Free Republic

Why Did God Kill Onan? Luther, Calvin, Wesley, C.S. Lewis, & Others on Contraception Genesis 38:9-10: “But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother’s wife he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. 10 And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also.” It is an historical fact that no Christian communion sanctioned contraception until the Anglican Lambeth Conference in 1930. Protestant historian Roland Bainton states casually that the Church “very early forbade contraception”...

Today, Pope Francis beatified Pope Paul VI, who served the Catholic Church as the bishop of Rome 1963-1978. (“Beatification” is one step below being canonized a saint.) Paul VI had a jam-packed papacy, including finishing the Second Vatican Council, traveling to all six inhabited continents (a first for popes), and historic ecumenical break-throughs. But today he’s probably most remembered for his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which confirmed the Catholic Church’s long-standing teaching against contraception, abortion, and sterilization. Outside of the Catholic Church (and, unfortunately, by a large number of people within the Church as well), the teaching of Humanae Vitae...

The Cult of Contraception doesn’t exactly enjoy an overabundance of brain power, but when it comes to truly insipid commentary, PolicyMic has always been in a league of its own. This weekend, Marcie Bianco wrote that the birth control market is—what else?—even more sexist than you think. Opening with a comedy video from Buzzfeed (now there’s a font of deep cultural analysis) that purports to illustrate that “society places the burden of birth control on women rather than men,” whose condoms just don’t come with the cost and “cultural stigmas” of female birth-control options. The justification process alone — to...

Full Title: The Synod Will Be a Farce - if the Kasper Legion's Attempt to Muzzle It Goes According To Plan Q: Was Pope Paul VI wrong not to listen to the majority of lay couples on the commission discussing contraception back in the 1960s? A: I [Kasper] have a high esteem for Paul VI, he was a prophetic pope in a very difficult situation of the church after 1968 and so on. He was concerned to remain in the truth and not give up something, but I think it’s also a question of the interpretation of this encyclical Humanae...

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has updated their policy guidelines (PDF) concerning contraceptives for children under 18, recommending that the first line of defense against pregnancy for adolescent girls should be implantable contraception such as an IUD or a sub-dermal hormonal implant. The AAP says that because young girls cannot be trusted to remain abstinent, reliably take a daily birth control pill, or use condoms, the best way to ensure they do not become pregnant is to fit them with a “long-acting reversible contraceptive” – a device that, once installed, will either provide a continuous dose of hormones designed...

Cardinal Walter Kasper, a close influence on Pope Francis, says it is up to parents to decide how many children to have ahead of global gathering of Roman Catholic bishops to discuss the family A leading reformist Cardinal close to Pope Francis has hinted at the possibility of a reinterpretation of the Roman Catholic Church’s blanket ban on artificial contraception. Cardinal Walter Kasper said it was “the responsibility of the parents” to decide how many children they should have. He also said that so-called natural family planning, which is promoted by the Church as an alternative to contraception, also...

Editor’s Note: The following address was delivered by Don Feder, communications director for the World Congress of Families, at the International Forum: Large Family and the Future of Humanity in Moscow September 10-12, 2014. If current trends continue, we won’t run out of energy or other natural resources in the foreseeable future. We will run out of people. This global catastrophe will be the result of rapidly declining fertility, known as Demographic Winter. In 1960, worldwide, the average woman had 5 children. Now, that number is 2.6 and falling – in other words, a decline of almost 50 percent in...

Painting the Catholic Church as "out of touch" is like shooting fish in a barrel, what with the funny hats and gilded churches. And nothing makes it easier than the Church's stance against contraception. Many people, (including our editor) are wondering why the Catholic Church doesn't just ditch this requirement. They note that most Catholics ignore it, and that most everyone else finds it divisive, or "out-dated." C'mon! It's the 21st century, they say! Don't they SEE that it's STUPID, they scream. Here's the thing, though: the Catholic Church is the world's biggest and oldest organization. It has buried all...

The events that have unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri, in recent weeks have revealed many tragedies, among them the fact that the death of so many youth of color in this country is still debatable in its status as a vaunted “feminist issue.” But it is, and the expansive definition of reproductive justice, which reaches into the universe of conditions necessary to create and sustain life, shows us how. As RH Reality Check Senior Legal Analyst Imani Gandy put it so well in a recent tweet: Imani ABL @AngryBlackLady I saw so many people on Twitter saying "I don't want to...

With a population of 177 million, Nigeria has long been a target of population controllers. It is listed in NSSM 200, the infamous Nixon/Kissinger document which launched the war on people, as a country of special concern. As such, it has gotten more than its share of the abortifacients, sterilizing agents, and contraceptives that the American government has poured into Africa over the past few decades. Still, it is not enough, at least according to the Obama administration, which wants to increase the current shipments.[1] Their excuse is that maternal mortality in Nigeria is still too high, and if they...

Apparently the phony “war on women” has made its way to the Supreme Court. Upset by the fact that a majority of the justices on the high court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby’s religious freedoms, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is now accusing them of being sexist.In a new interview with pro-abortion media icon Katie Couric, Ginsburg lashes out at her colleagues and claims they have a “blind spot” towards women because they decided that Hobby Lobby should not be forced to pay for drugs that cause abortions for their employees.Never mind that polls show a majority of women oppose the...

The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case was met with incandescent outrage from progressives. The overturning of a mandate never passed by Congress which had not existed prior to 2010 signaled, those who consider themselves members of a class of deliberative and reasoned thinkers said, evidence of a theocratic judiciary in the United States. Recognizing the indignation on their side of the aisle, the White House responded by reassuring their base supporters that this offense would not go unanswered. “Today’s decision jeopardizes the health of women who are employed by these companies,” White House Press Sec. Josh...

When is Contraception Abortifacient? Speak Precisely. Life Training Institute Blog lti-blog.blogspot.com/2014/01/be-careful-out-there-when-discussion.htmlBe Careful Out There (When Discussing Emergency Contraception) by Serge (Rich Poupard) | January 22, 2014From “6 Resources on Whether or Not Birth Control Pills Cause Abortions“ It is very important when discussing important and controversial issues to do everything in our power to find the truth and not overstate the evidence that we have supporting our conclusions.This can be challenging when dealing with an issue such as emergency contraception, where the data and evidence is frequently either missing, confusing, or difficult to understand.To this point, I believe that the...

Credit: Jess Hamilton (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). Lincoln, Neb., Jul 21, 2014 / 12:07 pm (CNA).- In an upcoming issue of The Linacre Quarterly, the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association, an article entitled, “The Breast Cancer Epidemic: 10 Facts,” will explore the scientific evidence that connects artificial contraception to breast cancer. Father Christopher Kubat, executive director of Catholic Social Services of southern Nebraska and a medical physician, is one of the co-authors. He was asked to contribute a small portion of the article by two of the main authors, A. Patrick Schneider II, M.D., M.P.H., and Christine Zainer, M.D....

Recent reports announcing the era of remote-control contraception herald the very real but slightly horrifying prospects for the future for those who believe that man can literally transform himself into a machine. This phenomenon is known as the cult of transhumanism. One news report calls the remote dispensation of contraception “creepy.” Another explains how this may come to fruition: “A challenge from Bill Gates two years ago has put science on the cusp of a revolutionary, remote-controlled method of birth control.” Technology Review says the wireless implant, if approved for safety and efficacy, could make it possible for a woman to turn her birth control on and...

People who disagree with same-sex marriage and birth-control use have been met with accusations of bigotry. Are some Christians being unfairly shamed out of the public sphere? Is evangelical Christian morality still viable in American public life? This is the question lurking in recent debates over religious-liberty issues, from the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision to the Christian bakers who object to baking cakes for gay weddings. In discussions of these cases, objections to same-sex marriage and contraception are described as a retreat from “secular society.” And in some cases, evangelicals actually have retreated: Since the Boy Scouts of America...

Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California's 14th District, sent out a tweet this morning that compared access to contraception to the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian girls by the militant group Boko Haram. Speier included an infographic from the United Nations along with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, which is a reference to the kidnapping of 230 girls from the Chibok Government Secondary School.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Politicians here have not even figured out how yet to implement their new law requiring us to pay for everybody else’s health care, and already people are clamoring to legalize drugs that are, at the very least, hazardous to their health. The good people of Colorado and Washington state can now buy and smoke pot without violating state laws. The movement to do so is spreading among other states like a hot tropical virus through a detention facility on the Mexican border. I, for one, have never really cared one way or the other if people choose to smoke pot....

The bogus lies about contraception bans and limits on access to birth control are here to stay folks, just as I predicted in my new book Assault and Flattery: The Truth About the Left and Their War on Women. It's past time to push back with force. The Not My Boss’ Business Act, a bill developed by Democrats to combat the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision, has failed in the Senate. As a result, mass panic among government control freaks has commenced. Who's panicking this time? DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She just can't believe women might have to...

.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 113th Congress - 2nd Session as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate Vote Summary Question: On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S.2578 ) Vote Number: 228 Vote Date: July 16, 2014, 02:09 PM Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Cloture on the Motion to Proceed Rejected Measure Number: S. 2578 (Protect Women's Health From Corporate Interference Act of 2014 ) Measure Title: A bill to ensure that employers cannot interfere in their...