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THE MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION
AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
Contraception
and religion
A
short history
by Kathleen O'Grady
(in Spanish translation here by
Maria Garcia)
Kathleen
O'Grady, who has contributed
many items to this Web site,
most notably the bulk of the bibliography
and a large part of the
discussion on religion
and menstruation, generously
sent to this site her article,
below, from The Encyclopedia of
Women and World Religion
(Serinity Young et al. (eds).
Macmillan, 1999).
Contraception has been known to
humankind from the earliest times.
Ancient Jewish sources, early
Islamic medical texts, and Hindu
sacred scriptures all indicate
that herbal contraceptives could
induce temporary sterility. Today,
however, there exists no uniform
position on contraception within
each of the major religious
traditions; rather, the issue is
marked by a plurality of views
from followers, religious leaders
and scholars. All of the
traditions discussed below are
founded on notions of fertility
and procreation within the family
and thus, while the views on
contraception vary widely, no
religion advocates the goal of a
childless marriage or the use of
contraception outside of the
marriage contract.
The Hebrew Bible promotes
prolific childbirth - "be fruitful
and multiply" (Gen 1:28) has been
taken by both Jews and Christians
as God's "first commandment" - yet
there is only one explicit
reference to birth control;
Genesis 38:9-10, states that
during intercourse Onan "spilled
his seed on the ground" (coitus
interruptus). This was "evil
in the sight of the Lord" and was
punished by Onan's death. Jewish
Talmudic literature builds on this
passage and prohibits the use of
any contraceptive device for use
by men which would waste the "male
seed"; female contraceptives may
be permitted for health reasons
(danger to the mother or to the
potential child). This remains the
Orthodox position on
contraception, which accepts
abstinence as the only permissible
birth control method except where
health reasons apply. Conservative
and Reform views, which note that
sexual pleasure between married
couples is permissible and
sanctioned by the rabbinical
literature, authorize social,
environmental and economic reasons
for the use of birth control in
addition to the health factors
accepted by Orthodox practice, and
leave the decision to individual
choice (declared formally at the
Central Conference of American
Rabbis, 1930; and the Rabbinical
Assembly of America, 1935).
Prior to the 1930s all Christian
denominations were united in their
firm rejection of contraceptives.
The Lambeth Conference of the
Church of England (1930) marks the
first departure from this
unanimous prohibition, by
advocating the use of artificial
contraception when abstinence was
deemed impracticable. The Federal
Council of Churches (1931) equally
adopted a policy of conservative
advocation for artificial birth
control methods. Most major
Protestant traditions followed
suit, and by 1961, the National
Council of Churches declared a
liberal policy on contraceptive
use, subject to mutual consent
between couples.
The total prohibition of
artificial birth control methods
by the Roman Catholic church,
declared by Pope Pius XI in his
1930 encyclical, Casi Connubii,
was maintained by the 1968 Humanae
vitae (the encyclical of
Pope Paul VI), and constitutes the
present day policy of the church.
The Catholic position on
contraception is highly influenced
by the natural law theory of
Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas,
which deems that sexuality has as
its end purpose, procreation; to
interfere in this end would be a
violation of the natural law, and
thus, a sin. This view is
maintained by some Anglicans,
Evangelicals, and Christian
fundamentalist denominations as
well. The Catholic Church
sanctions only abstinence and the
Natural Family Planning method
(NFP) as suitable techniques for
birth control.
Unlike the Catholic tradition,
the Eastern Orthodox Church does
not discern a moral difference
between artificial or natural
birth control methods. They note
that many Church Fathers, as well
as the Pauline texts in the New
Testament, do not strictly limit
sexual intercourse to procreation;
the Orthodox position is that
sexual intercourse also
constitutes an expression of love
within the marriage contract. No
official statement has been made
on prohibitions for artificial
contraceptives, while abortion,
infanticide and permanent
sterilization have been condemned.
The Orthodox Church allows a
married couple to make their own
decisions on contraceptive use.
There is a wide-spread variation
on attitudes to contraception in
the Islamic faith. The Quaran
states: "You should not kill your
children for fear of want" (17:31;
and 6:151). Critics of birth
control argue that this can be
extended to include a ban on all
family planning methods, while
advocates of birth control
indicate that this passage
explicitly refers to infanticide,
and note that there is no
prohibition against birth control
in the Quaran. Further, the Hadith
and Sunna literature clearly
permits the practice of coitus
interruptus ('azl),
and sources indicate that 'azl
was practiced by the prophet
Muhammed himself (Sunna related by
Jabir). Those in favour of
contraception argue that
artificial birth control is
morally the same as 'azl
and therefore to be accepted. Most
Muslim traditions permit the use
of birth control where health
reasons are an issue or where the
well-being of the family is
concerned; this affords great
flexibility and latitude in
interpretation and is reflected by
the vast differences in policies
on family planning by distinct
Muslim groups and countries.
Despite varying viewpoints, the
emphasis remains on procreation
within the family as a religious
duty. There is unanimous rejection
of sterilization and abortion.
Hinduism actively encourages a
prolific procreation within
marriage but there is no
prohibition against birth control
in the Hindu religion. The
Upanishads describe a birth
control method (Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad) and temporary
abstinence is advocated in the
Shastras, while abortion is
condemned. Still there is a wide
variance of views on contraception
by Hindu scholars: Gandhi
advocated birth control based on
abstinence and not through
artificial means, while
Radhakrishnan and Tagore, on the
other hand, promoted the use of
artificial methods. India was the
first nation to establish a
governmental population strategy
based on birth control measures.
Common concerns unite all major
religious traditions on the issue
of birth control. The critics of
family planning in each tradition
fear that contraceptive use will
encourage immorality and illicit
sex, while further, many
non-Western faiths fear that
liberal contraceptive policies
encourage a Western model of
living that would destroy the
family and family values. Feminist
commentators have viewed
prohibitions on birth control as a
means to control female sexuality
and independence.
Bibliography
Most of the literature on
contraception and religion is
contained in sociological, health
or environmental studies on
population control. Very little
work has been completed
specifically on the relation
between birth control and
religious institutions, but
references to contraception
(particularly with a feminist
analysis) can be found in more
general texts on women and
religion or in articles dealing
with religious views of abortion.
Catholic and Islamic opinions of
birth control are the most
comprehensively covered in the
secondary literature. Janet E.
Smith's Humanae Vitae: A
Generation Later (1991)
offers a systematic examination of
the moral and theological
implications of the arguments
against the present Catholic
prohibition on artificial birth
control methods, and argues that
the Church ruling on birth control
is a logical extension of its
traditional teachings on morality
and the family; while this is a
conservative text that supports
the ban on contraception it
nevertheless offers the most
detailed historical information on
the arguments against birth
control in the Catholic church to
date. Similarly, Abortion, Birth
Control & Surrogate Parenting:
An Islamic Perspective by Abul
Fadl Mohsin Ebrahim supports a
conservative Muslim position on
contraception, yet offers a clear
and concise listing of the primary
text references and religious
commentaries on the subject.
Feminist analysis of contraception
in the Islamic tradition include
Islam, Gender and Social Change
edited by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad
and John L. Esposito (1998) and
Theodora Foster Carroll's "Islam
and Population" in her Women,
Religion, and Development in the
Third World (1983). The most
recent information on religious
views of contraception can be
found in the proceedings of the
September 1994 United Nations
conference on Population and
Development held in Cairo
(Document A/Conf.171/13). See
specifically Chapter VII:
"Reproductive Rights and
Reproductive Health" and the
reservations to this chapter made
by various Islamic countries and
the Holy See. Proceedings of the
International Islamic Conference
in Rabat, 1971, are also available
in printed form as Islam and
Family Planning (Isam R. Nazer et
al. eds, International
Planned Parenthood Federation,
1974).
In "Hindu Ethics for Modern
Life" (pp. 5-35, in World
Religions and Global Ethics, S.
Cromwell Crawford , ed., 1989) S.
Cromwell Crawford includes an
extensive section on birth control
in a Hindu context. Bardwell Smith
offers an account of Japanese
Buddhist views on contraception in
"Buddhism and Abortion in
Contemporary Japan" (pp. 65-90 in
Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender,
José Ignacio
Cabezón, ed., 1992). Susan
Power Bratton's Six Billion and
More: Human Population Regulation
and Christian Ethics (1992) links
a Christian moral theology with
issues of contraception and
population control. "The Morality
of Contraception: An Eastern
Orthodox Opinion" (Journal of
Ecumenical Studies, Vol. XI, No.
4, 1974, pp. 677-690) by
Chrysostom Zaphiris, an Orthodox
theologian himself, contrasts the
views of the Roman Catholic church
with those of the Eastern
Orthodoxy on the concept of family
planning generally. Similarly,
Harmon L. Smith contrasts Anglican
views of contraception with
Catholic natural law theory in
"Contraception and Natural Law: A
Half-Century of Anglican Moral
Reflection" (pp. 181-200 in The
Anglican Moral Choice, Paul Elmen
ed., 1983).
Kathleen O'Grady
Kathleen
O'Grady is Bank of Montreal
Visiting Scholar at the
Institute of Women's Studies,
University of Ottawa ([email protected]). She has
written extensively on feminist
philosophy. Her book, Sweet
Secrets: Stories of
Menstruation, with Paula
Wansbrough (Toronto: Second
Story Press, 1997) contains a
cross-cultural study of menarche
as a rite of passage for teenage
girls.
See Egyptian
hieroglyphics from about 1550
B.C.E. describing a
tampon used for contraception.
See
Australian
douche
ads in the "Wife's Guide
and Friend": The
Australian government prosecuted
this publication for being obscene
because it advertised
contraceptives and contained birth
control information.
See Fresca
douche powder (early 20th
century, U.S.A.); the label
contains language possibly hinting
at contraceptive use.
Read selections from Married Love
(first published 1918), Dr. Marie Stopes'
book that was banned until 1931 in
America. Dr. Stopes founded the
first birth-control clinic in the
British Empire, in 1921, and it's
still running.
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Copyright 1999 Kathleen O'Grady
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