Women, Contraception and Social Change

As I was perusing America Online one morning, I bumped into one of their articles on "health". More specifically, it was on the new breakthroughs in women's contraception. It spoke about five new advances in birth control systems. As disgusting and disturbing as it was to read, it did bring into sharp relief the dreadful consequences that contraception has wrought on our society. I know that writing about this on my blog is not nearly the national forum to call for social change as, say, the Washington Post or Wall Street Journal is, however, I cannot let the unbounded enthusiasm of this article pass without making something of a squawk. I plan on saying more than just- "Contraception is bad, and for these reasons." Instead I want to briefly speak about the nearly catastrophic and revolutionary changes it has brought about in our society, and then, condemn them. (I know I will be called unenlightened and primitive. I look forward to it. )

"What captured the attention of most women was the "pill"- a new method of pregnancy protection that promised to revolutionize a women's sex life. And it did." Besides just illustrating the classic problem with science (that they are more concerned with seeing if they can do something, rather than thinking if they should), this quote captures the blind enthusiasm that people have for contraception. It speaks matter-of-factly about the sexual revolution and assumes it a beneficial thing. However, no-one asks what the sexual revolution did to the family.
I am not going to sit here and write that everyone was happy in 1950, and that we should go back to that. After all, the modern age had to come from somewhere. However, in the days before the sexual revolution, divorce rates were low and so were single and teen pregnancies. Now we have more than half of married couples divorcing and single pregnancy is skyrocketing.

Why?

The answer to a large degree is contraception. It undermines sexual morality by making fornication so easy, accessible and, most importantly, consequence-free (by which I mean pregnancy-free). In days gone by, women were afraid to have pre-marital sex, for fear of becoming pregnant and taking that stigma upon themselves. As a result, it just didn't happen.
Many women claim today that men are pigs, that they do not listen and that they are only interested in one thing. Well, I ask, why shouldn't they be? Sex outside of marriage isn't the best way to get a man to respect a woman, and the more women flaunt that, the more men will view them as objects. And not just individual women, either, a man who has gotten consequence- free sex since a young adult will have trouble seeing any woman as more than just something with which he can sate his lust. These men marry women, just as much as any other man. Is it any wonder that the institution of marriage is failing?

I am not saying that it isn't to a large degree man's fault, or that men have some sort of right to behave like barbarians. However, traditionally men are the pursuers and women are the pursued. If a women says "No!" then it will not happen. The power to say no can change a society. If women start to have nothing to do with immoral men, men will behave morally, and start living up to the standards that women set for them. Contraception gets in the way of that social change.