Why does it (seem) that Catholics contracept and sterilize at the same rate as Protestants?

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Vanny

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In my experience? First my history:
I am a protestant(Lutheran).
I used to have NO problem with artificial b.c, in fact I couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t want to use it (although I was against surgicail abortion).if you were married, irt was like “duh of course you would use it, do you want 20 kids?”
After I got married(in my mid 30’s) dh and I became active in the local pro-life group and I started seriously question artificial b/c due to some excellent catholic pro-life books/magazines I read.
I found out the pill, IUD and most chemical b/c’s are mainly abortifacient, and are also harmful to womens health.(I’m condensing what toook to be about an 18 month journey before we threw out our contraceptives and used NFP and trusted God. I read some wonderful books, The Bible and Birth control,
A full quiver, All the way home, Humane Vitae, and Donum Vitae, ect. Couple to Couple league(and many more)
Well, Now I have some friends who have been raised in the Catholic faith and here I am defending (my stance) on contraceptives to them and they believe in using Contraceptives!
A friend of ours, much younger, who just had his third child, went and got a vasectomy. This guy was raised Catholic in a large family although he and his wife now attend an.
evangelical church.
My dh tried to gently tell him he shouldn’t do it, (beacause there are health risks to vasectomy just for starters) but he brushed him off with “well we can’t afford more kids, we had three right in a row”
My very best girlfriend and high-school classmate(we are both in our early 50’s) was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school K-8 (went to high school with me) and after #3 had her tubes tied.
She had this done many years ago so I supported her then.
But she is now dumbfounded that I no long believe in artificial b/c.
She says " I disagree with the Church on that issue."
I could name more but - I guess you get the point. Does the Church not have sermons on b/c?
I know myself growing up in a conservative Lutheran church, I sure never heard that contraception was wrong at all, but I was surprised to find out the the Reformers were once actually against limiting the number of children you would have(spilling the seed)
 
I think too many people, Catholics and Protestants alike, believe the lies that this culture tells them – living together before marriage will help you figure out if you’re “compatible,” same-sex marriage is fine if they love each other, contraceptives are the only way to plan your family, etc.

It sounds like the Catholics you spoke with knew that the Church teaches that contraceptives are wrong. They know but they do not believe.
 
ElizabethAnne said:
I think too many people, Catholics and Protestants alike, believe the lies that this culture tells them – living together before marriage will help you figure out if you’re “compatible,” same-sex marriage is fine if they love each other, contraceptives are the only way to plan your family, etc.

It sounds like the Catholics you spoke with knew that the Church teaches that contraceptives are wrong. They know but they do not believe.
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Yes, my friend believes that the Catholic Church will eventually change their position on the pill or condoms as Protestants did so long ago.
Actually, I hope they never do! They are the lone institution holding out.
 
Vanny said:
Yes, my friend believes that the Catholic Church will eventually change their position on the pill or condoms as Protestants did so long ago.
Actually, I hope they never do! They are the lone institution holding out.
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It really wasn’t that long ago that the Protestants changed their minds on this issue. I believe it was in the1930’s that the Episcopal Church first gave the okay for contraception. Other Protestant faiths soon followed. As Christopher West points out, it’s interesting that the church founded on divorce (Henry VIII’s little tantrum) would lead the way in this area.
 
That’s probably because most catholics are poorly catechised and as stated above, sin does not discriminate.
 
Feanaro said:
That’s probably because most catholics are poorly catechised and as stated above, sin does not discriminate.
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It’s too bad that they are poorly cathechised- but then that’s the case in many mainline protestant denominations these days, too.
 
2 reasons.
  1. “Catholic” has, unfortunately, become a cultural label as much as a religious label. People keep the name long after they have discarded the beliefs (or decided they have better things to do than to learn them in the first place.)
  2. The church has (IMO) not done a very good job at making the flock understand that the secular culture and the gospel are fundamentally incompatible. One cannot fit in comfortably in both. Most of today’s catholics don’t seem to realize this and thereby grant (sometimes unconsciously) the same moral authority to the opinion of a college professor as to that of a bishop or even the Scriptures!
 
Before the 50’s many Catholics lived with a ghetto mentality. Many of us were immigrants or the children of immigrants. We were different. We had THE Faith and everyone else out there was out to get us. Two world wars happened and the boys found out that those non-Catholics in the fox holes were not all that different from us. By the time the 60’s took place we moved into the suburbs and out of the old neighborhoods. We were no longer surrounded by mostly Catholics of the same nationality. We often no longer attended Catholic Schools. We joined the mainstream in public institutions. We joined the YMCA and the YWCA. Suddenly we were like everyone else, no one to remind us of proper Catholic behavior. We increasingly intermarried with people of other Faiths and nationality. No longer could we be confident of what Faith our neighbors espoused and if we wanted to downgrade our Catholic behavior patterns, maybe be even a little pagan, who was going to care. Being Catholic no longer meant being different or marching to our own drummer. We became a people adrift in the sea of humanity.
 
Hello!

I live in a very Catholic country yet my experience as a Nursing student had made me realize how many Catholics do not follow the teachings of the Church on artificial contraception.

Perhaps its because there are many groups (local and foreign) that support the pro-choice stance and are very active in promoting artificial methods through health care professionals–nurses, midwives and doctors.

Example: When we were on duty last semester in a poor hospital in the city, a doctor told a young mother that she would not sign her release papers until she has an IUD placed inside her. This made us, students, look at each other because, the way the doctor said it, it was if the young mother had no choice in the matter.

Artificial contraception is presented as a good option and easy-way-out (no need to abstain from sex) to preserve the “health” of the mother and family by limiting the number of her number of pregnancies. Yet, I noticed also a downplaying of information regarding the negative effects of artificial contraception to these women.

I am studying nursing, that’s why I know about the effects of artificial contraception…I didn’t learn this when I was studing my other course years ago. I can assume, that majority of our population are not aware of the negatives and rely on pro-choice advertisements and the say-so of pro-choice healthcare workers that artificial contraception is for their own good.

I think that the strong counter-information (perhaps, through distribution of pamphlets on the topic, lectures in Catholic high schools and colleges) is needed to make Catholics really aware of why the Church says “No” to artificial contraception.
 
Vanny said:
In my experience? First my history:
I am a protestant(Lutheran).
I used to have NO problem with artificial b.c, in fact I couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t want to use it (although I was against surgicail abortion).if you were married, irt was like “duh of course you would use it, do you want 20 kids?”
After I got married(in my mid 30’s) dh and I became active in the local pro-life group and I started seriously question artificial b/c due to some excellent catholic pro-life books/magazines I read.
I found out the pill, IUD and most chemical b/c’s are mainly abortifacient, and are also harmful to womens health.(I’m condensing what toook to be about an 18 month journey before we threw out our contraceptives and used NFP and trusted God. I read some wonderful books, The Bible and Birth control,
A full quiver, All the way home, Humane Vitae, and Donum Vitae, ect. Couple to Couple league(and many more)
Well, Now I have some friends who have been raised in the Catholic faith and here I am defending (my stance) on contraceptives to them and they believe in using Contraceptives!
A friend of ours, much younger, who just had his third child, went and got a vasectomy. This guy was raised Catholic in a large family although he and his wife now attend an.
evangelical church.
My dh tried to gently tell him he shouldn’t do it, (beacause there are health risks to vasectomy just for starters) but he brushed him off with “well we can’t afford more kids, we had three right in a row”
My very best girlfriend and high-school classmate(we are both in our early 50’s) was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school K-8 (went to high school with me) and after #3 had her tubes tied.
She had this done many years ago so I supported her then.
But she is now dumbfounded that I no long believe in artificial b/c.
She says " I disagree with the Church on that issue."
I could name more but - I guess you get the point. Does the Church not have sermons on b/c?
I know myself growing up in a conservative Lutheran church, I sure never heard that contraception was wrong at all, but I was surprised to find out the the Reformers were once actually against limiting the number of children you would have(spilling the seed)
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I can think of two reasons this is not preached:
  1. This is an adult subject and there are children at Mass.
  2. Priests are afraid of alienating people. :rolleyes:
 
I found out the pill, IUD and most chemical b/c’s are mainly abortifacient, and are also harmful to womens health
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well that’s wrong - unfortunately the “pro-life” movement has its own propaganda
the IUD and POP stop implantation, but the COCP is not abortifacient, and there are health benefits to oral contraception
 
jack_hawkins said:
well that’s wrong - unfortunately the “pro-life” movement has its own propaganda
the IUD and POP stop implantation, but the COCP is not abortifacient, and there are health benefits to oral contraception
Click to expand...
I think it is better that all the pros and cons be given to patients about contraceptive methods—both artificial and natural.

My understanding from school lecture is that **“Combination Estrogen and Progesterone pills” **suppresses ovum production–that’s why it is not abortifacient. Its supposed to have its own health benefits…BUT it is not without notable disadvantages or side-effects that patients should be made aware of–especially since this is medicine that is taken in the body that alters its normal functioning and may affect other body systems and not just the reproductive part.

Many other oral contraceptives have been known to change the uterus’ lining so that it becomes inhospitable to implantation by the the fertilized ovum (which in Catholic understanding is already “life”). That is why they are abortifacient.

In a lecture, our professor told us that taking “Estrogen-only” pills can cause a “blighted ova” that can result to a defective fetus in case pregnancy occurs despite taking that pill–thus according to the professor, “elective abortion is advised if this method fails”.

Plus, we were told that some clients with **Incompetent or Dysfunctional cervix **(a condition where there is premature opening of the cervix on the 2nd Trimester) had mothers who were treated with these estrogen-only pills while pregnant with the client–the effect of the estrogen-only pill can pass on to the next generation.

Patients, I am sure, would want to know about all possibe effects before agreeing to something that may irreversibly change their life.

We cannot overlook this fact and just concentrate just on the “health benefits” of oral contraceptives. There are also some very important “negatives” regarding artificial contraception that patients should be aware of.

I think concentrating primarily of the pros and downplaying the cons of artificial contraception is giving patients a false sense of security--that they will not get pregnant, that they will not get STD, and that nothing wrong will happen to them if they use these artificial means.

It can be very unfair to patients if they are left in the dark about these negative possibilities from usage of artificial contraception

It is difficult for a patient to make an “informed consent” when information given regarding their contraceptive method is incomplete.
 
well the whole area of informed consent is quite involved, and certainly a simplistic assumption that the patient must be told every possible complication of a treatment is wrong
i would say though that the “pro-lifers” who try and scare people out of using any birth control by claiming the COCP is abortifacient are not helping people give informed consent - they are just bullying people into accepting their extreme and unscientific views
 
When I told my mother who was in her late 60’s at the time that ABC’s were a sin, she really was surpised and she is good standing Catholic. Of course, when she was in her child bearing years, they didn’t have the pill…she actually had a hysterectomy around 1973 when the pill was fairly new. I think a lot of Catholics are ignorant to the fact or just don’t plain like the teaching of the church so refuse to follow it. My husband is a good example. He refuses to have sex without a condom and since it is not my sin (as per a priest) we are still fairly active.
 
puppylove said:
When I told my mother who was in her late 60’s at the time that ABC’s were a sin, she really was surpised and she is good standing Catholic. Of course, when she was in her child bearing years, they didn’t have the pill…she actually had a hysterectomy around 1973 when the pill was fairly new. I think a lot of Catholics are ignorant to the fact or just don’t plain like the teaching of the church so refuse to follow it. My husband is a good example. He refuses to have sex without a condom and since it is not my sin (as per a priest) we are still fairly active.
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It is sad that so many Catholics don’t want to know the truth. If they did, they would seek it out. I believe that they know if they study the truth, find out why the Church teaches what it does, that they will have to behave less selfishly.

I would encourage you to continue to work to bring your husband to the truth. One of our primary responsibilities as spouses is to help them get to heaven. We can’t neglect that responsibility and stay true to our marriage vows.

Dan
 
Dan_Grelinger said:
It is sad that so many Catholics don’t want to know the truth. If they did, they would seek it out. I believe that they know if they study the truth, find out why the Church teaches what it does, that they will have to behave less selfishly.
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True, and to the peril of their eternal soul. I fear for how many Catholics will have to endure a rude awakening of how they wasted the grace offered them to come to know and live the truth in a way honoring to God when they stand before the judgment throne of God.
 
Ma.Eugenia said:
My understanding from school lecture is that **“Combination Estrogen and Progesterone pills” **suppresses ovum production–that’s why it is not abortifacient. Its supposed to have its own health benefits…BUT it is not without notable disadvantages or side-effects that patients should be made aware of–especially since this is medicine that is taken in the body that alters its normal functioning and may affect other body systems and not just the reproductive part.
Click to expand...
Wha always amuses me is that women who take artificial contraceptives then sometimes make ahuge fuss about “additives” in food. As if a few left-over growth hormones in your meat are going to make any difference after swallowing that little lot.
 
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