The Contraceptive ‘Compromise’
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Reviews on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 5:46 PM
Whenever the topic of “finding common ground” to end abortion comes up, it seems there is always a push for more public funding of contraceptives and sex education.
Cathy & Austin Ruse have a short piece in First Things reporting on the latest iteration of that argument…and dissecting it pretty thoroughly.
Their argument takes place in the context of American politics because it’s responding to a salvo against “Conservatives,” but I thought you might like the information in it “for your files.”
It’s worth noting, too, that what the Ruses argue with respect to abortion and contraceptives generally is precisely what the Holy Father said about condoms and AIDS last month during his flight to Africa—and for which he was roundly rebuked in the world’s press.
What the Pope actually said in response to a question was the following:
I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness - even through personal sacrifice - to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress.
“Therefore, I would say that our double effort is to renew the human person internally, to give spiritual and human strength to a way of behaving that is just towards our own body and the other person’s body; and this capacity of suffering with those who suffer, to remain present in trying situations.
“I believe that this is the first response [to AIDS] and that this is what the Church does, and thus, she offers a great and important contribution. And we are grateful to those that do this.”
The problem, in other words—both with AIDS and abortion—is promiscuity, which contraceptives promote. As the Ruses put it:
More contraception tends to mean more sex, and more sex means more chances for unexpected pregnancies. But it’s more than just a numbers game. Contraception is the promise of child-free sex, and when something goes wrong and a child is conceived—due either to the technical failure rate of contraception or to the possibility of human error in anything we humans undertake—abortion takes that child-free promissory note to the bank.
The epidemiological and sociological studies back the Church on this issue, both with respect to abortion—as the Ruses note—and with respect to AIDS. As the head of Harvard’s AIDS Prevention Research Project said in the Pope’s defense,
“We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working.”
As the Holy Father says, it is the humanizing of sexuality that is the key to lowering both abortion and AIDS rates: a thing that won’t be achieved by promoting contraceptives, which are all over the place in any case.
To echo Danielle’s post below, we all deserve better: women and men.
Print Blog
Email a FriendPost a Comment
By submitting this form, you give Faith And Family Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.
