Contraceptive

[Josh]

I don't know of any official Mennonite doctrinal or practice statement regarding family planning that doesn't involve the destruction of an embryo. If they do exist in any liberal of conservative Anabaptist statements can some one direct me to them?

I also don't know of any statements regarding any proscriptions on erotic behaviors, so long as those behaviours are in the wedding bed between a man and wife.

I think it is a safe assumption that the vast majority of liberal and conservative Anabaptists don't consider bedroom behaviors or family planning something to openly and publicly address or speak to. Some of it may be social mores concerning sex talk...but I don't think that accounts for all of it.

Holdemans have a statement regarding birth control in Bible Doctrines & Practice. Some of our national churches have a stricter stance, eg Nigeria doesn’t permit fertility treatments either particularly IVF and thinks the rest of the national churches shouldn’t either.

In Canada, married couples engaging in sodomy became an issue and was addressed at revival meetings with commitments from the couples to cease doing so.

[GaryK]

Human gestation is on average 8 1/2 months long, and sometimes shorter. It is telling that this is considered "embarrassing".

I understood Neto to be saying that the pregnancy could have been perceived as the result of premarital sex and that is what made it embarrassing.

[Neto]

Human gestation is on average 8 1/2 months long, and sometimes shorter. It is telling that this is considered "embarrassing".

I understood Neto to be saying that the pregnancy could have been perceived as the result of premarital sex and that is what made it embarrassing.

Exactly. People often draw unkind conclusions, and that was so embarrassing that this relative of mine felt the need to mention that their first son was born prematurely. (I once heard her tell someone, some what indignantly, that she & her husband "didn't fool around".) Not that this in itself is a reason to avoid having a child soon after marriage, but it is sometimes a factor.

But while it has changed a lot, even among the Amish, there was a time when nothing like "We are expecting a child", or "She is expecting, or certainly not 'pregnant' - those kinds of statements would never be made. Instead, they would say. "Au ist am gugga fa ebbas." (She is looking for something".) Even already some 15 years ago this was no longer understood by the younger married (Amish) men I worked with. It used to be that a woman would go into seclusion during her pregnancy, as though there was something shameful about it.

[Neto]

....
Couples regularly can and do use hormonal birth control, particularly young couples. There is a social stigma against a honeymoon pregnancy or having a baby within your first year of marriage, thus, the pressure to use hormonal birth control persists.

I am really quite surprised at this - that hormonal birth control is accepted at all. I suppose some would argue it, but my impression is that medically induced infertility can cause all sorts of other issues 0 general ill feeling, headaches, alteration of the brain, and cancer. My wife & I married in the early 80's, and would have never considered that type of contraception. (I haven't "looked into it" since that time, so maybe my "information" is outdated, and it really isn't dangerous. But if asked, I would still advise any young couple to avoid it, and tend to view it as unacceptable.)

[nett]

....
Couples regularly can and do use hormonal birth control, particularly young couples. There is a social stigma against a honeymoon pregnancy or having a baby within your first year of marriage, thus, the pressure to use hormonal birth control persists.

I am really quite surprised at this - that hormonal birth control is accepted at all. I suppose some would argue it, but my impression is that medically induced infertility can cause all sorts of other issues 0 general ill feeling, headaches, alteration of the brain, and cancer. My wife & I married in the early 80's, and would have never considered that type of contraception. (I haven't "looked into it" since that time, so maybe my "information" is outdated, and it really isn't dangerous. But if asked, I would still advise any young couple to avoid it, and tend to view it as unacceptable.)

Most young people I know, including those in very conservative churches just don't have this opinion any more.

[Josh]

....
Couples regularly can and do use hormonal birth control, particularly young couples. There is a social stigma against a honeymoon pregnancy or having a baby within your first year of marriage, thus, the pressure to use hormonal birth control persists.

I am really quite surprised at this - that hormonal birth control is accepted at all. I suppose some would argue it, but my impression is that medically induced infertility can cause all sorts of other issues 0 general ill feeling, headaches, alteration of the brain, and cancer. My wife & I married in the early 80's, and would have never considered that type of contraception. (I haven't "looked into it" since that time, so maybe my "information" is outdated, and it really isn't dangerous. But if asked, I would still advise any young couple to avoid it, and tend to view it as unacceptable.)

Most young couples feel under a lot of pressure to be on birth control.

[Neto]

....
Couples regularly can and do use hormonal birth control, particularly young couples. There is a social stigma against a honeymoon pregnancy or having a baby within your first year of marriage, thus, the pressure to use hormonal birth control persists.

I am really quite surprised at this - that hormonal birth control is accepted at all. I suppose some would argue it, but my impression is that medically induced infertility can cause all sorts of other issues 0 general ill feeling, headaches, alteration of the brain, and cancer. My wife & I married in the early 80's, and would have never considered that type of contraception. (I haven't "looked into it" since that time, so maybe my "information" is outdated, and it really isn't dangerous. But if asked, I would still advise any young couple to avoid it, and tend to view it as unacceptable.)

Most young couples feel under a lot of pressure to be on birth control.

Just a curiosity, but is it peer pressure? Or are parents pressuring them because they (the parents) think that they are not financially ready to have children? I know that there is outside "shame pressure" to not "over-populate the planet" and that sort of thing, but are conservative young people listening to that noise?

Also, is it commonly a voiced pressure, or possibly only a perceived pressure? (As a man who is of "grandparent age" and who loves children, I would need to be careful not to pressure them to HAVE children sooner rather than later. I only have two grandchildren, and love to have them around although the older one can get a bit rough, not realizing his strength.)

[Neto]

....
Couples regularly can and do use hormonal birth control, particularly young couples. There is a social stigma against a honeymoon pregnancy or having a baby within your first year of marriage, thus, the pressure to use hormonal birth control persists.

I am really quite surprised at this - that hormonal birth control is accepted at all. I suppose some would argue it, but my impression is that medically induced infertility can cause all sorts of other issues 0 general ill feeling, headaches, alteration of the brain, and cancer. My wife & I married in the early 80's, and would have never considered that type of contraception. (I haven't "looked into it" since that time, so maybe my "information" is outdated, and it really isn't dangerous. But if asked, I would still advise any young couple to avoid it, and tend to view it as unacceptable.)

Most young people I know, including those in very conservative churches just don't have this opinion any more.

If I understand which you mean by "this opinion", you mean that they do not feel there are dangers associated with it, correct? I looked on-line just a bit, and it seems to be a subject that garners a lot of strong opinions, so I couldn't easily tell how it is regarded in the medical research field. I just avoid the use of any chemicals or manipulative drugs whenever possible. (For instance, I have a weakness with amoeba. While living in Brazil I sometimes got very sick from food that hadn't been properly disinfected. The first time I got it I eventually collapsed and was taken to a hospital emergency room, and put on IV to stabilize me. There are drugs that will kill them, but I was later told of a way to do it w/o any medicines, and that's what Ii would do, unless I was in a situation where I had to get control of it quickly, like while visiting in another city. Sorry, off topic, but just an illustration.)

[Josh]

Neto,

Many conservative Anabaptists can’t make it through a month without ibuprofen. They’re very eager to pop pills.

[mike]

I am really quite surprised at this - that hormonal birth control is accepted at all. I suppose some would argue it, but my impression is that medically induced infertility can cause all sorts of other issues 0 general ill feeling, headaches, alteration of the brain, and cancer. My wife & I married in the early 80's, and would have never considered that type of contraception. (I haven't "looked into it" since that time, so maybe my "information" is outdated, and it really isn't dangerous. But if asked, I would still advise any young couple to avoid it, and tend to view it as unacceptable.)

Most young couples feel under a lot of pressure to be on birth control.

Just a curiosity, but is it peer pressure?

Not just peers. Older adults. My wife was pregnant with our second child two months after our first was born. Our deacon’s wife made sure to tell my wife in no uncertain terms what she thought.