Pope Francis surprises us again…
The Pope has argued that Catholics shouldn’t “breed like rabbits”, despite the Catholic ban on artificial contraception.
He cited an example of a woman he met on a recent visit to the Philippines, pregnant with her eighth child after seven caesarean sections.
“The more caesarean sections a woman has, the greater the relative risk of complications,” says Associate Professor Steve Robson, obstetrician and the Vice President of the Royal Australian and NZ College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
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In the case of eight caesareans, Professor Robson states, “The most likely outcome is that there are no problems, but there is no doubt that you are exposed to more risk.”
The complications associated with a large number of caesareans, while unlikely to occur, are very serious. Professor Robson specifically mentions the increased likelihood of the placenta growing into the scar tissue from previous caesareans, a complication that may result in a large haemorrhage and in the worst cases, with hysterectomy.
The Pope is right to be concerned about this woman.
But that concern and his ongoing commitment to the Catholic Church’s stance on artificial contraception is difficult to reconcile.
For the most part, Pope Francis seems to be a pretty cool dude. He eschews the papal palace in favour of a simple apartment. He is widely reported to personally respond to many of the letters he receives from Catholics across the globe.
When one woman wrote to him about her concerns over being pregnant to a married man who had pushed her to have an abortion, the Pope rang her directly offering to baptise the child.
He upset the Catholic establishment by washing the feet of the elderly and disabled (including the feet of a Muslim) in the traditional Easter Thursday service last year, instead of washing the feet of the Cardinals (privileged Catholic bishops).
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Top Comments
My partner beats me every day, do you think I should leave or just wait for him to change?
Most people would advice me to leave, yet when it comes to religion we keep ranting at the religion to change, when people who are in the religion have the simple and logical choice they can leave.
Yes the religion is at fault, but it's pretty silly to stay in that religion that mistreats women.
The Catholic Church may or may not change, catholic women could be waiting a lifetime for this to happen or maybe it will happen in 5 years or tomorrow, who knows. The reality is sitting around and waiting or even protesting is wasted energy when walking out the door and yelking them you are leaving the Catholic Church because of this rule instantly gives you the freedom to do whatever you like re contraception.
The other issue is even if the (and it's a big IF) the Catholic Church change their ruling on contraception should Catholics just roll over and accept that after years of treating people badly they should remain. For instance if my abusive husband rehabilitate and stops beating me should I just simply forget the past injustices he meted out to me and stay married to him!
If Catholics really had some backbone they would go up to their priest and say to them "I'm just letting you know I have wasted too much of my life waiting for the Catholic Church to change their unfair rule on contraception therefore I am leaving the Catholic Church. Can you please let me know how I can remove myself from your membership."
The priest will probably argue that they will go to hell etc. just ignore it and say again and again the same thing.
It's important that they find out about removing their membership because churches getting funding based on membership. A lot of lapsed Catholics probably don't realise because they are still on the books of the Catholic Church that the church gets funding for them from the government etc.
lastly if you are a catholic and you remain a member and just keep hoping they will change you are actually compliant in the injustices that this church metes out to people in third world countries, because in those countries contraception is discouraged or hard to get or banned because of the catholic church's influence, and considering many Catholics are actually taking prohibited contraception themselves in first world countries yet supporting this organisation is hypocritical at best and unjust.
'Books' of the Catholic church, rubbish, and what funding exactly?
If you want to reconcile the Pope's commitment to social justice with the contraception ban, you only need to listen to what he said yesterday.
"I heard some say that families with many children and the birth of many children are among the causes of poverty. It seems to me a simplistic opinion. I can say, we can all say, that the main cause of poverty is an economic system that removes the person from the centre and has put in his place the god of money; an economic system that excludes, that always excludes. It excludes children, the elderly, the young, the jobless, and it creates the throwaway culture in which we live. We are used to seeing people discarded. This is the main cause of poverty, not big families."
I guess what he is saying is that people in poverty deserve more than us hoping they will contracept themselves out of existence.
You and the catholic church have no understanding of economics. All numbers below are merely illustrative
Say your family unit earns $100 a week. $100 between 4 people (two parents, two kids) is $25 per person. $100 between 8 is $12.50 per person per week.
You have fixed costs such as food and housing. Lets say that comes to $8 per head. This leaves just $4.50 per person in the big family or $36. Where as in the first case you have $64.
That is a big difference. Invariably you have other costs like education, health, transport, clothing and other one off costs. It is the one off big costs that really impoverish people.
Even better if you have 2 children the second parent (usually the mother) can get work and the family does a whole lot better. Suddenly you don't have just $100 you have $150 (or $37.50 per head or $115 in disposable income)
So you don't contracept the poor out of existenence. You contracept yourself out of poverty.
What the comment above says is, lets bring in socialism. Lets redistribute money so that everyone, regardless of circumstance.
Didn't god say "God helps those who help themselves?"
You're assuming these people have an income. 25% of the population of the Philippines live on less than 60c per day. Contraception won't fix this. A lot more needs to be done.
The Philippines government already provides free contraception to its citizens. You might say that they don't use it because the Catholic Church forbids it but I think a recent poll showed more than 70% of Filipinos reject the Church's teaching on contraception and abject poverty exists in countries with little or no Catholic presence.
Contraception isn't a cure-all. It's a distraction.
Ok. If they don't have an income, then they really should limit the number of children they bring into this world. Surely feeding a couple of kids would be less straining on the pockets than feeding 8. If they're on a modest income, then having only 2 could allow them to give their kids education and in turn, prospects of a brighter future. Break out of the poverty cycle. If they have 8, they might struggle just to feed them.
No one thing is a cure-all. Contraception is just one part of an answer.
Free contraception. Where? I live in a rural state in the Philippines and I have never seen free contraception anywhere. Yes, they passed a law in April saying that it is no longer illegal to distribute free contraception but that doesn't mean anyone is, especially outside the big cities. My script for the pill ran out and I had to:
1. See a GP and get a refferal to a OBGYN
2. I had to wait for an appointed as they are specialists.
3. When the OBGYN found out how long I had been on the pill she was horrified and was convinced it must had damaged my reproduction system. She kept asking are you SURE x,y and z isn't happening. She refused to give me the pill until I got an internal ultrasound. If this is what I got from an OBGYN imagine what local GP and leaders are telling young women.
4. I obviously got a second opinion and guess what? The same thing.
5. I got the world's most uncomfortable ultrasound.
6. I got my script. Yay!! I just had to go to three different pharmacies before I found one that stocked it.
The whole thing took weeks and cost me the equivalent of 1 months of a professional's salary. That's one months of an accountants, nurses, teachers salary and they are some of the best off in my community. When I say best off I mean they can send their kids to school and put a roof over their head. 90% of professionals I know, have never been on a plane.