Should birth control be illegal?

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ATrai

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This is a question for people who are not only pro-life but think that abortion should be illegal. Do you also think birth control should be illegal? It is also a mortal sin, according to the Catholic Church. What about skipping a mass, also a mortal sin? Why can these things be legal but not abortion?

I know many people would say that abortion can be considered objectively evil, not just from a religious standpoint. But isn’t that true of all good theology/apologetics? I frequently hear Catholics say that truth can be arrived at through sound logic.

So, why should abortion be illegal and not everything else?
 
ATrai said:
Why can these things be legal but not abortion?
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Artificial contraception is evil (birth control itself can be used for non-contraceptive reasons), but not murder. Willfully skipping Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation without a legitimate reason is evil, but not murder (while we have our disagreements on truth, and work and pray for the conversation of others, forcing people to become or act as Catholics is morally wrong). Abortion is murder. Just because something is evil does not mean there must be a civil penalty involved with it as well, but in the case of abortion, just as we’d prosecute people for murder, so too would abortion.
 
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But we prosecute for petty theft, which isn’t murder. There is simply a lesser punishment by law.
 
ATrai said:
But we prosecute for petty theft, which isn’t murder. There is simply a lesser punishment by law.
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Petty theft also involves property being taken from one innocent party. Murder is the intentional killing of an innocent person. Both parties also have a civil element to the moral wrong: loss of property and loss of life.
 
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ATrai said:
But we prosecute for petty theft, which isn’t murder. There is simply a lesser punishment by law.
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The fact that some products that prevent conception have legitimate uses is one reason.

I would also argue that by missing Mass a person is only harming themselves. Abortion harms the baby. For that reason it makes sense to make abortion illegal but not missing Mass.
 
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So they are illegal because they harm another person? Then why are illegal drugs illegal?
 
Because some drugs are a public health concern. Some drugs are not.
 
ATrai said:
Do you also think birth control should be illegal?
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Birth Control along with other medications and chemicals are contaminating the environment and entering the food chain. These chemicals are present in our water.

We must consider the long term consequences and adopt methods of protecting ourselves from unwanted exposure.
 
ATrai said:
Then why are illegal drugs illegal?
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Meth labs, as an example, can actually explode and destroy the property around them. Under the influence of those drugs people can not only kill themselves but others. People can get so addicted to those drugs that they will kill and steal from other people to either get the drugs or money for the drugs. They’re a menace to society.
 
Right but there are crimes punishable by law that aren’t murder. Why don’t Catholics push for birth control to be illegal, but punishable by a lesser consequence?
 
ATrai said:
Even when it’s abused it’s hardly a menace to society…
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Driving while high and thinking it’s okay to drive while high is hardly not menacing. Do you see people wearing T-shirts with ibprophen on it? Or wanting to dedicate an entire day just to using it? Does that sound healthy to you?
 
I see it on par with the dangers of alcohol. It can be abused, but it is not illegal because using it does not necessarily mean one is abusing it.

Back to the original point, if you consider marijuana to be justly illegal in most states, why don’t Catholics also push for birth control to be illegal? Similar (but not exact) situations… If it is a sin, it is (mostly) only affecting the user.
 
That seems like a fairly arbitrary argument based on contemporary American standards, no?
Certainly things like blasphemy or heresy have been illegal in Catholic countries in the past.
 
ATrai said:
Why don’t Catholics push for birth control to be illegal, but punishable by a lesser consequence?
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Because here in the Western World, that battle has been fought and lost and it would be more prudent to focus on issues that have a chance of success
 
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