Fr. Shenan J. Boquet: The Contraception-Abortion Connection

Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International, Sept. 9, 2019

The Tentacles of the Contraceptive Mentality

Any good medical doctor knows that while it is often necessary to treat or control the symptoms of a disease, without treating its cause the patient will often be much worse off in the long run.

HLI’s founder, Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, ardently believed that, looked at one way, abortion is merely one symptom of a much deeper cultural and spiritual disease. Without addressing this deeper problem, he worried, we may well save many individual lives, but make precious little progress in turning the culture away from child-killing.

For his part, Fr. Marx believed that the root cause of abortion, and many of the evils of the Culture of Death, is the “contraceptive mentality.” As he said: “While we need a variety of pro-life groups hacking away at the anti-life monster, it is enormously futile and indeed grossly short-sighted to overlook the chief source of baby-killing, which is contraception.”

Unfortunately, many people, even those in the pro-life movement, still respond to Fr. Marx’s claim with incredulity. In many cases, even many of our own priests, bishops, and fellow Christians have swallowed the talking points and propaganda of the abortion movement. They naively believe that contraception is ultimately just a “minor” sin – if a sin at all – and a matter that is best left to the discernment of individual couples. Furthermore, for many people it’s very difficult to imagine how we might even begin to “put the cat back in the bag,” so to speak – that is, to convince Catholics, let alone the broader culture, to turn their backs on contraception. The technology is now so cheap, so easy, and so readily available, and the (apparent) benefits so enticing, that addressing the topic of contraception seems akin to tilting at windmills. Thus, they throw up their hands in despair. ….

Read more at  https://www.hli.org/2019/09/the-contraception-abortion-connection/