A Culture Invested In Contraception

Details: 24 February 2012

President Obama’s edict forcing insurance plans to cover sterilization and contraception, including drugs that can cause abortions, has exposed a couple of very sensitive nerves in our society: religious freedom and contraception.

Although the president and his collaborators at Planned Parenthood want this debate to be about contraception and not religious freedom, the fact that he is forcing religious institutions and people of faith to comply has made the debate about our Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom. The long list of non-Catholic religious leaders opposing the edict punctuates this point.

But wait, some will say, the president heard this concern and announced to the nation that he will "accommodate" those concerned that their religious liberty is being trampled upon. Left-leaning Catholic groups (e.g. the Catholic Health Association) and individuals (and a willing media) were delighted and pronounced the matter settled.

The only official voice of the Catholic Church, the Bishops, said the president’s "accommodation" was "hogwash" (loosely translated of course!). First, few people likely know that while the president was publicly announcing the "accommodation" (which has no force of law), his administration finalized the mandate (which does have the force of law) without any accommodation.

Second, the president’s accommodation does not remedy the edict’s infringement on religious freedom since contraceptive coverage would still have to be provided as a part of someone’s employment with a religious institution. And third, the president takes an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" not to "accommodate" it.

The other nerve the president’s edict exposed is just how entrenched and invested in contraception our society has become. We hear the euphemistic references to contraception as "women’s health care" or "preventative health care services" as though pregnancy is a disease.

Then we hear the oft-repeated line that "98 percent of Catholics use contraception." Though I suspect that percentage is fabricated and inflated, no one would dispute that a large majority of Catholics use contraception, disregarding (or unaware of) the Church’s teaching that the use of contraception is a grave sin. How sad.

It is especially sad that generations of Catholics have, at best, been minimally catechized about the Church’s teaching on the truth and meaning of human sexuality. The truth of this teaching was demonstrated, in part, by how Pope Paul VI rejected the recommendation by a Vatican Commission (and perhaps his own personal views) and reaffirmed the Church’s consistent teaching that contraception is contrary to God’s design for human love and life.

Near the end of his pontificate, Pope Paul VI defended his decision, expressed in his encyclical Humanae Vitae, as an act of fidelity to his teaching responsibility as the Vicar of Christ. And President Obama’s coercive act further demonstrates how prophetic Paul VI was when he predicted in Humanae Vitae that widespread use of contraceptives would result in the following: General lowering of moral standards; a rise in infidelity, and illegitimacy; the reduction of women to objects used to satisfy men; and government coercion in reproductive matters.

The meaning of the Church’s teaching on human sexuality was explained, with a profound depth, in a series of talks given by Pope John Paul II at his Wednesday audiences over the first five years of his pontificate. This teaching, known as Theology of the Body, came from an undeniably extraordinary figure in Church history, beatified only a handful of years following his death.

For the good of our nation, I hope and pray that our president’s attack on religious liberty is soundly defeated. For the good of achieving a civilization of authentic love and life, I hope and pray that this attack serves as a pivotal moment when Catholics sincerely and prayerfully examine—and commit to—the transcendent beauty of the Church’s teaching on sexual morality.

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.