Family planning in Fiji, 1966.

Date:
[1966]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Family planning in Fiji, 1966. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/40 (page 8)
    so without intercourse. In fact, it often makes a couple love one another even more Ъесаизе they have to wait for a while each month. I do not think that statistics reveal that Catholic marriages irtiere this method of family planning is used are any more likely to Ъгеак up than any other. Indeed, one's impression is that they are, if anything more stable. I have pui?posely left until last the problem of the contraceptive pill as this is a difficult one. As is well known the pill works Ъу suppressing ovulation. Since it does not inter¬ fere with the natural result of sexual intercourse one would think that there would he no bar to its use. But it is also the natural law that a normal woman of child-bearing age should ovulate each month. Suppressing this is probably, therefore, an interference with the natural law. Sterilisation, ая I have said, is consider¬ ed such an interference because it deliberately prevents all chance of a sperm and an ovxim ever meeting as, in nature, they are liable to do once a month. Suppressing ovulation is really nothing more or less than causing temporary sterilisation. The present teach¬ ing of the Catholic Church, therefore, is that the use of the pill purely for contraceptive purposes is wrong and cannot be permitted, Nevertheless, there is undoubtedly an argument to be put up on the other side. It may well be said that all the pill does is to lengthen the safe period throughout the month and that it is con¬ sequently not a transgression of the natural law. This matter is still under discussion by a special commission in Rome and a firm decision will eventually be made. In the meantime, however, the pill is considered as a mechanical contrac^tive and its use as such is forbidden. However, there is another point that should be con¬ sidered in connection with the pill. It will be remembered that I stated that sterilisation resulting as a side effect from a surgical operation would not be considered as iinnatural or as a violation of the natural law. Exactly the same principle applies to sterilisation following x-ray therapy for a malignant condition or following dmg therapy for some disease. These are natural consequences. Contraceptive pills may be prescribed nowadays for a variety of gynaecological complaints and, if the pill has been prescribed by a doctor for some genuine medical reason, the fact that it has a contraceptive action too is merely an unavoidable side effect and must be accepted. Catholic women may freely take the pill in such circ\imstances and are at liberty to take full advantage of its contraceptive action. That, then, is the teaching of the Catholic Church about family planning. It is permitted in a wide variety of cir¬ cumstances but the methods to be used are limited to those which do not Ъгеак the natural law. To all intents and purposes this means that the only permitted manner is the use of the safe period, I have not written this chapter in an attempt to convert the reader to Catholicism and I know that very many sincere and good Christians just cannot see or accept the Catholic view¬ point. I have tried merely to explain what we believe and why, and I hope I have achieved this.