Contraception, Religious Approaches to

Contraception and Religion

Although popular press typically portrays religious discourse about birth control as a battle in which religion and modernity are pitted against one another, it is actually a varied and nuanced debate. Religious groups have different levels of acceptance and even active endorsement of different forms of contraceptive practice, and the theological basis for these stances may vary widely.

The vast majority of wholesale religious rejection of contraception hinges on the belief that sexual activity should be connected with procreation. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, endorses Natural Family Planning and abstinence but does not permit adherents to engage in any other form of contraception or contragestation. In addition, within Natural Family Planning, the Roman Catholic Church further stipulates that it should only be used within specific parameters and that there should be periods of abstinence if spacing between children is desired. The Roman Catholic Church goes further to suggest that use of contraceptive practices and devices of any kind may lead to the degradation of women, who should be seen as long-term partners in marital love rather than temporary outlets for sexual impulses. However, there is much dissent among practicing Catholics around the church's official statement on [Page 331]contraception, and some sources suggest that as many as 70 percent of all Catholics would support a move from the Church to allow some forms of birth control for family planning use.

Although the Qur'an clearly prohibits infanticide, nowhere in the Qur'an verses are Muslims prohibited from preventing conception. However, the verses that refer specifically to infanticide are often used to forbid contraceptive practices, although Muslim historians continue to disagree on these and other early (and, increasingly, contemporary) interpretations of Qur'an verses and other texts. Some suggest that abortion, for example, is always forbidden, whereas others assert that early Muslim scholars argue an acceptable time frame for the practice. Islamic teachings have historically been progressive by contemporary standards in the realm of family planning and contraception, typically putting the welfare of existing children, mothers, and families ahead of any specific edicts about the nature and permissibility of birth control of any kind. Although certainly not true of all women in all Islamic centers, many Muslim women attribute their empowerment to the free and unrestricted access to information about contraception.

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