Contraception

A Complex Issue

Terminology
The very language in which different authorities speak about contraception often reveals their ideological standpoint. For example, many people today prefer to talk about "birth control." This is a term which includes abortion. (After all, an abortion also prevents a birth.) However, in most cases the issue is not the prevention of births, but of pregnancies, and therefore terms like "pregnancy control" or "conception control" or "contraception" for short are more precise. Some people insist on using the phrase "family planning." This term implies that contraception is really nothing more than a method of determining the size of a family or, in other words, that it has its place only within marriage. A term like "pregnancy planning" would undoubtedly be more objective. Another term, "responsible parenthood," appeals to certain moral qualities in men and women who might be passive and fatalistic about possible pregnancies. A more neutral term, "planned parenthood” is used by a world-wide organization which offers contraception to all who seek it, whether they are married or not.