sex without babies, there can be babies without sex. The separation of the procreative from the unitive aspects of the sexual act through contraception has prepared the way for artificial reproduction. The first step was IVF. Further steps followed quickly — selective reduction (the selective killing of embryos when IVF is more successful than expected and the mother is carrying several children at once), the implantation of embryos from third person, surrogate motherhood, experimentation with surplus or deliberately produced embryos, pre-implantation diagnostics and cloning.
Abortion and artificial reproduction leads to contempt for life, which opens the way for euthanasia.
In the practice of contraception the spouses do violence to one another in that they tend to regard each other merely as a source of pleasure. The mutual rejection of fertility implies a (subconscious) personal rejection of each other. This burdens the marriage and often leads to divorce, which in its turn means suffering for the children. Society becomes dysfunctional and violence proliferates. Non-traditional “families,” such as single and divorced women with children, families with children from two or even three sets of parents, and same-sex unions with children, become acceptable, hence weakening the traditional family.
Loss of Faith
Husband and wife no longer regard each other with awe as a gift of God, entrusted to one another for life, but as a source of pleasure, which can be manipulated as required. Children are no longer seen as gifts and blessings of God, but as objects, which we have a right to destroy. It is presumed that children can be produced, selected, rejected, killed, cloned and designed to order. The Creator is rejected and man arrogantly arrogates to himself the place of God. It is blasphemy, which cries to high Heaven and which will one way or another lead to disaster.
The Way Forward
The healing of society requires the abolishing of the widespread practice of contraception and sterilization, The Catholic Church is the only body which consistently opposes contraception, so it should be a priority for bishops and priests to promote chastity both outside and within marriage. If this is done consistently it will eventually have an effect on society as a whole. Account should be taken of the fact that contraception is being vigorously promoted for commercial and ideological reasons.
The regulation of conception can be achieved by means of the natural methods, which are highly reliable and have none of the above-mentioned disadvantages, and on the contrary foster a positive attitude towards children, build marriages and preserve faith. All this is the reason for the apostolate of our organization, the Couple to Couple League, in promoting marital chastity by means of natural family planning.
Talk given at the Marriage, Family and Ethics Conference, Brno, Czech Republic. David Prentis works in the promotion of NFP in the Czech Republic.
