Contra-Contraception

The article in the NYT Magizine on contraception that Eduardo mentioned is entitled "Contra-Contraception."  After remembering Daniel Defoe's 1727 essay "Conjugal Lewdness:  or, Matrimonial Whoredom," which was later renamed "A Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of Power of the Marriage Bed," the author, Russell Shorto says:  "The wheels of history have a tendency to roll back over the same ground. For the past 33 years — since, as they see it, the wanton era of the 1960's culminated in the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 — American social conservatives have been on an unyielding campaign against abortion. But recently, as the conservative tide has continued to swell, this campaign has taken on a broader scope. Its true beginning point may not be Roe but Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 case that had the effect of legalizing contraception. ‘We see a direct connection between the practice of contraception and the practice of abortion,’ says Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, an organization that has battled abortion for 27 years but that, like others, now has a larger mission. ‘The mind-set that invites a couple to use contraception is an antichild mind-set,’ she told me. ‘So when a baby is conceived accidentally, the couple already have this negative attitude toward the child. Therefore seeking an abortion is a natural outcome.’”

Shorto asks: “Why is this happening? What's the nature of the opposition to something that has become so basic a part of modern life?”

To me, his answer is the most interesting part of the article – it also points to the relevance of Catholic thought in the public square.

Shorto says:  “One starting point is the Catholic Church, and especially Pope John Paul II, whose personal and philosophical magnetism revitalized Catholics around the world, especially the young. A series of reflections the pope gave between 1979 and 1984 on the ‘theology of the body’ — his vision of the integrated physical, mental and spiritual human — has become a whole method of study within the church."

“The pope was a trained philosopher, and the actual text of his addresses on the topic can be dense: ‘Masculinity and femininity — namely, sex — is the original sign of a creative donation and an awareness on the part of man, male-female, of a gift lived in an original way.’ But his words have been unpacked and pored over by theologians and students, and they have shaped a new approach to sex that is, in many ways, old. Kimberly Zenarolla, for one, is applying the theology of the body to the American political sphere. She is the director of strategic development for the National Pro-Life Action Center, a two-year-old organization with 10,000 members that lobbies on abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research and contraception. She's also a single 34-year-old who lives in Washington with, as she put it, ‘a group of young professionals who are living the countercultural message of chastity to its fullest expression.’"

"Zenarolla told me she converted to Catholicism two years ago: ‘I tell people I became Catholic because of the church's teaching on contraception. We are opposed to sex before marriage and contraception within marriage. We believe that the sexual act is meant to be a complete giving of self. Of course its purpose is procreation, but the church also affirms the unitive aspect: it brings a couple together. By using contraception, they are not allowing the fullness of their expression of love. To frustrate the procreative potential ends up harming the relationship.’"

"… As Pope Benedict XVI wrote when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, ‘Contraception and abortion both have their roots in [a] depersonalized and utilitarian view of sexuality and procreation — which in turn is based on a truncated notion of man and his freedom.’”

As the article makes clear, this contra-contraception mentality is not limited to Catholics, with some influential Protestants now seeing the destructive force of a contraceptive mentality.

A couple of years ago, I attempted to draw a link between Griswold, Eisenstadt, Roe, Casey, Lawrence, and Goodrich.  Am I out to lunch or am I on to something?

Michael S.