I have heard it on tape and also on CD. But recently I read the written text of a 1994 talk on contraception by Janet Smith, now a professor at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary. The talk is entitled Contraception: Why Not? and is available in full at this link.
The talk is revolutionary because it methodically and incisively dissects the tissue of lies that has destroyed lives, families, reputations, and the happiness of many. The great lie is that contraception is a boon to people, especially women. Smith shows, point by point, how the contraception culture has made divorce routine and sunk our culture into compulsive immorality. You must read it yourself to appreciate the devastating portrayal of modern American culture.
Here are a few incendiary snippets to whet your appetite for the article. She points to one researcher who confirms what common sense will tell you, namely, that “since contraceptives have arrived on the scene, there is much more adultery.” This point reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend from a very traditional immigrant ethnic group. He observed that sterilization was an increasingly popular option among males in his ethnic group.
My immediate reaction was that this fad for sterilization must surely lead to an increase in adultery. Smith makes the same point, in regard to women, by noting that “if most every woman is contracepting, then most every woman is available in a certain sense and there is no real reason to say no.” When CNN recently ran a special series on widespread adultery in America, I doubt CNN made the link to contraception. I certainly didn't see the link made in the series and didn't expect to see it, given the unquestioned acceptance of contraception in our culture.
Smith also noted in 1994 that “[f]ifty percent of women who go to abortion clinics tell us that they're there because of contraceptive failure.” The infanticide of abortion makes the adultery look minor by comparison. Even more alarming, Smith points out that the infamous Pill also works as an abortifacient. So, gentlemen, those old girlfriends with the plastic Pill compact in their purses may have unknowingly killed your offspring. The IUD also works as an abortifacient.
Smith also observes, in a question and answer section at the end of the article, that the “huge increase in the amount of infertility is mostly traceable to . . . sexually transmitted diseases.” And so you have the circle of self-destruction: contraception makes fornication easy, common, and socially accepted; fornication spawns sexually transmitted diseases; and as a result many women lose their fertility.
There are many losers in our contraception culture: the unborn are killed, women lose their fertility, males become accomplices to the abortifacient workings of popular contraceptives, and marriages suffer. But there is a great conspiracy of silence in our culture that refuses to tally up the bill.
Silence blankets many of our greatest personal tragedies. Many of us live in denial. Others mourn privately. But silence is of little use to a younger generation overwhelmed with destructive contraceptive propaganda from a multitude of sources. These pro-contraception sources present the contraceptive lifestyle as empowering, liberating, and harmless.
The truth is far different. I recall how EWTN’s Fr. Benedict Groeschel once advised people not to “waste” their suffering. Those of us who have seen firsthand the underside of the contraceptive lifestyle ought to break silence for the sake of those following behind us. Professor Smith has made it easy for us to break that silence. Just direct a young person to the link above or the website OneMoreSoul.com.
© Copyright 2004 Catholic Exchange
Oswald Sobrino’s daily columns can be found at the Catholic Analysis website. He is a graduate lay student at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary. He recently published Unpopular Catholic Truths, a collection of apologetic essays, available on the Internet here.
