From pulpit to politics: the influence of the Catholic Church on reproductive rights

The teachings of the church

Like followers of other religions, Catholic couples and clergy vary in their interpretations of what religious texts say about limiting family size through contraception. However, as a religious institution, the Catholic Church is unique among other religions in maintaining a ban on “artificial” (modern) contraception. Church teaches that the purpose of sex is always procreation, so it is irrelevant whether or not natural contraception (such as the rhythm method) is effective in preventing pregnancy. Pope Francis, to his credit, has offered a more progressive approach than his predecessors, insinuating that parents can and should limit the size of their family to best provide for their children, and attention to environmental crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss. Still, the Vatican has failed to make the connection between the population growth it fosters and the resulting environmental and human suffering.

Waning influence in the pulpit

Feminist movements and advances in contraception in the past century have threatened the Vatican’s control over women’s reproductive decisions. In response, the Church has clung to pronatalism, or the promotion of motherhood. For example, in his teachings On the “theology of the body”, Pope John Paul II emphasized the “feminine genius” of women – that motherhood is their sole purpose in life.

Still, the Church’s influence over its followers has diminished. In it US, abortion is as common among Catholics as it is among other Americans, and 98% of sexually active Catholic women have used modern contraceptive methods. And several majority-Catholic countries have instituted extremely successful voluntary family planning programs.

For example, thanks to its family planning program, Costa Rica’s fertility rate diminished from nearly seven in 1960 to fewer than two today. Consequently, poverty and the depletion of natural resources were drastically reduced. The government took a indirect role not to upset the Catholic Church, but Catholic and Protestant Christian clergy played a key role role. Like many other religious leaders around the world, they recognized that family planning would benefit their communities by lowering maternal and infant mortality and enabling families to provide more for each child. In PeruCatholic priests also supported the use of oral contraceptives in the late 1960s and 1970s as part of responsible parenthood. The Vatican, unfortunately, has refused to recognize these benefits.

Papal Politics

Because the Church has failed to prevent many of today’s billion Catholics from using family planning services, the Vatican has resorted to politicsintervening in many countries and intergovernmental organizations in an attempt to limit contraception and abortion or maintain existing restrictions.

In Ireland, for example, the Catholic Church was able prevent legalization of abortion until just a few years ago. Similarly, Argentina only recently legalized elective abortion; until 2020, the Church made it impossible. Pope Francis reportedly held down the Argentine legislators themselves.

Unlike in Ireland and Argentina, the Church continues to control Polish politics. Just a year ago, Poland enacted a draconian law that almost completely bans abortion, now even in cases of fetal abnormality. The bill was drafted by the Catholic NGO Ordo Iuris, which has infiltrate the Polish government. Ordo Iuris originated from Tradition, Family, Property, a right-wing international Catholic group that aims to ban same-sex marriage, contraception, abortion, divorce, and sex education. In Poland, these efforts go beyond abortion bans: The government has appointed a Catholic theologian to rewrite the country’s new sex education curriculum. She has claimed that contraception leads to “hedonism, sex addiction, and a tendency to betray,” and unsurprisingly, the new curriculum mentions sex only twice. Recent Population Matters report, welcome to Gileaddetails the violations of reproductive rights propagated by right-wing Catholics and other pro-natalists in Poland and beyond.

In the US, right-wing Catholics have joined forces with evangelicals to form various anti-abortion organizations, such as the World Conference of Families, the Alliance for the Defense of Liberty, and the misleadingly named “Institute for Research on Abortion.” Population”. These groups have supported political efforts to form a conservative Supreme Court, where the majority of justices are now conservative Catholics. Just last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments on one of the most serious threats to abortion rights in half a century. This has helped anti-abortion Catholic groups achieve unprecedented success in passing abortion restrictions in several states, as well as limiting US funding for family planning in developing countries.