Many Catholics and other conservatives claim to be “prolife” but refuse to recognize the contraceptive mentality that clouds their worldview. I contend the failure to address this prolife paradox is a fundamental flaw in the prolife movement that severely hinders those who are working hard to end the scourge of abortion.
I raise this topic on the heels of the recent Ohio election that enshrined abortion into Ohio’s state constitution.
That’s right, by a margin of 56% to 44%, the people of Ohio voted to not only make abortion the law of the land, but a constitutional right, which the state legislature cannot even modify or touch. By all accounts, this was a massive loss for the prolife movement in that state and the nation.
At the same time, while so many Catholics claim to decry the outcome of the Ohio election, a super-majority of Catholics have or continue to use contraception without regard to the Church’s teaching on the issue. At this point, many will say, “okay, what does that have to do with the Ohio election?”
You may be surprised by this, but while Modernists have been arguing for years that “prolife” should not be limited to the issue of abortion, I am going to agree with them. While the Modernist wants to water down the prolife message by claiming “prolife” means helping the poor (something we should be doing anyway regardless of prolife efforts) and cleaning up the environment, I suggest expanding the prolife message in an entirely different direction.
The prolife movement should expand its efforts to include a strong, vigorous campaign against the contraceptive mentality that has not only hijacked modern secular culture, but even poisoned the prolife movement both inside and outside the Church.
Defining the Contraceptive Mentality
The contraceptive mentality is the worldview or idea that denies the sexual act has any objective purpose beyond the subjective desires of a couple, and therefore, wanting to avoid the conception of new human life is not only normal but should be encouraged through means of natural and/or artificial methods of birth control.
Let’s break this down. A contraceptive mentality intentionally rejects the reality that the primary purpose of the conjugal act, or marriage for that matter, is procreation. In effect, it leaves the individual at liberty to decide for themselves the purpose of sex without reference to objective reality. It could be simply personal pleasure, it could be a means of exercising control over others, it could be to foster intimacy, or any other purpose one’s mind could possibly come up with. The overall driving force behind the contraceptive mentality is to detach the sexual act from procreation.
Because the contraceptive mentality conveniently ignores defining the primary purpose of the sexual act, this means the generation of new life—i.e. children—becomes not a good of sexual union, but a negative consequence of it. Children are no longer seen as a gift from God, but a liability to be avoided.
If children are a liability, then of course sterilizing the sexual act, naturally or artificially, makes logical sense. If a child is conceived anyhow, abortion becomes the next option to avoid this liability. Abortion, at the end of the day, is a very effective form of birth control.
The contraceptive mentality is so powerful, it makes it easy for those who kill their offspring to overlook the “killing” part. But it’s this same contraceptive mentality that makes it quite easy for those who are “prolife” to justify engaging in other forms of birth control without guilt.
Combating the contraceptive mentality, therefore, requires both a fundamental change in how the culture views the purpose of the conjugal act, but also fostering a positive attitude towards marriage, procreation, and raising children.
Contraceptive Mentalities Inside and Outside the Church
Now, you may ask: “Doesn’t the Catholic Church teach against contraception and abortion? How is combatting the contraceptive mentality different than what we are trying to do in the Catholic Church today?”
Simple. Modernist, post-Vatican 2 Catholicism fails to promote and encourage marriage, procreation, and raising children. It advocates against abortion, of course. But at the same time, it sends the message that being “open to life” means waiting (for however long is necessary) to get married until you are “ready” for children. But even then, limiting the number of children born of the union is not just a viable option for married couples in many cases, but one that is responsible and even healthy so long as artificial means are not used.
If you do not believe me, just read Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae vitae, where he makes that very argument. Pope Paul says:
“With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time.”
I realize I will be accused of taking this paragraph out of context, but I am really not. The point here is not to dissect this encyclical, but simply to show that Modernists (like Paul VI) opened the door for Catholics to not only justify using birth control but suggest doing so is responsible and beneficial. At the end of the day, the contraceptive mentally rules even within the Church.
We also see mainstream prolife organizations accept the contraceptive mentality. Some protestant prolife organizations openly state it is acceptable to use contraception within marriage (See Focus on the Family’s position). Most Catholic-based organizations simply avoid talking about the issue of contraception altogether or encourage parishioners to use natural forms of birth control, such as Natural Family Planning (NFP).
Why? Why do these organizations and individuals adopt a prolife paradox with a contraceptive mentality? How can they claim to be against abortion but at the same time open to using techniques and devices that support the same mentality that drives the abortion industry?
The first reason is bad theology. At one time Catholics and even protestants, before the 1930s, understood the primary purpose of the conjugal act was to conceive and raise children within the bounds of marriage. Protestants simply changed their theology. Catholics, under Modernist influence, have subtly changed their theology to accommodate such a mentality because it comfortably fits in with the modern world.
The second reason is money. Mainstream organizations and clergy are worried that if they began to fight against the root of the problem (contraception), that they will lose the public’s trust and money because they realize most of the American population, including Catholics, have no problem with using birth control devices or, at minimum, techniques designed to avoid pregnancies.
They will often claim it is better to concentrate money and resources towards a goal that can be reasonably accomplished such as reducing the number of abortions, and once we achieve real success there, then focus on other moral vices like contraception use.
What they fail to see is that birth control and abortion cannot be separated. They are joined at the hip, so to speak, by the contraceptive mentality. But if you raise the issue of the contraceptive mentality, then it is obvious we must address the elephant in the room—birth control.
A Proper Catholic Response
So, how should Catholics properly respond to the current situation, both inside and outside the Church, when it comes to the contraceptive mentality?
First of all, we must keep in mind that not everyone is destined to have biological children. Some choose the religious celibate life, indeed a higher calling than the married life. Some have taken vows to be consecrated virgins, while others are widowed. Some are medically incapable of having children. Some couples are past the age of fertility. Some fulfill God’s will for them by remaining single and performing acts of charity. We are not talking about these groups or in any way suggesting they do not have a role to play—quite the contrary.
Everyone, regardless of ability to physically have children, can participate in the pro-marriage, procreation mentality. We must reject the contraceptive mentality that teaches sterilizing the conjugal act and limiting children born of such unions is acceptable. Instead, we must actively promote Holy Matrimony and fruitful marriages that produce large families with as many children as God wills us to have.
- Rather than say we are “prolife,” say we are “for marriage and having babies.”
- Rather than say we are against abortion, say we are against birth control.
- Rather than say we are against contraception, say we are for procreation.
- Rather than use the woman’s natural cycle to limit family size, use the woman’s natural cycle to have more babies.
- Rather than say wait for marriage until you are ready, say get married as soon as you find the right spouse.
- Rather than say we want to space our children for convenience or economic reasons, say we rely on God’s providence.
This may seem like a naïve strategy to you, but it only sounds naïve and unlikely to work because the contraceptive mentality has managed to gain such a hard and unrelenting control over the culture that our brains have become trained to passively accept all its evil presumptions.
Nor is this a difficult strategy to adopt if you accept the natural law. If you know anything about St. Thomas Aquinas and his theory on natural law, you know we are hard-wired as part of our human nature to be procreative and naturally inclined towards having more babies, which should be educated and raised by the married father and mother.
While procreation, not contraception, is the default setting in our human nature, St. Thomas also tells us that our natural inclination can become corrupted due to Original Sin and concupiscence. In our times, that corruption is the contraceptive mentality, which has poisoned our understanding and desire for marriage and children.
Perhaps if we just put more trust in God, nurture our reason and faith as Catholics, and set aside our own contraceptive mentality, we can make strides and make a difference for the good in this culture of death.