Are Contraception and Abortion Siamese Twins?
I have the greatest respect for Dr. Paul Marx, founder of Human Life International. He has produced much good material which argues for the sanctity of human life and exposes the evil of infanticide (via abortion) and euthanasia. But the gentleman exceeds appropriate bounds when he argues that “widespread contraception always leads to abortion” (1999, 9), though he concedes this charge may be “difficult to prove scientifically.” In reality, his argument is a non-argument. He might as well contend that people who engage in sexual activity are more likely to procure abortions than those who do not! This is a truism. But sexual activity per se does not always lead to abortion. The fact of the matter is, Dr. Marx is a Roman Catholic scholar; he thus has an intrinsic bias against contraception. One is not surprised, therefore, that he attempts to make a connection between artificial methods of birth control and abortion. The Roman Catholic position on this issue is as follows: “It is perfec
