First comes love, then comes marriage… then comes the baby in the baby carriage.. no, really. Really, that’s how God meant it.
For the first time since 1973, the majority of Americans consider themselves pro-life. As encouraging as this is, unfortunately the percentage of birth control users in this same nation remains high (about 62%)! Even among Catholics this disparity remains.
These two ideas are fundamentally opposed to each other. If you claim to oppose abortion, then it necessarily follows that you have to be against birth control use. Here are four reasons why this is the case.
1. Pro-lifers ought to also oppose birth control because birth control can cause abortions!
Oral contraceptives can serve as abortifacients. This means they can cause a chemical abortion. They do this by disrupting the lining of the uterus, preventing a newly-formed child from implanting and growing.
The woman unknowingly passes her child, only days old, out of her body before she can even register a positive pregnancy test.
2. A pro-life birth control user is saying her devaluing of children is justified, but the abortion-minded woman’s is not. In actuality, both have the same mindset.
In fact, the majority of women who procure an abortion in this country claim they did so precisely because their birth control failed or they forgot to take it.
As it turns out, the Supreme Court of the United States cited the availability of abortion to be a backup plan to failed contraception, in the 1992 case, Casey v. Planned Parenthood. The Court said many sexual relationships are arranged, dependent upon the availability of abortion. Thus, to rid abortion would be tantamount to disrupting social norms in this country, in the eyes of the Supreme Court:
“…for two decades of economic and social developments, [people] have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.”
3. To accept birth control into a marriage deadens the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony. If you say couples are allowed to contracept, then what value does marriage have?
What is the qualitative difference between a contracepting, heterosexual marriage, and a so-called “gay marriage?” Sure, only the former one has a combination of genders. But this fact is rather insignificant, if the purpose of marriage is being ignored in both cases.
The Church teaches that the purpose of matrimony is to raise children in the faith (Catechism 1601). Children, yes children, are the purpose of Holy Matrimony.
This is evident, even in the name of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, as it means “State of Motherhood.” Therefore, Matrimony can be defined as an institution for the creation of motherhood—something sterile sex can never do.
4. If you accept contraception, you are saying that any resulting child’s value is greatly reduced. Your view of children is similar to the pro-abortion crowd, in that you are saying a child’s value comes in his parents’ desire to have him, not in his essence.
After all, using the Pill, a condom, or any other contraceptive means you are attempting to avoid the natural consequence of having sex, i.e. conceiving a child. Thus, if a child does come, you are saying you did not want that child.
Shouldn’t a positive pregnancy test be an occasion of joy?
So, after learning you and your partner are pregnant, rather than rejoice over this news, you have angst. After all, your will was not done.
Is that not the crux of the issue? Humans are trying to exert their will over who gets to live. Do we really know better than God?
In Conclusion
As explained, you cannot be opposed to abortion, saying unborn human lives are intrinsically valuable, while at the same time accepting use of birth control.
I realize there is a fundamental difference between intentionally killing a child (abortion), and taking measures to prevent the child from coming into existence. However, they both come from the same mindset… Or are “fruits of the same (rotten) tree,” as Pope John Paul II described it:
“Certainly, from the moral point of view contraception and abortion are specifically different evils: the former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of conjugal love, while the latter destroys the life of a human being; the former is opposed to the virtue of chastity in matrimony, the latter is opposed to the virtue of justice and directly violates the divine commandment “You shall not kill”. But despite their differences of nature and moral gravity, contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree” (Evangelium Vitae, 13, March 25, 1995, emphasis added).
Your Turn
What do you think?
Am I way off course? Do you think you can oppose abortion but still use contraception?
Or if you agree, what would you add as number five on this list?
Please leave a comment about this or anything else to discuss.
