Birth Control and Sex Education: Pro-life Points of View
Cassandra Hartley
Chronicle Feature Editor
Jake Werrett does not like the terms “pro-life” and “pro choice.” A sophomore in business at the University of Utah, Werrett is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Just because you don’t encourage or approve of abortion doesn’t mean you’re against people making choices. People have free agency,” he explained.
“It’s like being Democrat or Republican, I don’t want to fall into either one necessarily.”
Father Rob Reyes, the campus minister for the Catholic Newman Center, has little problem adopting the label of pro-life.
“To me, pro-life means for everything, it’s not just a matter of the unborn. It’s necessary to nurture life in all forms,” he said
Reyes explained that being pro-life also relates to the treatment of the aged, dying, disabled and prisoners.
“It’s respect for other people. Anything that promotes a greater nurturing of life needs to be upheld because life is from God,” he said.
Cecilee Orme, co-director of The Cleft campus ministry, also defines her congregation as pro-life.
“We respect every life?born and unborn,” she said.
But while many groups agree that they are pro-life, they may have differing views on how that relates to birth control.
According to Reyes, the official Catholic stance on birth control prohibits any use of “artificial birth control,” which includes pills, gels and diaphragms. These methods don’t take into account the natural reproductive processes, he said.
“[The church] promotes using natural methods, such as only having intercourse during the time when the woman is not fertile?or abstinence,” Reyes continued. “It’s making use of the God-given natural processes of biology. It’s giving glory to God [because] it’s part of God’s creation.”
For Orme, the question of using birth control depends on the type of relationship.
“In respect to pre-marital sex, it’s not a solution. Just because it helps to not create a birth or a child doesn’t make it right,” she said.
In marriage, she believes “it’s a personal thing. There are a lot of different opinions, even within Christian groups. I don’t know where we stand, but I think it’s a couple’s preference.”
Werrett agreed, noting that the individual circumstances “definitely matter.”
“If it’s out of marriage, the church would discourage that in that case. It’s better to go abstinent,” he said.
While Paul Browning, director of The Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion, admits he is unaware of any official LDS church stance on the issue, he believes there are certain expectations.
“My personal stance is that husbands and wives have been commanded by the Lord to multiply and replenish the earth,” he explained.
Browning went on to say that the church cannot tell a couple how many children to have because “that’s a personal choice between the husband and wife and God.”
Despite many religious groups’ restrictions on birth control, there are those who argue that without using it in both pre-marital and marital relationships, the earth will not be able to sustain the rapidly increasing human population.
While Reyes understands this problem, it does not change his views.
“[Overpopulation] may be a consequence, but abortion and artificial birth control are not the solution. We need to have a deeper understanding of our own sexuality and what it’s for,” he said.
Reyes believes that the problem is that sex is used more as entertainment.
“People don’t want to be treated like sex objects?I hear that all the time?but that’s exactly what they’re doing when they treat sex [as entertainment]. They think they can do it whenever they want to,” he said.
“Overpopulation can be controlled by education,” Reyes continued. “[There’s a need for] a deeper sense of what you are and accountability for your actions.”
Orme agreed that birth control and abortion are not solutions, but added that she doesn’t see a real problem with population in the first place.
“There’s plenty of land in each continent that is untouched. The world is not overrun,” she said.
One thing that many religious groups agree on is that sex education is vital.
According to Reyes, the Catholic Church is supportive of sex education, even in schools.
“Education is education. I remember when I was in high school, a priest taught us sex education. I must have been in grade eight and that was during the ’70s,” he said.
“I don’t think the church hinders or prohibits sex education. I would be very surprised if I found somewhere that the church doesn’t support it,” Reyes added.
The LDS Church is also supportive of sex education.
“Ideally, sex education would come from the parents, but I suppose the schools have a role to play. [However], schools tend to treat it in a value-free environment when sex education is laden with values,” Browning noted.
From an LDS college student perspective, Werrett definitely supports sex education.
“I think it’s great. It’s needed because the church doesn’t promote or encourage sex out of marriage, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. It’s good for all of us, including those who are abstinent, to be informed,” he said.
Orme holds similar views, but said it can’t be “where they pass out condoms and that’s your sex education?it’s more about abstinence.”
Despite education and religious teachings, there are students who choose to have unprotected sex before marriage.
When this happens to someone in The Cleft, Orme and her husband, Brian, usually have a talk with them.
“We have told them in the past that God still has a plan for them in their life. Abortion is not an option, at least not a good option. We also say that God still loves them, that he forgives them and that life goes on,” she said.
“Because we are biblical based, we say that if you don’t abstain, you are only hurting yourself. It hurts you in a lot of ways, so don’t do it,” she added.
Browning said that when that happens to one of the Institute students, he advises them to see their bishop.
“He is the key person on the path to repentance,” he explained.
“The church can only teach principles?people get to choose their own lifestyles,” Browning continued.
In cases where people don’t repent and follow the principles of the church, they may be removed as members, he said.
For Reyes, the solution to this problem would be to engage the student in a dialogue.
“I’d sit down with them and talk about their concept of what bodies are for and what does sex mean to [them]. I’d ask, ‘Are you really ready to get into this?'” he said.
Reyes also said he would emphasize the importance of abstaining until marriage.
“To me, sex is a very beautiful and therefore?sublime expression of love and commitment. If there is no commitment, you can’t indulge in that,” he explained.
Reyes argued that society has “isolated” the more spiritual aspects of sexual intercourse, making it just sex.
“Having sex and making love?those are different things,” he pointed out. “It’s easy to have sex, even animals do that.”