Sterilization for the Life of the Mother

By Arland K. Nichols
Crisis Magazine

The newly published preparatory document for the rapidly approaching synod on “Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization” observes that “knowledge of conciliar and post-conciliar documents on … the family … seems to be rather wanting.” Church teachings regarding marriage, sexuality, and family “do not seem to have taken a foothold in the faithful’s mentality,” and generally, “many Christians … are found to be unaware of the very existence of” Church teaching on the family.

The documents from the magisterium of Pius XII, Paul VI, and Saint John Paul II that address the gift of human sexuality within marriage seem to have little impact on the majority of the lay faithful. Even less is the awareness of the Church’s clear teaching regarding sterilization for therapeutic purposes—when such procedures are sought in order to secure the health of a woman. The vast majority of Catholics are unaware that the Church has succinctly addressed whether procedures such as a hysterectomy or tubal ligation can be done to secure health.

In 1975 and again in 1993 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) responded directly to questions about such medical interventions in two brief documents that were ordered and approved by Pius XII and John Paul II, respectively. The former was a response to questions posed by the Bishops of North America concerning use of such procedures in Catholic hospitals.

Arland K. Nichols is the founding President of the John Paul II Foundation for Life and Family.

Sterilization: Is it Getting “Fixed” or Getting Broken?

By Leila Miller
Crisis Magazine

Those of us who defend Church teaching on human sexuality often focus on the immorality of contraception: condoms, diaphragms, spermicides, birth control pills, birth control patches, birth control rings, birth control sponges, birth control implants, birth control injections, IUDs… and whatever other contraceptives I am forgetting (I am sure scientists are working on more ways to thwart fertility as we speak).

But we don’t often discuss sterilization, specifically, vasectomies and tubal ligations.

When my husband and I were newly married, we planned for two children but would not rule out a third. Turns out, we liked the first two so much that I talked him into number three. We made sure they came in quick succession though, so that we could be free to “have fun and travel in our forties”.

After our third was born, it was time to get serious about getting sterile, and my husband and I agreed that he would get a vasectomy. I joked to friends that I surely wouldn’t be the one getting sterilized because “it was against my religion [Catholic] but not his [agnostic Jew]!” As a lapsed Catholic at the time, I thought that was pretty clever.

 But a funny thing happened on the way to our “planned barrenhood”: We both had profound conversions of heart. And one of the easiest things to see when we took off the secular blinders was the immorality of surgical sterilization. What once seemed responsible now seemed perverse.

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Leila Miller is a wife and mother of eight children who has a penchant for writing and a passion for teaching the Catholic Faith in simple ways. This summa cum laude Boston College graduate also loves to debate atheists, advocate for special needs orphans, and attempt the matchmaking of young Catholic singles (not necessarily in that order).