"contraceptive methods of birth control have caused serious damage in family relationships"

[Liberal_in_LA]

See the quote by the Catholic Authorities on page two of the article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/20/AR2008042001930_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008042100778

POPULATION PRESSURES
Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty
Contraceptives, Rejected by Government, Are Unaffordable for Many in Majority-Catholic Nation

Maria Susana Espinoza of Manila did not know how birth control worked until after her fourth child was born. Soaring rice prices have focused attention on population growth. (Blaine Harden - Blaine Harden -- The Washington Post)

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 21, 2008; Page A10

MANILA -- Maria Susana Espinoza wanted only two children. But it was not until after the birth of her fourth child in six years that she learned any details about birth control.

"I knew it existed, but I didn't know how it works," said Espinoza, who lives with her husband and children in a squatter's hut in a vast, stinking garbage dump by Manila Bay.

She and her family belong to the fastest-growing segment of the Philippine population: very poor people with large families. There are many reasons why this country is poor, including feudal patterns of land ownership and corrupt government. But there is a compelling link between family size and poverty. It increases in lock step with the number of children, as nutrition, health, education and job prospects all decline, government statistics and many studies show.

[varkam]

1. Yeah? Catholicism has also caused serious damage in family relationships.

Just sayin'.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

22. Not just Catholicism. Just look at this insane administration and they pump "abstinence only"sex ed

tons of money.

[varkam]

27. Absolutely. eom

[baldguy]

2. Wrong headline

It SHOULD say "Lack of knowledge of birth control has caused serious damage in family relationships"

[iamahaingttta]

3. From the article...

"Chemical agents and mechanical gadgets that make up the cluttered display of contraceptive methods of birth control have caused serious damage in family relationships, disrupting the unity and openness that build family life by the effects that accompany the contraceptive culture which include extramarital relationships, adolescent pregnancies, and even the hideous murderous act of abortion," said Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, chairman of a bishops' commission on family life.

Contraceptive culture?

There were never, of course, "extramarital relationships, adolescent pregnancies, and even the hideous murderous act of abortion..." before contraceptives became available. Right?

But then - the Catholic Church isn't exactly based in reality, now is it?

[yardwork]

5. I thought that contraception prevented teen pregnancies and the need for abortions?

Silly me.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. I wonder .........

When was the good Archbishop last laid?

I mean, he's the expert, right?

[Iris]

14. Are you dense? No contraception means no one will cheat on his/her spouse!

Jeez - it's all so simple when you just give in .....

[yardwork]

17. I guess that explains why nobody ever cheated on their spouses

until the Pill was invented.

[Iris]

18. yep!

Ain't life simple?

[Elspeth]

4. The feminists told us the right was going after birth control--and they were right

It's a way to keep the poor poorer.

The rich will always have birth control and abortion.

[yardwork]

6. Oh yeah. Actually, contraception was illegal in CT until the mid-1960s.

The same constitutional right to privacy that underpins Rove v Wade was used as the Supreme Court's justification to overturn state laws against contraception just a few years earlier.

Make no mistake. They won't stop at overturning Roe v Wade. They want women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, serving men.

[Tesha]

11. For more on Griswold v. Connecticut, see...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut

[HughBeaumont]

7. SOMEone's never read up on Ceaucescu's Romania.

He overturned the decree permitting abortion in 1966, and encouraged mothers to have an asston of babies to produce the future workers that would make Romania great. The result? Lotsa "future workers", many of whom were left at orphanages because the families couldn't afford to take care of them, died in the care of the state thanks to the rapid spread of HIV and malnourishment in the 80s.

Overpopulation is no joke.

[Canuckistanian]

24. 1966 - Decree 770, Contraception and abortion are outlawed for Romanian women.

"From 1966 onward, procreation became a civic duty for all fertile Romanian women. As encouragement, Ceausescu bestowed extraordinary titles upon "dutiful," childbearing women — "Heroine Mother" for having 10 or more children, "Maternal Glory" for having seven to nine children, and the "Maternity Medal" for having five or six children. Between 1967 and 1972, more than two million "children of the decree" were born.

snip

...men at every level of government became obsessed with the date of a
woman's last menstrual period. In factories, women were rounded up for
surprise gynecological exams. The government levied a special tax on
childless couples and unmarried citizens over age 25. All miscarriages
were investigated. Romania was, as one writer later put it, "an
anti-abortion police state."

[Ellen Forradalom]

8. Whereas pedophilia has no effect

:eyes:

[Iris]

15. Did you notice how the Pope blamed our "sexually charged" culture for that?

[Ellen Forradalom]

19. He's got a lot of nerve

Try repressed instead of charged.

[Iris]

20. ha!ha! That's exactly what I thought!

[Ellen Forradalom]

23. And it's a real insult to the kids, too.

Oh yes, those sexually charged kids were too much for the priests :sarcasm:

[Iris]

25. yes. To be honest, I was a little disturbed at the thought of kids in more authoritarian societies

you know - the ones that wouldn't question the church? He's acting like this problem doesn't exist there and I doubt that's true.

Also, this culture was a lot less "sexually charged" during the 50s and 60s when this shit went down.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Just how does a Catholic Archbishop know about the relationship within a marriage/family?

Aren't these the guys who never marry and have children to raise?

[Warpy]

10. Most Catholics are sane and reasonable people

who know these celibate (supposedly) old men in dresses don't know anything at all about marriage, family, and reproduction. They duly ignore Mother Church when she's obviously talking through the Pope's funny hat.

Catholics are more likely than Protestants to approve of and use birth control and to be pro choice. They know what the opposite does.

They especially know that "natural family planning" only works if one is naturally planing to have ten kids or more. The alternative is incredible tension between spouses who have sex only when they want another baby. Now that is something with a good chance of breaking up families.

[Iris]

16. actually, I know many people who practice NFP and have the "acceptable" 2-3 kids.

However, why the church thinks that method of bc is better than "chemical" or "gadet" methods is beyond me.

[Cleita]

28. What you say is true in this country and other nations with

a large and educated middle class. Unfortunately, in many parts of Latin America, Asia and Africa, those countries that are developing, the Catholic Church is part of the problem. They can stop a movement to get birth control information to poor women in these countries and no one can do anything about it without often running afoul of the law in those places. Simple programs to pass out condoms and other birth control methods are often stopped in their tracks because of interference from the Church, which can be very powerful in those predominantly Catholic countries.

[primavera]

26. No shit

To paraphrase a post I read recently on another board: If there really was a God, every Catholic priest would wake up pregnant tomorrow.

[slackmaster]

13. In other news, having too many kids has also caused serious damage in family relationships

Cluster. Fuck.

[nomorenomore08]

21. I think my dad had it exactly right when he said that the Church hierarchy was run

by out-of-touch old men. Him being a life-long Catholic, it must have taken some cojones to admit that, but it's the undeniable truth.