The question asked is: Are there some methods of contraception which are morally and ethically unacceptable to me? Which ones? Why?
My answer in its most boiled-down form is that there are not. As I understand it (in my own unique way) all contraceptive devices strive to fend off pregnancy. In a fair lot of cases this is the result of responsible decision making by consenting adults who want to engage in intercourse which is their business alone and nobody else's.
I won't engage in a painfully hair-splitting argument about if 'contraceptive method A' is more or less ethical than 'contraceptive method B.' Until we, the inhabitants of earth, are having sex only for reproductive purposes (don't hold your breath), contraception of any sort has my approval. Let me tell you why...
We often have a tendency to wear blinders when tackling an issue such as this one. We look at things from our own perspectives and base our beliefs in our own experiences. When we do this we forget that other people are subject to different circumstances. We may for one reason or another believe that condoms and 'the pill' are the most obvious and acceptable forms of birth control, and that someone who would use an intrusive IUD device is off her rocker. But that person uses her IUD for her own reasons: perhaps her sister gave it to her and it's all she's ever known; or she is allergic to most condoms; or she gained 40 pounds during those 3 months she was on the pill.
My bottom line here: different strokes for different people - often for reasons we may never have guessed! I exclaim that it is ludicrous to find some contraceptive methods ok and others not.
But what about abortion as a birth control method, as we discussed in class? Well, here's the thing about that. I believe if someone is using abortion as contraception that the problem of her choice of contraception is the least of her (and our) concerns. Considering the physical and emotional trauma that is endured with each procedure, not to mention the hassle and logistics of moving from the beginning to the end of the process, the woman who chooses to frequent the abortion needs far more help from functional society than simply being handed a condom.
I'd like to weigh in on abortion as abortion, as opposed to abortion as contraception. Abortion is obviously a very controversial topic and it is often debated as to whether or not it is right or wrong. I understand this, as these finite labels (right and wrong) each come from strong camps:
"life is life, to end it is murder"
"a woman ultimately has the right to do what she wants with her body"
...but so many cases fall in between these two extremes; the decision to abort a pregnancy just isn't as simple as 'right or wrong.' I won't even cite examples. What I will say is that I personally could approve of 'abortion A' and disapprove of 'abortion B,' and I'm very comfortable in that standpoint. Each abortion is unique and encompasses its own set of circumstances, often circumstances with which we are utterly unfamiliar with, and we as a whole group of people have no right to label the procedure of abortion 'right' or 'wrong.'
The final question on Friday was 'do I believe that my views on contraception are consistent with those from my socio-cultural background?'
I must say that they are, because I am a product of my environment after all. I did not grow up going to church, and I did not have a lot of rigid beliefs pressed into me from my parents - not on the contraceptive front, anyway.
My parents actually ran a business whose bread and butter was sex toy parties, for lack of a better one-off description. They supplied consultants, women all over B.C, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, with products which were meant to enhance sexual relationships and individuals' sexual pleasure. These products were sold in a most trendy and comfortable setting: someone's house. It's like a tupperware party; you know what I'm talking about...
This fact alone tells me a lot about where my liberal views on sexuality come from. My parents never sat me down and explicitly told me so, but they believed that sexuality is a wonderful thing which should be explored and embraced, and I'm thankful for that.
If you'd asked me before class on November 12 if contraceptives were controversial, I'd have quickly said no. This conversation came up because indeed it is a debatable issue, and a prime catalyst of this is the Roman Catholic Church. How could I have forgotten about the Catholics!? They were the butt of the joke in the Monty Python clip we watched to lead into our discussion of contraceptives, and for reasons I've already listed, I think that their stance on contraception is absurd.This is a long blog though, so I will leave you with the clip below, which nicely summarizes my thoughts regarding the stance of the Catholic church on contraception and, well, everything else.
The New Pope (Cue at 5:30)
(I actually feel that I owe you some context for this clip. Basically, it was through a series of events not so unlike that of 'The Da Vinci Code' that the discovery was made that Jesus had actually assigned the original position of 'Pope' to a rabbit. After this slight mishap in the Catholic tradition was rectified is when this clip begins.)
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