Posts Tagged ‘Birth control’

All wired up: the contraceptive chip

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014

An MIT spinoff called MicroCHIPS has announced plans to market an implantable contraceptive chip that can be turned on and off remotely, and lasts for as long as sixteen years. Funded by the (Bill) Gates Foundation to the tune of $5 million, the chip contains enough of the contraceptive drug levonorgestrel to provide contraception for Read more

Time for a major re-think on birth control

Friday, December 13th, 2013
synod

Prompted by Pope Francis, for the first time in history, Catholics throughout the world are being asked our opinion in preparation for a synod. Like many others, I have been answering the questionnaire put out by the Vatican in preparation for the Extraordinary Synod on the Family to be held next October. In fact, even Read more

Sweetening the pill

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013

Holly Grigg-Spall is a young woman who calls herself a feminist but who is deeply unpopular with some of the sisterhood right now. English, 30-ish, married to an American and living in California, she has written a book criticising the contraceptive pill. Actually, Sweetening the Pill: Or How We Got Hooked On Hormonal Birth Control is more than Read more

Humanae Vitae 45 years on: a personal story

Tuesday, August 6th, 2013

For the faithful it (birth control) is a sad and agonizing issue, for there is a cleavage between the official teaching of the Church and the contrary practice in most families. — Former Patriarch Maximos IV Saigh of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church quoted in What Happened at Vatican II, by John W. O’Malley. Recalling that Thursday was Read more

Humanae Vitae 45 years on: Paul VI was right

Tuesday, August 6th, 2013

While pondering last week’s sapphire anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life) and the continuing controversy over the so-called “birth control encyclical” throughout both Church and society, I came across a striking passage in an essay by Polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, written shortly before his death in 2004. “Increasingly the institution Read more

Doctor refuses to prescribe birth control pill

Tuesday, July 16th, 2013

A Blenheim woman says her GP refused to give her the birth control pill because she had not yet done her “reproductive job”. Melissa Pont, 23, said her family practitioner, Dr Joseph Lee, would not renew her pill prescription, instead lecturing her on a baby’s right to live and on using the rhythm method. Lee is Read more

Most US Catholics disagree with Church teachings

Friday, March 8th, 2013

A public opinion poll in the United States has shown a significant gap between what the Catholic Church teaches and what American Catholics actually believe. Asked if they believe the pope is infallible when he teaches on matters of morality or faith, only 40 per cent of the total sample (and 45 per cent of Read more

Young Catholics in US reject teachings on sexuality

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Most young American Catholics believe the Church’s teachings on sexuality and birth control are “out of date” and find Mass attendance an onerous obligation, according to a new survey. The online survey by the Barna Group covered 1296 Christians aged 18-29, including 536 “who had experience attending a Catholic church prior to age 18.” Among Read more

Catholic doctors in Bangladesh afraid to shun abortions

Friday, December 7th, 2012

Catholic doctors in Bangladesh often ignore Church teaching on abortion and birth control because they are afraid they will lose their job or lose patients. The doctors’ predicament came to light during a “Faith in the Life of Medical Professionals” workshop organised by the Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Healthcare and the Association of Catholic Doctors. Read more

Catholic employers face health insurance dilemma in US

Friday, August 10th, 2012

Catholics who own businesses in the United States are pondering how to get around a health insurance dilemma caused by a new federal mandate. The mandate, introduced by President Barack Obama, requires their health insurance plans to cover contraception, sterilisation and abortion drugs. It came into effect for secular employers on August 1, but religious Read more