[1] This article will discuss various views on birth control of the major world religions Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Baha'i.
Soon after, according to Flann Campbell, mainline Protestant groups came to accept the use of modern contraceptives as a matter of what they considered Biblically allowable freedom of conscience.
[4] Conservative Protestants hold any one of the three aforementioned positions (acceptance of birth control, natural family planning, or Quiverfull) depending on the denomination.
[8][9] Artificial contraception is taught to not fulfill the ideal of married love, while methods such as natural family planning (NFP) are in full accordance with Christian doctrine.
The Catholic Church [...] raises her voice as a sign of her divine mission, and through Our mouth proclaims anew: any use of marriage exercised in such a way that through human effort the act is deprived of its natural power to procreate human life violates the law of God and of nature, and those who commit such an action are stained with the guilt of grave sin.
Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.Several other documents provide more insight into the Church's position on contraception.
"The complexity of the issues that arose revealed the need for continued open discussion of a number of doctrinal, moral, spiritual, and pastoral questions.
"[15] He also continues with a warning that: "The debates carried on in the media, in certain publications and even among the Church’s ministers, range from an immoderate desire for total change without sufficient reflection or grounding, to an attitude that would solve everything by applying general rules or deriving undue conclusions from particular theological considerations.
"[16] The Pope finishes this with "Since 'time is greater than space', I would make it clear that not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium.
They insisted that "a Catholic Christian is not free to form his conscience without consideration of the teaching of the Magisterium, in the particular instance exercised by the Holy Father (i.e., Pope) in an encyclical letter".
[23][24] However, in December 2018, in a responsum (a reply by a Curial department that is intended to settle a question or dispute, but that is not a papal document), the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), under its Prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer SJ, stated that if the uterus can be found, with moral certainty, to not be able to ever carry a fertilized ovum to the point of viability, that a hysterectomy could be performed because under that very narrow circumstance, it is considered the removal of a failed organ and not per se sterilization since viability is not possible.
In July 2023, Pope Francis sent a message to a Natural Family Planning conference in which he upheld the central teachings of Humanae Vitae, warning Catholics that the widespread use of contraception had impoverished many societies and that some countries were now in danger of demographic collapse.
[30] Author and FamilyLife Today radio host Dennis Rainey suggests four categories as useful in understanding current Protestant attitudes concerning birth control.
Modern contraceptive inventions have given many an exaggerated sense of safety and prompted more people than ever before to move sexual expression outside the marriage boundary.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America "permits the use of certain contraceptive practices within marriage to space children, enhance the expression of marital love and protect health.
Methods like Safe Period, Anti-implantation agents, Inhibition of Ovulation or Spermatogenesis, Intrauterine contraceptive device, Antizygotic drugs, etc.
In many modern Orthodox communities, it is recommended for young newlywed couples to wait a year before having a child so as to strengthen their marital foundation and their relationship before bringing children into the home.
Conservative Judaism, while generally encouraging its members to follow the traditional Jewish views on birth control has been more willing to allow greater exceptions regarding its use to fit better within modern society.
[47] Jews who follow halakha based on the Talmudic tradition of law will not have sex during the 11–14 days after a woman begins menstruating.
This precludes them from utilizing some forms of "natural birth control" such as the "Calendar-based contraceptive methods" which are relatively unobjectionable to other religious groups.