Why do Catholic women reject their Church’s teaching on contraception? Now we know.

Back in February this year, when the battle between religious leaders and the Obama administration over the latter’s contraceptive mandate reached a new pitch of intensity, the White House defended its policy by alleging that 98 per cent of Catholic women had used contraception. If that was the case, we were meant to ask, what on earth were the Catholic bishops, for one, making a song and dance about? Hadn’t their own female constituency effectively deserted them on this issue?

The claim, quoted far and wide at the time, turned out to be a political factoid rather than a real statistic. People who analysed the Guttmacher Institute study it came from pointed out that the study was selective and self-contradictory. For a start it was based on a survey restricted to women aged between 15 and 44, so it could say nothing about women between 45 and 100. And one table showed that 11 per cent of sexually active Catholic women who did not want to become pregnant were using no method of contraception at all.

Still, nobody is pretending that hordes of Catholics don’t dissent from their Church’s “thou shalt not” regarding contraception. We do not need the Guttmacher Institute or the White House to tell us that. Nor do we need them to tell us why the many Catholics who never go to church would not bother with one of its more difficult moral teachings.

What we don’t know is why practising Catholics who do go to Mass—and even, if only occasionally, to confession—also feel entitled to reject the teaching.

Why, for instance, do “Catholic moms in minivans drop their children at the parish school and head to their gynaecologists to be fitted for diaphragms or to get a new prescription for ‘the pill’ —and think nothing of it,” as the authors of a new study, What Catholic Women Think About Faith, Conscience, and Contraception, put it.

Do the parish moms have an accurate idea of the Church’s teaching on family planning? After four decades of dissent it would be surprising if they all did. And when the teaching is presented accurately to practising Catholics are they more open to it? What are their reasons for rejecting it, and what would they like to know more about?

For all the times Catholic women have been surveyed on whether they have “ever used” contraceptives, no-one has asked those who practice their faith but not its teaching on family planning, “Why?”, say the study’s authors, lawyer Mary Rice Hasson, a Fellow in the Catholic Studies Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C, and director of the Women, Faith, and Culture project, and Michele M. Hill, a Baltimore Catholic and co-director of the project.

To answer that question a national online survey of church-going Catholic women aged 18 to 54 was carried out in June and July of last year by the polling company inc./WomanTrend. (This is a preliminary report, say the authors, as further insights are expected from focus groups and ongoing in-depth interviews with 100 of the women.) Of the 824 women in the sample, half attended church at least weekly, while the other half attended less than weekly but at least a few times a year.

Their responses confirm that, on this issue at least, church-going Catholics have been influenced far more by popular culture than by Catholic teaching on sex and reproduction. Fully 85 percent of all the women believe they can be “good Catholics” even if they do not accept some of this teaching, including the 37 percent who completely reject it.

The picture, of course, looks decidedly better among regular Mass-goers. Among young women (18-34) who attend every week, 27 percent completely accept the Church’s teaching, and among those who both attend Mass weekly and have been to confession within the past year that figure rises to 37 percent. Just 24 percent of the women who go to Mass every week completely reject the teaching on contraception, and for those who have been to confession that figure drops to 12 percent.

Even among the dissenting majority, however, not all are closed to the Church’s message on this subject. Hasson and Hill point out that about a third of these women mistakenly believe that the Church itself gives them the right to make up their own minds about which methods of family planning are morally acceptable. Many do not reject the Church’s authority out of hand.

Mistakenly or not, 53 per cent of all women in the study who dissent in part or completely from church teaching cite a couple’s “moral right” to decide which method of family planning they will use. This makes it the top reason given for rejecting church teaching on the matter.

Two other reasons are cited frequently among this group: 46 percent say couples have “the right to enjoy sexual pleasure without worrying about pregnancy”, and 41 percent think that natural family planning is not an effective method to space or postpone pregnancy.

The authors perceive two main dynamics shaping these views: the influence of a cultural mindset that divorces sex from procreation and promises “sexual pleasure without consequences”, and a deficit on the church side in presenting Church teaching.

The latter can be deduced from the fact that 72 per cent of women surveyed said they rely mainly on the homily at Sunday Mass for learning about the faith, and yet just 15 per cent of that group fully accept the Church’s teaching on sex and reproduction. The weekly Mass homily, the authors say, “seems to represent a lost opportunity when it comes to conscience formation on the contraception issue.”

As for cultural influences, they seem likely (although the authors don’t say so) to account for at least some of the scepticism about natural family planning given the systematic bad press NFP is give by mainstream family planners and the media.

For the pastors of the Church, all this represents a steep challenge. Yet Catholic women may be more receptive to the Church’s view of things than first appears.

Importantly, the survey shows they are more open to children than the average American, their “ideal” number of children averaging 3.5 (or 4 if money were not a factor) compared with the American ideal of two or fewer.

Also, say the study authors, “When presented with an accurate description of the Church’s teachings on family planning many Catholic women show reluctance to completely reject the Church’s teaching.”

Instead, three groups emerge: “the faithful” (who fully accept the teaching—13 percent of the sample), “the dissenters” (who completely reject it—37 percent), and the “soft middle” (who accept “parts” of the teaching). In addition, a significant number of women in the “soft middle” (about half of weekly Mass-goers) show openness to learning more about church teaching on contraception and natural family planning.

Good will shown by many women in the “middle” represents an opportunity for the Church, the authors point out—and natural family planning may be a good starting point for communicating the Church’s teaching about procreation. About one in four of those who attend Mass regularly shows an interest in learning more about the method: hearing from other couples about the health and relationship benefits of NFP, what doctors say about it, and scientific evidence about its effectiveness. Such messages may be more persuasive than spiritual or authoritative ones, the authors suggest.

But alongside their message that many Catholic women are “reachable” the authors warn that the task is becoming more complicated. While the survey shows 10 percent of church-going women have had abortions (lower than the national average), 17 percent of younger women have used emergency contraception. This means that the Church has to inform women about the potentially abortifacient nature of EC “as well as arguing more persuasively that contraception itself is wrong.”

The Catholic bishops are fighting the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate—that is, the policy of forcing all employers, including Catholic institutions such as hospitals and schools, to provide full cover for contraceptives, sterilisation and emergency contraception in their health insurance plans—as an attack on the free exercise of religion, which it is.

But in light of the information in “What Catholic Women Think…” the mandate may be a blessing in disguise. By forcing the issue of contraception to the top of the Church’s public agenda it has created an opportunity for the Church to have an internal conversation on the subject—the kind of opportunity that perhaps has not been seen since Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae in 1968.

The study from the Women Faith and Culture project shows that such a discussion is long overdue.

I am not Catholic, but I believe that (liberal) society does almost frown on having a large family.

When soccer star David Beckham and his Spice Girl wife had their 4th. people in Britain started treating them as if they were stealing their air. I remember my dad saying he got the same reaction trotting our large family around during the EcoFreak early 1970's.

Right or wrong, what "average Catholics" think or want or do has ZERO to do with the teachings of the Church.

Yes and no.

In the US, they are dependent on donations. The priests and bishops know what will increase their cash flow (asking for help to fund poor relief and such), and which will cause an empty collection plate (namely talking about contraception).

Same in Protestant churches. The majority of women are pro choice. Society has made them that way. With the state of the Church in the West, these are the same women who are in control of the churches now. Few pastors or priests will attack any issue that will make them mad.

I’m sorry, but MOST types of contraception DO NOT kill babies, they prevent ovulation.
I think it is absolutely IRRESPONSIBLE to have more children than you can care for, financially, and emotionally.
I TOTALLY understand being against birth control that destroys fertilized eggs, but that is not what birth control pills do.
Natural Family Planning IS NOT reliable.

Same in Protestant churches. The majority of women are pro choice.

That would surprise me. What are the numbers for the Southern Baptist women in church?

Catholic is a single denomination, and means only Catholic, in fact, baptized members of the Catholic denomination.

Pius X saw it long before Paul VI. He said that once divorce was legalized, the chain of immorality would proceed. Next would be (the normalization of) contraception (and this was long before the pill), then abortion, then euthanasia. The utter destruction of human dignity.

It’s not Natural Family Planning that’s unreliable, it’s its practitioners.

More importantly, however, is the notion that having any number of children is irresponsible. Irresponsible to whom? The child who wouldn’t have existed? The child who makes it through birth? Or to the parents who want their lives utterly planned? Just a note here: planning’s futile. Things happen—like the loss of a child. As to how many one woman can care for, pioneer women who had much harder lives than today’s women (and men) also had a dozen or more chldren, and managed. And those children managed to care for their parents instead of allowing the government or private institutions to administer “care.”

Honestly, I don't have it in front of me (at work).

If I remember right there was a Pew poll that listed religious affiliation and pro choice/pro life leanings broken down by age, sex, religion, and education.

Religious affiliation had little effect. Which if you look at the over all abortion stats makes sense. If all the people who belong to pro life churches were really pro life, abortion would be a lot rarer.

There is a reason that Obambi chose to have ads saying Romney/Ryan were going to ban abortion. It will solidify the female vote.

The thing is that there is no such thing as the “Protestant” teaching on specific political issues of our time, so we need to break that down by the specific denomination’s teachings, and results.

What do Southern Baptist women feel about legal abortion, what do Catholic women feel about legal abortion, what do Episcopalian women feel about legal abortion, etc.

that is not what birth control pills do.

You shouldn't be publicly flaunting your ignorance unless of course you enjoy looking like a fool.

Natural Family Planning IS NOT reliable.

The facts prove otherwise. NFP is more reliable than oral contraceptives and the added benefit is that it does subject its user to a higher risk of stroke, heart attack, blood clots, hypertension, cancer or death. Try learning why the WHO classifies oral contraceptives as Class 1 carcinogens. Once you've engaged in some much needed edification, then you can come back and admit that you don't know what you're talking about.

Truth, which is wasted on the obtuse, is not determined by popular vote.

Not surprising that you would reach the conclusion you have since you Jones on rotted cabbage. I'll bet you think a balut is a delicacy as well.

Catholic is a single denomination, and means only Catholic, in fact, baptized members of the Catholic denomination.

Stop omitting the caveat "in my unlearned opinion". The Catholic Church is not a denomination. It is the Church founded by Christ not a breakaway splinter denomination founded by disgruntled, confused, ignorant men trying to create God on their terms, not His.

"Personally, I think the church’s views on contraception are archaic. Virtually all the pre-menopausal Catholic women I know use contraception. What I don’t get, is how Catholics vote Democrat when their platform is 100% all in on abortion, and 0 can’t even find it within himself to denounce infanticide."

Don't you see any irony in what you wrote? Boiled down to its essence, you are saying, "I think the church's teachings aren't worth adhering to. I wonder why people aren't adhering to the church's teachings."

Yeah, you’re right! I’m an idiot and I don’t know what I’m talking about! Thanks so much for your biology lesson, oh learned one! </sarc>

certainly you are correct.
however, many who were baptized Catholic,
and even continue to call themselves Catholic,
do not obey church doctrine.
-
and, i simply pointed out, that this is true,
in other religions also.
for example, there are Muslims,
who refuse to obey the Quran,
and refuse to go on jihad, and terrorize kuffirs.

certainly you are correct. however, many who were baptized Catholic, and even continue to call themselves Catholic, do not obey church doctrine.

Yes, like you said, every denomination has imperfect members, lazy members, even close to indifferent members, but that is what makes up that particular denomination.

I guess it is a reflection on the quality of the teachings and the sharing of Christ from denomination to denomination.

A very big portion of that quality would be seen by looking at how much of it is retained by even those who rarely show up, or who have drifted away but still identify with that denomination.

Do you believe the current study is impartial?

Specifically about this study, I don't know. I just doubt anything coming from the Guttmacher Institute since Planned Parenthood is where they get their funding.

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