Friday, October 1, 2010
Contraceptives Blog 5
Some cultures, beliefs, and practices influence contraceptive decision making either they will use them or have strong beliefs not to take/or use them. If a person is sexually active there are numerous ways to protect yourself and partner whether it is birth control, condoms, or even abstinence. In Catholic belief, the contraceptive that is given would be abstinence. I went to a Catholic school in elementary school and the teachers would talk about that in 6th to 8th grade. When growing up in a conserved Filipino family and which was also Catholic we believed in abstinence. I remember Sister Elizabeth Ann telling the whole class, “wait until your married”. My sister became sexually active in high school; my mother found out and took her to the doctor. The doctor convinced my mother to give her a depo shot. That changed my mother’s mind despite her being Catholic.
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Your comments brought to mind something a good friend told me years ago. She was a 17 year old girl in the early 60's, attending public high school but raised in a strict Catholic family. Her mother discovered that she had been sexually intimate with a boyfriend and the parents forced the 2 kids to marry, both in high school, because of the sexual activity. Neither of them were resistent to marrying because now they could play house legitimately, but neither of them was even remotely ready for marriage. Mind you, my friend was not pregnant, but that was of no concern to the parents - it was all about legitimizing the sexual activity because of strict religious beliefs. The two remained married and raised 2 children, but there was never any real committment or love between them. They stayed together because that's what their church demanded. In her 50's, after the deaths of both her parents, my friend thumbed her nose at the church and divorced her husband. It was a sad commentary about the control that some religious denominations (and parents!) have over their devoted believers. I lost contact with her about 18 years ago - I often wonder if she ever found that true love she was seeking.
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