Klaus, H. (2018). Rejecting Humanae Vitae: The Social Costs of Denying the Obvious. The Linacre Quarterly, 85(4), 322-326. https://doi.org/10.1177/0024363918817319
Klaus H. Rejecting Humanae Vitae: The Social Costs of Denying the Obvious. Linacre Q. 2018;85(4):322-326. doi:10.1177/0024363918817319
Klaus, Hanna. "Rejecting Humanae Vitae: The Social Costs of Denying the Obvious." The Linacre Quarterly, vol. 85, no. 4, 2018, pp. 322-326.
A 2018 opinion article by a physician and Teen STAR cofounder argues that the contraception era brought the social costs the encyclical Humanae vitae predicted. The author proposes that teaching teens fertility awareness gives them a better path. The article cites national statistics and the author's Teen STAR program outcomes.
Key Findings
The author reports that 95 percent of United States children were born in wedlock in 1950, falling to 60 percent by 2010, citing National Center for Health Statistics data.
Citing a 2015 report, the article states that more than 30 percent of women stopped using contraceptives before the end of the first year and over 50 percent before the second year.
The article describes a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet showing 24 percent unplanned pregnancy for fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs) and cites it as literature that denigrates their effectiveness.
After a boys' curriculum joined Teen STAR, nearly all virgins remained sexually uninvolved and about half of sexually experienced students stopped activity, outcomes held at two- and three-year follow-up (authors' unpublished data).
Interpretation
This is an opinion article in The Linacre Quarterly. The author argues that the contraception era brought the social costs Humanae vitae predicted. The statistics come from the National Center for Health Statistics and other national sources on U.S. births, marriage and contraceptive use. Teen STAR ran with permission from the school, parents and students. The Teen STAR findings support larger, published studies of teen fertility education programs.
RRM Context
Fertility awareness-based methods rest on observing biomarkers. The article names cervical mucus as the sign used in the Billings ovulation method. Restorative reproductive medicine treats the ovulatory cycle as a vital sign. The article applies that observation to teen education, where girls learn their cycle phases and the length of their luteal phase.
Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.
Abstract
Since contraceptives have been used to remove fertility from the conjugal act, the social consequences predicted in the encyclical Humanae vitae, such as the rise in cohabitation, decline of marriage, rise of divorce, and single parenthood, have exceeded expectations. The degradation of the sexual act from total mutual self-giving to momentary union has led to doubting the significance of the biological truth of the body and opened the door to gender fluidity. Promiscuity became normative, and the need for consent became eroded until women revolted with the #MeToo movement. Promiscuity, cohabitation, and divorce have resulted in 40 percent of children born to unmarried parents whose tenuous unions often leave the children in melded and dysfunctional families. Relation-free "hookups" have become the norm among young adults, leaving a flood of emotionally damaged women, an epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, and unplanned pregnancies, to which the healthcare industry has responded by doubling down on the means which caused the problem in the first place with near-coercive promotion of long-acting, reversible contraceptives (LARCs). LARCs must be inserted and removed professionally and make reproductive choice moot. Respecting the truth of the body is the precise counter measure. A woman's cyclic fertility is easily observed with reliable biomarkers-natural family planning-which requires the whole person. Fertility awareness-based methods of family planning have no side effects, are easy to learn, and can be used to achieve as well as delay conception. The self-discovery inherent in learning fertility literacy has empowered adolescent girls and boys to understand and value their sexuality and fertility and avoid choosing harmful behaviors. Why does society continue to treat fertility as if it were a disease?
Summary
Removing the idea of pregnancy from the sexual act as the result of readily available contraception has effectively limited choices about sexual behavior to the satisfaction of momentary desires. As Humanae vitae predicted, fewer marriages were contracted, divorce increased and now 40% of children are born out of wedlock despite extensive public education campaigns to promote contraception. Side effects of the hormonal pill have reduced their use so health care professionals have doubled down, providing long acting contraceptives which do not require the user to exercise choice before each act of intercourse, or of taking a pill. There is a much better way to regulate births-to learn to read the book of nature. Fertility is not a disease to be removed from the body. All that is needed is to understand the natural signs of fertility-natural family planning, now called FABM-Fertility Awareness-Based Methods. These have no side effects, enhance couple communication and offer effective choice for child spacing and demonstrably support premarital chastity for teens.
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