98% of Catholic women on the pill?

Resa77 · February 2012

What do you ladies think of this stat? I'm sure this stat is a little high, and was drawn from a biased sample.

But even if 98% of Catholic women have, at some point used BC, that doesn't mean Catholic women think it's right. I think there's a lot of pressure on women, in general. Pressure to be sexually active before marriage, pressure to avoid pregnancy in marriage. Pressure from husbands/fiances/boyfriends, pressure from friends/family/coworkers. I think it's actually REALLY hard to be a young Catholic woman today. We're human, so we sometimes fall and sin. That doesn't mean we think it's right.

Riss91 · February 2012

I think it's probably accurate. I do think that it's a direct result of our society and their pressure to be on it.

- Doctors overprescribe it.
- Parents are too afraid of having pregnant teens, so they usher them to the doc to get it
- NFP is still The Rhythm Method in people's minds, so they assume NFP is not reliable
- Abstinence/virginity is widely ridiculed and deemed absurd/unrealistic

I think the NFPers and FAMers need to start a crusade and be heard. The more exposure to the main stream, the more people will begin to accept it.

Calypso1977 · February 2012

pretty much all of the catholic ladies i know were on it at some point or are on it now and see absolutely nothing wrong with it. i myself was even on it for 10 years, and i was defintiely one who knew it was wrong but did it anyway.

TeaForMe · February 2012

I, too, thought 98% sounded really high, but maybe? I would really like to see how the study was conducted - where the sample was drawn from (were women devout or practicing Catholics or not so much?) and how the question was phrased. For instance, "Do you use contracaptives?" will yield different results than "have you ever used contraceptives?".

I think there are a large number of Catholic women/couples who, at some time in their lives for whatever reasons, have used contraceptives but do not use them regularly or anymore. I'll be honest, I would be in that group myself, sadly. But I think counting any woman who has ever once used contraceptives doesn't give a clear picture of exactly how many do use it and/or if we all agree it's "okay" to use (which I think was really the main point of the article).

Tami87 · February 2012

Okay so I read the study where these stats actually come from...
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/Religion-and-Contraceptive-Use.pdf

Of american Catholic women ages 15-44 who are not pregnant or trying to get pregnant

11% no method, 4% other, 2% NFP, 15% condom, 5% IUD, 31% pill or other HBC, 32% sterilization (male or female)

The 98% statistic is # of sexually active american Catholic women who have ever used a contraceptive method other than NFP. Not if they currently use the pill as their contraceptive of choice. That would be the 31% statistic above. For all the "highly effective" birth control covered by HHS mandate the statistic would be 68% for sexually active Catholic women and 69% for all sexually active women

The way it is reported in the media and by the white house is a little misleading.

The Bishops also responded to use of this statistic in the debate. You can read it here.
http://usccb.org/news/2012/12-020.cfm

Karadee1 · February 2012

Based on the Catholic women I know, more are on the pill than not. If I had to guess, a many Catholic women using it is probably due to doctor's tendencies to prescribe it as a cure-all for acne, painful cramps, etc. Those are the reasons I was prescribed it when I was 18. I've had many conversations with my mom and sister-in-law (we're all Catholic) about birth control, and am looking forward to discussing this as part of my marriage prep/pre-cana with the church.

bibliophile2010 · February 2012

Tami, thanks for the real stats. They are more closely aligned to what I had heard previously, and so the 98% sounded really high to me, too.

I agree with PPs who outlined the myriad of reasons that Catholic women (of whatever degree of orthodoxy) use contraceptives, and that many realize that it is "wrong" but convince themselves it is okay because of the numerous societal pressures that push contraceptives as the cure for everything.

Eliz77 · February 2012

I don't know about society pressure being the reason for the popularity of BC, but it is pretty obvious young woman (kids really) are making poor decisions in being sexually active before they are ready. It is also obvious that due to a variety of reasons, some moms are losing their children to CPS and really don't care. Personally, I am not on BC. I do believe it has it's place though, and while I don't believe the world would be better with less children, I do believe there are many woman who should not be moms.

ootmother2 · February 2012

I believe it said that 98% of sexually active Catholic women used artificial birth control, not just the pill.

Perhaps I read it to quickly but that was my impression

cmjurkiewicz · February 2012

I definitely think it's overprescribed. I've had so many doctors try to prescribe it to me for a myriad of things, none of which are actually a health issue. Ditto for the Gardasil vaccine - that's a constant battle, I practically have to fight my gyno off...

bibliophile2010 · February 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_98-of-catholic-women-on-the-pill?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:615Discussion:bc26a501-ab1c-4c8f-810b-af8bcf46df8bPost:0224061b-0921-4520-918e-e53866728773">Re: 98% of Catholic women on the pill?</a>:
[QUOTE]I don't know about society pressure being the reason for the popularity of BC, but it is pretty obvious young woman (kids really) are making poor decisions in being sexually active before they are ready. It is also obvious that due to a variety of reasons, some moms are losing their children to CPS and really don't care. Personally, I am not on BC. I do believe it has it's place though, and while I don't believe the world would be better with less children, I do believe there are many woman who should not be moms.
Posted by Eliz77[/QUOTE]

I don't know that it is social pressure to be on the Pill per se (though I do think that exists. I remember being told that every college woman should be on "just in case."), but social pressure to be sexually active, have "safe" sex, etc. That has a snowball effect of pushing women onto contraception (to be "safe" while being sexually "equal" to men).

lindsaynewbride10 · February 2012

It's probably accurate- I'm on the pill now and have been for the past 10 years. I know that it's wrong but I do it anyway. Hm.

98% of Catholic women on the pill?

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