The Anglican acceptance of contraception

Richard Harries Richard Harries is Anglican Bishop of Oxford

Before I go on to say something more
specific about Anglican approaches I should
stress that I will be dealing simply with the
issue of contraception. I will not be discuss-
ing sterilization directly, nor abortion, to
which the Church of England is strongly
opposed, except in the most carefully de-
fined circumstances.
From an Anglican perspective birth
control is unacceptable. It smacks too much
of coercion and the developed world telling
the developing one what to do. Birth control
is out but birth choice is in. Indeed, as has
been argued elsewhere, 'demographic tar-
gets that governments set can in most cases
be met or exceeded simply by responding to
the expressed reproductive goals of indi-
viduals. Family planning objectives should
be expressed in terms of satisfying 'unmet
need' [for contraceptive provision]' (Sind-
ing 1992).
Birth control is out
the information and technology as widely
available as possible. Understandably, how-
ever, the Church of England had to move
from an inherited position of opposition.
The Church of England as such has made no
independent contribution to this subject.
Rather it has played its part in the formula-
tions of successive Lambeth Conferences,
the decanal gathering of Anglican Bishops
throughout the world. Resolution 41 of the
1908 Lambeth Conference (R. Coleman
1992) said
The Conference regards with alarm the
growing practice of the artificial restric-
tion of the family, and earnestly calls
upon all Christian people to discounte-
nance the use of all artificial means of
restriction as demoralizing to character
and hostile to national welfare.
Resolution 68 of the 1920 Lambeth
Conference revealed a shift away from ab-
solutism. 'The Conference, while declining
to lay down rules which will meet the needs
of every abnormal case,' it began. However,
with which the extension of such use
threatens the race.
It went on to urge the importance of
self-control and to assert that the primary
purpose of marriage is the continuation of
the race through the gift and heritage of
children. The sexual union was not to be
regarded as an end in itself.
Resolution 9 of the 1930 Conference
showed a much more positive attitude. 'The
functions of sex as a God-given factor in
human life are essentially noble and crea-
tive.' And Resolution 13 began, 'The Con-
ference emphasizes the truth that the sexual
instinct is a holy thing implanted by God in
human nature.' In contrast to the 1920 Reso-
lution it said that 'It acknowledges that in-
tercourse between husband and wife as the
consummation of marriage has a value of its
own within that sacrament, and that thereby
married love is enhanced and its character
strengthened.' Resolution 15, voted on with
193 in favour and 67 against, said:

Where there is a clearly felt moral obli-

but birth choice is in it continued:
gation to limit or avoid parenthood, the
... regards with grave concern the method must be decided on Christian
The availability of contraception en- spread in modern society of theories and principles. The primary and obvious
larges the area of our choice and offers practices hostile to the family. We utter method is complete abstinence from in-
greater opportunity for us to take responsi- an emphatic warning against the use of tercourse (as far as may be necessary) in
bility for our own lives and those of our unnatural means for the avoidance of a life of discipline and self-control lived
offspring, with a view to their well-being conception, together with the grave dan- in the power of the Holy Spirit. Never-
and growth under God. From this standpoint gers - physical, moral and religious - theless in those cases where there is such
the Anglican Church fully supports making thereby incurred, and against the evils a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or
avoid parenthood, and where there is a
A personal statement from an Islamic perspective morally sound reason for avoiding com-
plete abstinence, the Conference agrees
Majid Katme that other methods may be used, provid-
Rememberthatwe are linked with the creator of the planet, and that God the creator has organized its food ing that this is done in the light of the
supply and its budget. Look at the birds and see what God provides. People should not dare to think of
killing their child for fear of poverty because God will provide for them and their child. lslam forbids the same Christian principles.
culture of killing in the world today: it forbids vasectomy, abortion, sterilizationand euthanasia.
The 1958 Lambeth Conference was less
God is the provider. Only 11% of the earth is cultivated. It is not acceptable to make people afraid that there
will not be enough food. It is a human right to have as many children as you want. A child is born with a qualified. Resolution 1 15 reads:
budget from God, and with hands and feet to work. It is blasphemous that world bodies in population control
seek to take the place of God. God is the population controller. He controls life and death, pregnancy and The Conference believes that the re-
conception. sponsibility for deciding upon the num-
lslam promotes natural family planning. Whatever a person does, God is the one who takes the decisions. ber and frequency of children has been
The concept of population control is foreignto Muslims and is anti-Islamic.Plans for population control are laid by God upon the consciences of
targeting Muslim countries for dubious reasons. These are the plans of lost scientists who do not know of parents everywhere: that this planning,
God the creator. There are 1,400million Muslims in the world, so this view is not the view of a minority of in such ways as are mutually acceptable
eccentrics. to husband and wife in Christian con-
People from the west will spend money on controlling population, not on the food and water that people science, is a right and important factor
need. The rich nations who insist that population growth in poor countries will outstrip the resources of the
planet seem to forget that rich nations cause 80% of the pollution and use 90% of the resources. in Christian family lifeand should be the
result of positive choice before God.

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 In 1968 Resolution 22 noted the publi-
cation of the Papal Encyclical, Humanae
Vitae and, while expressing its appreciation
of the Pope's deep concern for the institu-
tion of marriage and the integrity of married
life, went on:
Nevertheless, the Conference finds it-
self unable to agree with the Pope's
conclusion that all methods of concep-
tion control other than abstinence from
sexual intercourse or its confinement to
the periods of infecundity are contrary
to the 'order established by God.' It
affirms the resolutions of the 1958 Con-
ference of 113 and 115.
These resolutions show clearly how the
Lambeth Conference moved from total op-
position, to qualified acceptance, and then
full acceptance. My predecessor, Kenneth
Kirk, who was Bishop of Oxford from 1937
to 1955, was previously Regius Professor of
Moral and Pastoral Theology in Oxford. In
a book first published in 1927 but revised
for a new edition in 1936 he suggested that
the main two reasons for a change in the
attitude of the Anglican Church were, first,
enhanced appreciation of the value of chil-
dren, with the implied assumption that it
might be easier to express this value if there
are fewer rather than more. Secondly, and
this is the main reason he gives, the change
in the position of women. This, he wrote,
'has led to a natural, proper and wholly
Christian demand that the wife should not
be forced, by the exigencies of married life,
to abandon all the activities in which she
found her interests and occupation before
marriage.'
All the recent Anglican statements on
this subject have set contraception firmly
within the context of a loving, stable, and
life-long marriage union. It is the impor-
tance of this above all that has been stressed.
As part of this, as was seen from the chang-
ing emphasis in the Lambeth Conference
resolutions, there has been a growing appre-
ciation of the value of the marital sexual
union in itself, for itself. This change can be
I particularly clearly seen in the introduction
to the marriage service. The 1662 Book of
1
1 Common Prayer stated that the causes for
I which matrimony was ordained were:
I First, it was ordained for the procreation of
children, to be brought up in the fear and
I
I nurtureof theLord, and to the praiseofhis holy
name. Secondly, it was ordained for a remedy
against sin, and to avoid fornication,that such
persons as have not the gift of contingency
might marry, and keep themselves undefiled
members of Christ's body. Thirdly, it was
ordained for the mutual society, help, and
comfort that the one ought to have of the other,
both in prosperity and adversity.
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The 1928 Book kept the first reason, ance with God's will, to his praise and
though in slightly different language. The glory.
language of the second reason, however,
Here we see that what was traditionally
was changed radically.
the third reason, mutual society, help, and
Marriage was ordained that the natural comfort, has become the first reason. The
instincts and affections, implanted by second reason, relating to the sexual in-
God, should be hallowed and directed stinct, has become very positive, its purpose
aright; that those who are called of God 'that with delight and tenderness they may
to this holy estate, should continue know each other in love', whereas the tradi-
therein in pureness of living. tional first reason, the procreation of chil-
dren, has become the third one.
Professor Gordon Dunstan, one of An-
Anglican moral glicanism's foremost ethicists in recent
years, reflecting on the process whereby the
Anglican Church changed its mind on this
judgements issue, has written that the resolutions did no
more than reflect 'a moral judgement al-
reflect the ready made, tested and acted upon by Chris-
tian husbands and wives, episcopal and
tested clerical as well as lay, for years before'
(Dunstan 1974). He went on to say that:
experience It exemplifies an instance in which the
magisterium of the Church formulated
and ratified a moral judgement made by
of the Christian a sort of Consensus Fidelium, for which
a good theological justification was
communitv worked out ex post facto. That Consen-
sus which, in the history of doctrine, has
been claimed as the forerunner of dog-
matic formulation, is here claimed as a
The Alternative Service Book of 1980
source of moral insight which a church
has a totally rewritten introduction. It gives
may, indeed must after testing, properly
the reasons for marriage in these words:
make its own.
Marriage is given, that husband and
wife may comfort and help each other, This is a crucial indication of the nature
living faithfully together in need and in of Anglican moral judgements. They are not
plenty, in sorrow and in joy. It is given, simply laid down from on high. The official
that with delight and tenderness they pronouncements of the Church reflect the
may know each other in love, and tested experience of the wider Christian
through the joy of their bodily union, community, particularly that of lay people.
may strengthen the union of their hearts Another good example of change, though
and lives. It is given, that they may have one which took rather longer to effect,
children and be blessed in caring for would be the way the Church, after more
them and bringing them up in accord- than 1000 years' fierce condemnation of
A personal statement from a Roman Catholic perspective
John Smeaton
What was at issue at the Cairo Conference was the difference betweenfamily planningand population
control.
Human life has an inalienable dignity and worth. It is inherently sacred from conception to death.
There is biblical evidence for accepting conception as the start of life. Birth control, which often
implicitly includes abortion, is used as a means of influence by powerful government, business and
NGO interests. It is always harmful to the target populations. Abuse of human rights is inherent in
population control programmes. Once accepted it leads to terrible abuses such as the one child policy
in China and the destructionof the family unit, the centre of God's plan for the human race. The west
funds provision of contraceptives to the poor of the world but does not fund the provision of health
care to their children. This is a racist and imperialist policy.
The Catholic Church is particularly vilified for its stance against the use of artificial contraception,
wrongly interpreted as opposition to all planning for family size. There is a strong case to be made
for the use of natural family planning, a method never adequately promoted which is acceptable to
Catholics: it is healthy for women's bodies and enhances marriage relationships.
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TRANSFORMATION: Cairo revisited - religion and population
I
-
usury, accepted that lending money on in-
terest for the purposes of trade was morally
legitimate.
A personal statement from an Evangelical
Christian perspective
Roy McCloughry
Evangelicalshave been developing a position in
which they are concerned for right relationships
between people and God, and people and one
another;for the proclaimed gospel and the lived
good news. They have come to see more and
more that the poor need justice, and that there
is a need to work towards shalom, which is when
people are in harmony with God, one another
and resources.
'Population' must be seen in a holistic context:
in the context of employment and the education
of women. Population is about nutrition, income
and trade as much as about abortion. It is impor-
tant for all these issues to be seen together. We
should be concerned for person-centred devel-
opment. We should see the impact of develop-
ment on people, their families and communities,
with an especial emphasis on women and girls.
Women must have a part in decision-makingon
the issues that affect them. We should move
from population targets to meeting the needs of
people.
The church as a global community is best real-
ized as a local entity. As the local church seeks
to sewe the people of the world, it should show
that God means them to be blessed. Too many
children do not experience life as a blessing but
as a tragedy.
The Cairo Conference did seem to be an ex-
traordinarily secular process. It deliberatelymar-
ginalized religion. Religious people were
stereotyped. But many people are religious and
committed to a religious world view. The philo-
sophical assumptions in the document were
those of western enlightenment with its empha-
sis on freedom.
The Cairo Conference brought about a partner-
ship with NGOs. In the process that led up to
Cairo, there was an increasing realization that
governments do not have privileged or more
efficient sources of information. Therefore they
must seek out partnerships with groups at the
grass roots. The question is whether this is a
threat to their independenceor an opportunityto
target resources more effectively. The Church
is an NGO and in many poor countries it is a
primary provider of health and education. But
where are the partnerships with churches as
NGOs? If there were partnerships with churches
as NGOs, who would have to capitulate to
whose agenda?
There is a lack of ethical dialogue on contracep-
tive technologies. Christians and religious peo-
ple have a lot to offer to a social debate:the love
they can bring, the concepts and the frame-
works they bring to peoples conditioned by me-
dia and the markets. Another challenge to
religious leaders is whether :hey are willing to
accept a compromise on abortion if the health of
women is at stake.
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A personal interpretation of Roman
Catholic teaching on population
John Smeaton
Introduction: the pro-birth control and
abortion agenda
On 18 March 1994, in a message to Mrs
Nafis Sadik, Secretary General of the
United Nations Cairo Conference on Popu-
lation and Development (ICPD), Pope John
Paul I1 began by emphasizing that popula-
tion policy must be determined with refer-
ence to certain basic truths: that each and
every person, regardless of age and sex,
religion or national background, has a dig-
nity and worth that is unconditional and
inalienable; that human life itself from con-
ception to natural death is sacred; that hu-
man rights are innate and transcend any
constitutional order, and that the fundamen-
tal unity of the human race demands that
everyone be committed to building a com-
munity which is free from injustice and
which strives to promote and protect the
common good.
Population
control to
protect the
business
and political
interests
of the west
ICPD issued a document which implied
international acceptance of abortion on de-
mand. The wording was targetted particu-
larly at the growing populations of African
countries and developing nations through-
out the world. Western population control
policies were aimed at decimating the popu-
lations of developing nations to protect the
John Smeaton is General Secretary of the Society for
the Protection of Unborn Children. He was a partici-
pant at ICPD.
business and political interests of the west.
What better way of decimating popula-
tions to protect business interests than to kill
off girl babies? This is well understood by
many feminist of the third world in contrast
with most of those in the west who, in de-
fending abortion, are protecting their own
lifestyles.
The staunch defence of human values
by the Catholic Church in Cairo articulated
the unspoken views of developing and Is-
lamic nations throughout the world: every
single developing nation we lobbied in
Cairo, every single African nation with the
exception of South Africa, expressed sup-
port and gratitude for the Catholic position
. . . and the ultimate defeat in Cairo of the
United StatesIPresident Clinton-led drive
for abortion on demand to be promoted
worldwide, came as no surprise at all.
The Pope's letter to Mrs Sadik contin-
ues: "There is widespread agreement that a
population policy is only one part of an
overall development strategy. Accordingly,
it is important that any discussion of popu-
lation policies should keep in mind the ac-
tual and projected development of nations
and regions. At the same time, it is impossi-
ble to leave out of account the very nature
of what is meant by the term 'development'.
All development worthy of the name must
be integral, that is, it must be directed to the
true good of every person and of the whole
person."
The actual practical outcome of the
Cairo Conference is that by the year 2000,
17 billion US dollars will be spent, 15.5
billion on population control, 1.5 billion on
AIDS research but not one single penny on
basic health care, on clean water or on edu-
cation and industrial development, unless
by health care you mean exclusively birth
control, or by education you mean sex edu-
cation.
Far from the Church being obsessed by
birth control in its consideration of issues