Aline H. Kalbian, "Sex, Violence, and Justice: Contraception and the Catholic Church"
English | ISBN: 1626160481, 1626161046 | 2014 | 225 pages | PDF | 1 MB

Kalbian contends that official Catholic Church teaching on contraception, articulated in the 1968 papal encyclical Humanae vitae, is rooted in appeals to three biblical commandments: though shall not kill, given that contraception interferes with potential life; thou shall not commit adultery, given that contraception enables lust and prevents procreation as the proper end of marriage; and thou shall not steal, given that contraception aims to restrain population and the potential economic development that everyone deserves. In short, Catholic teaching justifies its prohibition to contraception by invoking three social values: sex, violence, and justice. After offering a history of the Catholic Church and contraception and then analyzing these three values from a feminist perspective, Kalbian suggests that three recent phenomena challenge this three-pronged justification in profound ways: the use of condoms in the HIV/AIDS epidemic; the emergency contraception pill; and the urgent need for population control. Taking these issues seriously, Kalbian claims, might both challenge and help transform Catholic discourse on contraception.