In the USA, majority of people see birth control and IVF as morally acceptable, other evils approved as well

 

Gallup Poll: Majority Back Birth Control, IVF, 

But Almost Half See US Morality As ‘Poor’

By

Gina Christian

Frozen human embryos are pictured in a file photo. Results of a new Gallup poll released July 30,2024, show that Americans overwhelmingly support birth control and in vitro fertilization, with the majority also favoring extramarital sex, same-sex relations and having children out of wedlock. Abortion and the death penalty support remains strong, but at least one third of Americans oppose both. (OSV News photo/Ian Hodgson)

(OSV News) — New data shows most of the nation views birth control and in vitro fertilization as “morally acceptable,” while extramarital affairs and suicide are regarded as the most “morally wrong” of several behaviors — with close to half the nation regarding overall morality in the U.S. as “poor.”

In a July 30 email, Gallup highlighted results from one of its social series polls, which the firm has been conducting each month since 2001 on key topics. A May values and belief telephone poll taken on a sample of some 1,000 adults aged 18 and older showed that respondents’ moral ratings of 19 behaviors remained stable from prior years.

Issues of human sexuality and reproduction dominated the poll, with birth control endorsed by 90% of the respondents and in vitro fertilization by 82%.

The birth control question did not distinguish between artificial contraception and fertility-awareness based methods of family planning, sometimes known as natural family planning. The church opposes artificial contraception and IVF both on the basis that these practices separate the unitive, or love-giving, dimension from the procreative, or life-giving, dimension of God’s plan for marriage; the church’s teaching affirms married couples can morally use NFP methods for the sake of responsible parenthood.

Most respondents (69%) approved of sex between an unmarried man and woman, and close to an equal number (68%) also approved of having a baby outside of marriage. Polygamy and extramarital affairs were both frowned upon, with a respective 74% and 86% of respondents indicating disapproval.

More than half (54%) of those surveyed said abortion was morally acceptable.

Nearly two out of three respondents (63%) backed medical research using stem cells from human embryos, but less than half (49%) approved of destroying human embryos created through IVF.

Close to two thirds of respondents (64%) viewed “gay or lesbian relations” as morally acceptable.

However, a majority of Americans said pornography (58%), changing one’s gender (51%) and sex between teenagers (50%) were morally wrong.

More than half of those surveyed supported the death penalty (55%) and doctor-assisted suicide (53%). However, 71% of respondents disapproved of suicide itself.

Regarding moral issues involving animals, 59% approved of buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur, while only 48% approved of medical testing on animals.

Amid some of the largest lottery jackpots in U.S history, most respondents (66%) approved of gambling.

Gallup researchers noted that when respondents were asked about the nation’s overall state of morality, only 15% rated it “excellent” or “good,” while just under half (49%) described it as “poor” and 34% calling it “only fair.”

Gina Christian is a multimedia journalist for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @GinaJesseReina.

The Holy See addresses the worldly lies about birth control

 

The United Nations Headquarters in New York  (ANSA)

VATICAN

• UN
• DEVELOPMENT
• ABORTION
• HOLY SEE

Holy See: ‘Birth control is not the key to sustainable development’

As the U.N. marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) this year, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia reiterates that promoting birth control policies does not help eradicate world poverty and promote sustainable development.

By Lisa Zengarini

Nearly thirty years have passed since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt, which transformed the global approach to population and development issues, and defined a bold agenda for sustainable development.

The Cairo Programme of Action 

The conference was held in the Egyptian capital from 5-13 September 1994 gathering some 20,000 delegates, and resulted in the adoption of a landmark Programme of Action (PoA), which  affirmed that inclusive sustainable development is not possible without prioritizing human rights, and addressing inequalities as well as the needs, of individual women and men.

Its ambitious goals, included the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the achievement of universal primary education, the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, the reduction of child mortality, and the improvement of  maternal health.  

The UN 2030 Agenda

Since then, there have been significant advancements in development, notably with the adoption in 2015  of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to eliminate poverty, achieve gender equality, and secure the health and well-being of all people. The 17 global goals, known as Agenda 2030, call for collective effort across a wide range of areas – including environmental action, public health, human rights, education, and much more – to usher in a new era of development around the world.

Eradication of poverty facing new challenges

READ ALSO

20/01/2024

Pope laments "culture of waste and depopulation" in Italy

Thirty years on, however, growing inequalities, prolonged crises and a retreat from multilateralism threaten the legacy of that landmark achievement, and progress is at risk of stagnation or even reversal.

“It is evident that numerous challenges persist, especially in the pursuit of the eradication of poverty”, noted Archbishop Gabriele Caccia the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations on Wednesday.

Birth control and abortion don't help stem poverty 

Speaking at an event organized in New York to mark the anniversary, the Vatican Observer lamented that over the past three decades, the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA) has become “increasingly narrow in focus,” with a “consequent shift away from addressing development issues.”

Archbishop Caccia referred specifically to the ongoing emphasis given by the United Nations’ agencies to birth control policies, including abortion, as a means to stem poverty and promote development, which has been a contentious issue since the Cairo Conference.

“The discussions have regressed with many attempting to frame population as an issue to be ‘solved’. This is clear in the push for abortion under the guise of politically correct language, making it the focus of ICPD and the implementation of its PoA”

“This is not just a harmful misunderstanding of the PoA, but of development in a wider sense”, he said. “It also leads to the erosion of respect for the sanctity of human life and the inalienable dignity of the human person.”

Population control is not the key to sustainable development

Concluding, Archbishop Caccia once again rejected the “notion that population control is the key to sustainable development.” Instead, he said “it is essential to guarantee that all men, women and children are afforded the opportunity to actualize their full potential.”

The Holy See has engaged extensively in United Nations negotiations on issues concerning sexual and reproductive health rights as they have emerged and evolved in a dynamic global agenda over the past three decades and has said that suggesting that reproductive health includes a right to abortion explicitly violates the language of the ICPD, and defies moral and legal standards.

Good for the Pope; Italy needs more babies!!!

 

Pope Francis expresses concern about Italy’s low birth rate

By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 11, 2023 / 16:50 pm

Pope Francis on Monday received the prefects of the Italian Republic in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace and expressed his concern about the low birth rate in the country, lamenting that many times “dogs take the place of children.”

The pope reminded that the task of these government authorities is to act as intermediaries “between the state and the territory, constantly linking the whole with the parts, the center with the peripheries, the common good with care for people.”

The pontiff highlighted three challenges that the prefects face: public order, critical environmental issues, and taking care of the migrants flowing in.

Regarding public order, the pontiff stressed that it’s a priority, where “respect for the law with care for humanity” must be combined.

He stressed that “the protection of victims with the fair treatment of criminals” must be reconciled.

“Added to this is the great responsibility you have to face the risks that members of the police forces face daily, whose care is also your concern,” he continued.

Pope Francis also noted that “public order cannot be administered without personal and interior order. But when this exists, the responsibility of public order feels like a call to create that climate of harmonious coexistence through which difficulties can be addressed and resolved.”

“I would say that yours is a kind of institutional fatherhood: exercised with conscience and dedication, it spares no sacrifices nor sleepless nights and deserves our gratitude,” he said.

Later, Pope Francis reflected on the environmental issue and the “emergencies that are now frequent and involve everyone; linked to atmospheric phenomena that should be unusual and extraordinary, they have become common due to climate change.”

The pope noted that it is the prefects’ responsibility to “manage the available resources in the best possible way and bring together public and private players.”

“It’s important and urgent,” he stressed, “in the present as well as in the future, to join forces to protect our common home in time and with foresight.”

Finally, he spoke of the flow of migrants into the country, a task that “is not easy, because the care of wounded and vulnerable people, often lost and recovering from terrible traumas, is entrusted to them.”

The Holy Father reminded that migrants “are faces and not numbers,” who must be freed “from the tentacles of criminal organizations, capable of ruthlessly speculating on their misfortunes.”

“You are entrusted with the arduous task of organizing an orderly reception on the ground, based on integration and constructive inclusion in the local fabric,” he highlighted.

The pope also noted that “we must take care. We must welcome, accompany, promote, and integrate immigrants. If there isn’t this, there is danger; if there is not this path towards integration, there is danger.”

He also highlighted his concern about the low birth rate in Italy, “a country that lacks children and the migrants come.”

“I am concerned about the problem of the low birth rate here in Italy. They’re not having children,” the Holy Father pointed out, lamenting that often “dogs take the place of children.”

Finally, he invited the prefects to think about the responsibility “that Italians have to have children to raise them and also to welcome immigrants as sons and daughters.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Artificial contraception now a OTC option

 

FDA approves first over-the-counter birth control pill

Washington — July 13, 2023

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterEmail to a friendPrint

The Food and Drug Administration announced July 13 it approved the sale of a birth control pill without a prescription for the first time in the United States, a move that will increase the availability of oral contraception and impact ongoing debates about abortion policy.

In a statement, Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said the approval of Opill, a progestin-only pill, "marks the first time a nonprescription daily oral contraceptive will be an available option for millions of people in the United States."

"When used as directed, daily oral contraception is safe and is expected to be more effective than currently available nonprescription contraceptive methods in preventing unintended pregnancy," Cavazzoni said.

Currently, a woman seeking to use birth control pills must do so with a doctor's prescription.

While some have called for expanded access to contraception in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned the high court's jurisprudence on abortion as a constitutional right, others have argued that proliferating contraception without medical supervision could lead to more unintended pregnancies.

Opill is expected to be available for retail sale in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2024, its maker, Perrigo, said in a statement.

The FDA said the most common side effects of Opill include irregular bleeding, headaches, dizziness, nausea, increased appetite, abdominal pain, cramps and bloating; and the drug should not be used by those who have or have ever had breast cancer.

Recent comments by the Pope concerning birth control/contraception

Pope Francis on birth control: Can the teaching of the Church on contraception change?

 

By Courtney Mares

Rome Newsroom, Jul 30, 2022 / 04:38 am

Can the Church’s teaching on birth control change? During Pope Francis’ return flight from Canada, a journalist asked him about the possibility of a development in the Church’s teaching on contraception.

“This is very timely. But know that dogma, morality, is always in a path of development, but development in the same direction,” Pope Francis responded on July 30.

The pope went on to say that he thinks that the development of Catholic moral doctrine, in general, is fine but recommended in particular that it follows the rules outlined by the 5th-century theologian St. Vincent of Lérins.

Pope Francis explained that St. Vincent of Lérins taught “that true doctrine in order to go forward, to develop, must not be quiet, it develops ut annis consolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimetur aetate.”

“That is, it consolidates with time, it expands and consolidates, and becomes more steady, but is always ‘progressing.’ That is why the duty of theologians is research, theological reflection. You cannot do theology with a ‘no’ in front of it … the magisterium will be the one to say no,” the pope added.

Francis also addressed the recent controversy over a book published by the Vatican’s publishing house, which discussed “the possible legitimacy of contraception in certain cases.”

The book “Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, and Practical Challenges” was a 528-page synthesis of a theological seminar sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2021.

Pope Francis said: “On the issue of contraception, I know there is a publication out on this issue and other marriage issues.”

“These are the proceedings of a congress and in a congress there are hypotheses, then they discuss among themselves and make proposals. We have to be clear: those who made this congress did their duty because they tried to move forward in doctrine, but in an ecclesial sense, not out, as I said with that rule of St. Vincent of Lerins.”

On the subject of birth control, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).”

St. Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, the landmark encyclical reaffirming Church teaching against contraception, on July 25, 1968.

In the encyclical, Paul VI warned of serious social consequences if the widespread use of contraceptives became accepted. He predicted that it would lead to infidelity, the lowering of morality, a loss of respect for women, and the belief that humans have “unlimited dominion” over the body.

Abortions down, vasectomies up but vasectomies are also gravely sinful

 

In the Wake of the Texas Heartbeat Bill — Fewer Abortions, More Vasectomies

Direct sterilization, such as vasectomy, is gravely sinful, regardless of the circumstances.

Pro-abortion activists protest SB 8 at the Texas State Capitol on Sept. 11, 2021, in Austin, Texas. (photo: Jordan Vonderhaar / Getty Images)

Kathy Schiffer BlogsJanuary 20, 2022

In May 2021, when Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law one of the nation’s strictest abortion measures, pro-life Americans were understandably enthusiastic. Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), popularly known as the “heartbeat bill,” banned abortions once a fetal heartbeat could be detected — generally by the sixth week of pregnancy. Unlike other heartbeat bills which had failed to withstand judicial scrutiny, the Texas law empowers private citizens to sue abortion providers. This novel provision makes it difficult for abortion-rights groups to sue state officials, demanding that they block the law.

With the passage of SB 8, pro-life citizens in the state of Texas saw, for the first time, an opportunity to protect the lives of innocent children in the womb. They hoped, too, that enactment of SB 8, combined with the Supreme Court’s decision to review the case of Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization, would lead to a review and eventual overturning of the faulty Roe v. Wade decision.

In September 2021, after the Supreme Court declined to hear arguments from abortion providers and abortion-rights groups, Texas’ heartbeat bill went into effect. As was expected, abortion supporters and liberal media exploded in rage and fear, warning that women’s rights were being violated and that women, desperate to end their unwanted pregnancies, would resort to coat-hanger abortions.

But there was another, welcome effect: The abortion rate in that state dropped dramatically. The New York Times reported that in the month after the new Texas law went into effect, the number of legal abortions fell to only half what it had been in the previous year. The downward slide in abortions fell short of the 83% decline that had been predicted by experts at the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (considering that 83% of abortions are performed after the cut-off date of six weeks), but the reduction was still significant, and was well received by the pro-life community. John Seago, legislative director of Texas Right to Life, called the passage of SB 8 “a phenomenal success for the pro-life movement.” 

Abortion, No — Vasectomy, Yes?

But with the decrease in women’s ability to obtain an abortion in the Lone Star State, it appears that men have reacted in a self-destructive way: Dr. Koushik Shaw at the Austin Urology Institute reported a 15% increase in scheduled vasectomies at their clinic.

The Washington Post defined the choice by men to defend themselves from parenthood as “acts of love” and as a “form of protest” against the heartbeat bill. The Post failed to mention the alternate explanation: that men with prurient interest in premarital or extramarital sex might prefer to satisfy their self-indulgent urgings without the natural consequence of parenthood and child support payments.

But here’s the thing: The Catholic Church teaches clearly that vasectomy is wrong. Oh, yes, abortion is the outright taking of an innocent human life — and as such, it’s among the most heinous of sins. That doesn’t mean, though, that preventing the birth of a child without also committing an act of murder is acceptable. All methods of contraception, from the birth-control pill to sterilization to vasectomy, are sinful because they deliberately interfere with God’s intended purpose for the sexual act.

Sexual intercourse, the Catholic Church teaches, has two purposes: the “unitive” purpose by which a husband and wife grow closer to one another; and the “procreative” purpose, by which God uses the two persons to help in creating a new human being, a unique person destined for an eternity in heaven. Philosopher Germain Grisez explained:

Sterilization intended as a means of birth control (often referred to as ‘direct,’ ‘deliberate’ or ‘intentional’ sterilization) is intrinsically evil, for it fails to promote the good of the human person because of its adamant refusal to accept the inherent procreative (‘life-giving’) dimension of the marital act as built into it by God. (The other inherent aspect of the marital act is the personalist [unitive] or ‘person-uniting’ dimension.)

No benefit to the person as a whole can justify any procedure which brings about sterility and is chosen for that very purpose. In no way does sterility as such truly benefit anyone; it only facilitates sexual intercourse — the distinct act in and through which some benefit is expected — by excluding conception. Thus, the intention of choosing sterilization is contraceptive, and the sterilizing act is at best a bad means to a good ulterior end.

Grisez went on to add yet another evil that is a part of vasectomy: bodily mutilation. For this reason, he believes, vasectomy is more seriously wrong than other methods of contraception.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).

The Catechism clearly teaches that direct sterilization, such as vasectomy, is morally unacceptable, regardless of the circumstances. Rather, spouses should consider natural controls that do not interfere with bodily function, such as Natural Family Planning.