Unfortunately, the United States government and the development agencies it funds seem determined to export our culture of contraception.
As a story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports , American agencies have been intimately involved in the design of a big push to “normalize” contraceptive technologies in the Philippines.
All of this tends to be wrapped in rhetoric about empowering women. But the results in America suggest a very mixed outcome. A culture of contraception detaches sex from reproduction, which encourages men to see women as ready, trouble-free resources for the satisfaction of their sexual appetites. So much for empowerment.
Lurking in the background is the perverse modern Western presumption that children are impediments—impediments to adult happiness, impediments to economic growth, impediments to a global green revolution.
There are good reasons to fund initiatives to encourage the extension of education and health care for women, including reproductive issues. But I wish our government agencies and private foundations would be a lot more self-critical. Do we have all the answers? Is our culture of contraception something so obviously wonderful, all ready to be wrapped up and shipped elsewhere?
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
