Poll on Catholic Use and Beliefs Regarding Contraception

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Semper_Zelare

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Let’s debunk the 98% of Catholic women use contraception right here with a poll. I would say Catholic Answers has to be at least slightly indicative of the Catholic population at large.

What I think might be a large fallacy here is that perhaps a lot of women used contraception during the 1960’s and 1970’s, but don’t any longer. Just like a lot of people might’ve smoked a cigarette once in their life, but aren’t for smoking, and actually to this day think smoking is unhealthy. Yet, despite their current beliefs and practices, they are actually counted as “pro-smoking” because they “have used cigarettes”.

Anyways, on another thread they said this 98% figure the media uses (even Fox news) is actually even more misleading, in that it only counts cases of unintended pregnacies. In other words… A LOT of Catholic women probably don’t use contraception if they want to become pregnant… but all of them aren’t counted.

So… I think an actual poll of CAF members is necessary on this. One which asks whether we have used it (as men or women), and whether we support it or reject it.

98% of Catholics don’t believe in contraception and support it.

**2 assumptions I’m making in the poll=
I’m assuming if Catholic women, Catholic men, or non-Catholics support contraception, that they also have used it. If they haven’t, I’m assuming they will in the future.

I had to lump the genders for Non-Catholics because of a lack of polling options. **
 
I can’t vote in this poll since I’m just a trial member however, I would have selected the option:

“I’m every Catholic, it’s all in MEEEEE…”

(KIDDING)

“I’m a Catholic man and I have never used contraception, I think it’s wrong.”

So, you can add +1 to whatever the final result is. 🙂
 
I believe that 98% figure is fabricated and the media never challenges it.
But what if it is true? Probably more than 90% of us have been drinking and driving. By the same logic we should eliminate all DUI laws.
Come Judgement Day we will not be judged by popular opinion anyway.
 
I just wanted to say, I don’t think CAF is representative of the Catholic population in the U.S. Users here tend to be practicing, faithful Catholics (for the most part). I mean, if you aren’t practicing, don’t go to Mass, don’t care what the Church says, I can’t see why CAF would even be on your radar.

I chose option one, but I think there should be an option "I am a Catholic convert, I used contraception before I converted to Catholicism, I think it’s wrong now.
That would be me.
 
********I was young and was fully ignorant of the CC’s teaching. Now we have only one child when we desired a big family. We lost two children in stillbirth’s and 3 in miscarriage. Not a day goes by that I do not think of our large family. Look forward to meeting them.
 
anp1215 said:
I just wanted to say, I don’t think CAF is representative of the Catholic population in the U.S. Users here tend to be practicing, faithful Catholics (for the most part). I mean, if you aren’t practicing, don’t go to Mass, don’t care what the Church says, I can’t see why CAF would even be on your radar.

I chose option one, but I think there should be an option "I am a Catholic convert, I used contraception before I converted to Catholicism, I think it’s wrong now.
That would be me.
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Well… I admit it’s not going to be entirely accurate. But… we already have one person supporting contraception in the vote. This forum is pretty large. It isn’t just practicing Catholics. And, even it were ONLY practicing Catholics… that is a larger percentage of the Catholic Church than 2%.
The media isn’t saying that, but it’s implied. They’re saying that ALMOST EVERYONE whether you’re in Church or out of Church on Sunday disagrees with the Church on this. Heck, a Republican commentator on the radio last night said, “If you’re Catholic and disagree with your Church over this… go ahead and protest all you want, take it up with them, that’s you’re right”.

Or something like that. This statistic is a serious way to undermine the Church. The media, the liberals… a whole lot of non-Catholics are saying, “Hey Catholics, if you disagree with your Church on this one, make them change their position.”

That’s dangerous stuff. The Church isn’t a democracy. The Church never derives truth from popular opinion. Unlike hundreds of Protestants Churches (who have voted to change their views on contraception/ women’s ordination/ gay marriage in only the last 100 years).

Lastly, I am sorry I didn’t think of converts… but then I’d be polling: Gender, whether you’re Catholic or not, whether you’ve used contraception or not, and whether you support it, and then tack on converts… I can only do so much with one poll 😃 But, that is interesting that people change their views on this when they come into the Church.
****[/So far we’ve got 91% of people against contraception.
And, among women 80% against contraception **

I’ll just say briefly, that there are more virgins in college now, then there were 15 years ago. If there are more virgins, how can 98% of women have used contraception? More than 2% of women are virgins, that’s for sure.**
 
anp1215 said:
I mean, if you aren’t practicing, don’t go to Mass, don’t care what the Church says, I can’t see why CAF would even be on your radar.
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A Catholic like the one you describe voting in a poll meant for Catholics is worthless. It would be equivalent to if you had a U.K citizen who had lived in the U.S since he was 3 months old, voting in a poll while on visit to the U.K for the first time at age 60, that was meant to get the opinion of someone who had lived in the U.K a majority of their life. I mean sure they’re a U.K citizen…but common.
 
Semper_Zelare said:
I’ll just say briefly, that there are more virgins in college now, then there were 15 years ago. If there are more virgins, how can 98% of women have used contraception? More than 2% of women are virgins, that’s for sure.
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That’s part of why the statistic is so misleading. The sample they pulled from was only women age 15-44 who are sexually active and who are not pregnant, post-partum, or seeking to become pregnant.

So, in other words, only sexually active women who don’t want to get pregnant.

There’s a representative sample. :rolleyes:

Plus, they just subtracted the 2% of those who practice NFP from the 100% total. They conveniently left out the 11% who were using no method to prevent pregnancy.

But why let the truth get in the way of a useful statistic. The statistic is now making the rounds and being so oft-repeated that it must be true. :rolleyes:
 
Semper_Zelare said:
Well… I admit it’s not going to be entirely accurate. But… we already have one person supporting contraception in the vote. This forum is pretty large. It isn’t just practicing Catholics. And, even it were ONLY practicing Catholics… that is a larger percentage of the Catholic Church than 2%.
The media isn’t saying that, but it’s implied. They’re saying that ALMOST EVERYONE whether you’re in Church or out of Church on Sunday disagrees with the Church on this. Heck, a Republican commentator on the radio last night said, “If you’re Catholic and disagree with your Church over this… go ahead and protest all you want, take it up with them, that’s you’re right”.

Or something like that. This statistic is a serious way to undermine the Church. The media, the liberals… a whole lot of non-Catholics are saying, “Hey Catholics, if you disagree with your Church on this one, make them change their position.”

That’s dangerous stuff. The Church isn’t a democracy. The Church never derives truth from popular opinion. Unlike hundreds of Protestants Churches (who have voted to change their views on contraception/ women’s ordination/ gay marriage in only the last 100 years).

Lastly, I am sorry I didn’t think of converts… but then I’d be polling: Gender, whether you’re Catholic or not, whether you’ve used contraception or not, and whether you support it, and then tack on converts… I can only do so much with one poll 😃 But, that is interesting that people change their views on this when they come into the Church.
****[/So far we’ve got 91% of people against contraception.
And, among women 80% against contraception ****

I’ll just say briefly, that there are more virgins in college now, then there were 15 years ago. If there are more virgins, how can 98% of women have used contraception? More than 2% of women are virgins, that’s for sure.
It’s fine, and yeah I definitely agree with you that 98% is too high, for sure.
Click to expand...
 
Nate13 said:
A Catholic like the one you describe voting in a poll meant for Catholics is worthless. It would be equivalent to if you had a U.K citizen who had lived in the U.S since he was 3 months old, voting in a poll while on visit to the U.K for the first time at age 60, that was meant to get the opinion of someone who had lived in the U.K a majority of their life. I mean sure they’re a U.K citizen…but common.
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Like it or not, they are still Catholics. The only criteria for polling is that the person identifies themselves as a Catholic.
 
wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/rescind-hhs-mandate-requiring-catholic-institutions-provide-insurance-covering-contraception-their/mG8SwXxj

NEW PETITION ON THE WHITE HOUSE PAGE!!!

If you made a white house account just to vote for the last petition… well, that petition is gone. I got an email, and it basically said “your concerns have been addresed, with the recent compromise by Obama on Friday.”

Well… the Catholic Bishops have rejected that “compromise”. So, we as Catholics should still be outraged at the Obama administration, because they’re still attacking religious liberty.

And, since all of that is still happening… there’s still a reason to petition about all this… so there’s the new petition. Post it all over CAF, facebook, twitter, and email it to your friends.

P.S. If you’re reading this, and you voted that you support contraception… feel free to tell us why. We’re not exactly gonna bring the Spainish Inquisition on you. LOL 😃

youtube.com/watch?v=ADF8wC_AvKo&feature=related
 
I am a new Catholic still going through catechism class. I have always agreed with contraception because it prevents so many situations that have negative results for the child.

I am studying this issue to understand why the Catholic Church has this teaching. So far I understand that the whole issue revolves around people interfering with the natural God ordained order of procreation.

Now I can accept that reasoning because I don’t think we should take any decision away from God that he has clearly said is his. We rebel when we do. But, what happens to those poor innocents when they are born to parents, or a mother, incapable of looking after them and loving them?

Or from a poor country where there isn’t the infrastructure and resources to care properly for adults let alone children?

They die or suffer horribly in competing for whatever food, etc., is available.

No easy answer, but God Bless Charities that try to address this issue. Bringing children into the world is a tremendous responsibility, and very few of us think or plan adequately for the responsibility of parenthood. Good on those that do! I know my wife and I did plan.

Libido is a cruel master. God has stated how it is to be handled, and the modern problems we have with this issue come about, it seems to me, because we are disobedient. We are willful.

Contraception would not be necessary in the world that God wanted. Abstinence and obedience is the best contraception, but our poor human selves like to repeat what feels good. Modern people don’t even see why they should control themselves, and don’t want to.

Sex is too pleasant. God sets a high standard and the only way we can reach it is through Jesus Christ, who strengthens us. It is possible to never use contraception.

Given our world and the fact that few even want to control themselves, an argument can be made for contraception but only in the negative sense of avoiding a worse situation. It is certainly not Godly, but it may stop suffering. So there is some justification, but no necessity if people abstain and obey God.
 
anp1215 said:
Like it or not, they are still Catholics. The only criteria for polling is that the person identifies themselves as a Catholic.
Click to expand...
Are they Catholics according to their own criteria, or according to the Catholic Church, who alone determines who remains in communion? Secondly, a lot of lapsed or ex-Catholics still refer to themselves as Catholic in a cultural sense, eg, they were raised Catholic by their parents, but have not practiced for quite some time.

I plan to start a thread addressing this strange phenomenon. The Catholic Church has a lot of hangers on who don’t agree with next to anything the Church teaches, but who can’t can’t seem to let it go either. It’s so strange to me; it would be like me joining the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) in hopes that I could convert it to a pro-life organization by attending meetings and participating in other activities of the organization.

The plight of lapsed Catholics who have not completely broken with the Church is both a hopeful and dreadful prospect to traditional Catholics like myself.

It is hopeful inasmuch as it speaks to the fact that these lapsed brothers and sisters in Christ have not completely surrendered to worldly temptation. There are many reverts on CAF who now embrace the Church.

It is dreadful in so far as their solution to their inability to choose between the Catholic Church and aspects of secular culture that are anathema to Catholicism is to moderate Catholicism and marry it to aspects of secularism, which cannot be accomplished without infringing on the right of more orthodox Catholics to worship according to our millenia old traditions. In essence, they want drag us all with them, or failing that, fracture the Body of Christ in a schismatic revolt.
 
Steven_Carnell said:
I am a new Catholic still going through catechism class. I have always agreed with contraception because it prevents so many situations that have negative results for the child.

I am studying this issue to understand why the Catholic Church has this teaching. So far I understand that the whole issue revolves around people interfering with the natural God ordained order of procreation.

Now I can accept that reasoning because I don’t think we should take any decision away from God that he has clearly said is his. We rebel when we do. **But, what happens to those poor innocents when they are born to parents, or a mother, incapable of looking after them and loving them?

Or from a poor country where there isn’t the infrastructure and resources to care properly for adults let alone children?

They die or suffer horribly in competing for whatever food, etc., is available.**

No easy answer, but God Bless Charities that try to address this issue. Bringing children into the world is a tremendous responsibility, and very few of us think or plan adequately for the responsibility of parenthood. Good on those that do! I know my wife and I did plan.

Contraception would not be necessary in the world that God wanted. Abstinence and obedience is the best contraception, but our poor human selves like to repeat what feels good. Modern people don’t even see why they should control themselves, and don’t want to.

Sex is too pleasant. God sets a high standard and the only way we can reach it is through Jesus Christ, who strengthens us. It is possible to never use contraception.

Given our world and the fact that few even want to control themselves, an argument can be made for contraception but only in the negative sense of avoiding a worse situation. It is certainly not Godly, but it may stop suffering. So there is some justification, but no necessity if people abstain and obey God.
Click to expand...
Well, all people experience suffering in some form during their lives. It’s better to be born and to experience life and go through suffering (and at least have a shot a better life)… than to never have life at all. I just caught that Oprah special last night about Hassidic Jews in New York. And the one family had 9 children, with another one on the way, and the parents were probably a lot better parents because they didn’t watch tv and ignore their kids. In fact, their kids actually enjoyed helping them prepare dinner… and they spent every evening having fun as a family (rather than everyone going to their own room with either a tv or computer screen).

The point isn’t that everyone should have big families. The point is, the “world that God wanted” is not Heaven. It is not unattainable. We have no place making that call, “oh the world isn’t good enough, I will choose when I want to have a kid”. The harsh reality of it all is that when most people in society do this (as most people in the U.S. and Europe do…) it leads to demographic decay. The entire society ages to the point where schools have to be progessively closed, and there just aren’t any children anymore. Apparently, in Europe if you go around there’s practically no children. They make up less than 20%, 15% or even 10% of the population.

Anyways, the long and short of it is over the past 100 years people have slowly rejected more and more Church teaching. Definitely accelerated since the 50’s. Anyways… just because most people live a radically way than what the Church envisions… and how people ALWAYS used to live, doesn’t mean the Church changes its teachings. It holds truths which are immaterial.

We sadly might have to come to grips that, perhaps 90-95% of people won’t live according to these teachings. [This is akin to the practicing Catholics in France… but it’s also akin to the Christians back in Ancient Rome]. If Americans want to live a decadent lifestyle… that truly is their loss.

And yes, we can’t make people be good parents. But that just emphasizes how morally bankrupt the secular lifestyle is. Secular people are unable to be good parents, unable to have enough children to replace the number adults… so it’s unsustainable. Decadent morals leads to a decadent society. More people care about selfishness and sins, and not raising a family, and keeping a wholesome home. Society collapses…

This is how flawed this situation is depicted statistically:
http://www.prb.org/images2/pyramid_cohorts.gif

These are called “age pyramids” … well, one of them looks like a pyramid, the other one doesn’t. Western Europe’s population will continue to dwindle and dwindle and dwindle if they don’t have children.

I’m not saying everyone needs to have 6 children. But, it is truly unhealthy when almost everyone has only 1 or 2 children, and sometimes 0. The very first commandment is to reproduce… not to mention that love is greater if you want to “have someone’s babies”, as opposed to having sterile, fruitless sex with them for your whole relationship… more and more ppl do this.
 
Semper_Zelare said:
Let’s debunk the 98% of Catholic women use contraception right here with a poll. I would say Catholic Answers has to be at least slightly indicative of the Catholic population at large.
Click to expand...
Really? I don’t think so at all. But we don’t need a poll to debunk what you said we just need to understand that the figure of 98% includes NFP. The poll was some form of contraception, I believe.

Unless there’s another poll I don’t know about. Besides, maybe they didn’t have a large enough or a representative sample of Catholic women, either.
 
Julia_Mae said:
Really? I don’t think so at all. But we don’t need a poll to debunk what you said we just need to understand that the figure of 98% includes NFP. The poll was some form of contraception, I believe.

Unless there’s another poll I don’t know about. Besides, maybe they didn’t have a large enough or a representative sample of Catholic women, either.
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Well, certainly counting NFP might’ve been part of it. And, certainly counting only sexually active Women is part of it. And, part of it has to be that it’s about women only. This comes completely from their camp… where EVERY woman is on the pill.

But, what we have learned from this poll is significant. That, outside of NFP, there might be a lot of Catholic women… and all women as well, who at one time used contraception (pills or whatever), but full contraception as medication in whatever form. And they no longer use contraception anymore, and are against it.

IE: The 1960’s and 70’s. People partied, people did a lot of things. People came back to the Faith a little later.

So far 10 out of 28 responses fall into this category. At least 6 of those women. Nearly a third of the responses fall into that.

Yet… all of these women were counted among those who used contraception actively… and because they use it they must support it. Well… looks like that isn’t the case at all.
 
Julia_Mae said:
Really? I don’t think so at all. But we don’t need a poll to debunk what you said we just need to understand that the figure of 98% includes NFP. The poll was some form of contraception, I believe.

Unless there’s another poll I don’t know about. Besides, maybe they didn’t have a large enough or a representative sample of Catholic women, either.
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It doesn’t include NFP. The point of the survey was that only 2% of Catholic women surveyed said they used NFP. The 98% figure did, however, somehow include the 11% of women who said they didn’t use any contraception at all.
 
cjmclark said:
It doesn’t include NFP. The point of the survey was that only 2% of Catholic women surveyed said they used NFP. The 98% figure did, however, somehow include the 11% of women who said they didn’t use any contraception at all.
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I see. Tnx. Is there a link to this survey or study?
 
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