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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 (kogrady@uottawa.ca).
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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