I have often said that contraception is a mental mindset first. I am starting to notice how very true that is. Because of the recent election and a proposition in a neighboring state, US laws about sexuality and life are being examined, again, by many of my non-Catholic friends. I am honored that they come to me seeking a true understanding of my point of view and not just to bash. But then I have some pretty great friends.
What I have noticed is that any topic about men and women, sexuality, life and death, eventually becomes a topic about contraception for me. This topic was my catalyst to finally "get it." All-male priesthood? I can define it and defend it using contraception as a starting point. So called "gay marriage?" Same thing. Abortion? There's absolutely no leap there...contraception leads to abortion. I have proven that to my friends who are ardent contraception supporters. They "see my point, but personally wouldn't go there." I believe them, because they haven't, but it doesn't change the fact.
Contraception was the next big stone to fall after the reformation of the 1500s. Until 1930 Christians were united on it. Contraception was known by all Christians as against God's will. That was less than 100 years ago. One-hundred years is a very short time in all of history. This HUGE chasm happened in 100 short years! This thinking change that 'what was once evil is now good' happened during my own grand-parents lifetimes. The generation right before them were the ones who were having babies. My great-grandparents, people I've met, lived before contraception was considered good.
So what really happened to make this thinking take over? I have some ideas, but I'm not sure I am willing to definitively state them as fact. They are working theories. The first and foremost is the change in believing that having children is a privilege to the belief that having children is a right. Because the converse is also true, that thinking NOT having children was a privilege before to thinking that NOT having children was a right. That is where contraception made its early inroads. The targets of the first contraception clinics were the poor, the under-privileged. The message drummed into their heads was that fewer children meant more prosperity. The fact that a simple reading of world history proves that untrue did not sway the march.
What the original contraceptionists sought was a reduction in the poor by merely "un-breeding" them out of existence. That is still the stance. It is still touted that "the poor woman doesn't need another baby." I mean that statement alone just confuses me. Is it like she is going out and aquiring another handbag and heels? I mean is the baby her possession? It seems to be that many think so. Because to view something as a "right" means you hold it as something you possess. I have the right to life, liberty, and the pusuit of happiness. No matter what ever happens to me I possess those rights. Even if someone seeks to remove them, they can't. I own them just because I exist.
But possessing a person is not a right. Throughout our sad history that has been tested again and again. It continues today with the unborn. I just can't wrap my mind around it today, although years ago I thought I had. I can't even get this theory to its logical end because it is really a sad place to visit. It is the idea that sex doesn't, (or shouldn't,) make babies. How utterly sad.
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