Cy Kellett and Amy Hamilton discuss the complex relationship between contraception and the sexual revolution. They explore how the contraceptive pill has influenced societal attitudes towards sex and responsibility, arguing that detaching sex from its procreative purpose can be dehumanizing for both partners.
Transcript:
Cy: I think, frankly, one of the reasons that so many people are so willing to go along with all of the sexual revolution is they just don’t want anyone to take the pill away from them. So what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with the pill?
Amy: People have written and spoken far more eloquently on this than I, but I want you to think about what it’s done to women, okay? I want you to think about what it’s done to women. The women are expected to take a hormonal contraceptive pill that changes their libido, that makes them gain weight, makes them irritable, makes them at risk of blood clots, affects their future fertility, so that they can be sexually available at all times whenever a male wants them. I mean, people have put it in really crass ways, but that’s what the woman is supposed to be—open season. And the way you do that is by completely disrupting her body, her normal, God-given, healthy body. Right, right.
Cy: There’s nothing wrong with her.
Amy: So there’s that first seed of I’m gonna harm the body in order to maximize my sexual pleasure or someone else’s sexual pleasure.
Cy: Exactly.
Amy: Absolutely. Right. So for… And this is mostly from a male perspective. Right. And then, and then, so, and then how does it harm the male? Because then his sexual energy does not have to be subdued. Right. It doesn’t have to be subjugated to anything other than his desire. So his partner’s supposed to be open season, open season on the woman. And that’s why you get these horrific results of, you know, quote unquote, unwanted pregnancies. And then you better get that, you know, you better get that abortion, you know, I will kill you, I will kill the baby. I will spike your drink with abortion pills. I will pressure you. I will. Because I have a right to your body.
That sense of entitlement becomes zero responsibility towards you. Right. And if it’s zero responsibility towards you, it’s certainly zero responsibility towards any child that you might conceive. And so that the hardening of the heart in males and females just becoming, honestly, sexual chattel, you know, we have to be open. I think it’s just tragic.
Cy: Yeah, it is. Like, I feel like if baseball players were taking chemicals as strong as women are taking in order to improve their performance, they would be banned from baseball. But every woman is expected to take these.
Well, again, I think too it’s that short-sighted, right? We don’t want to have to… We don’t want to have to. And I get, look, I hear you. I think that we always have to have compassion and always ask God, like, what your love, your truth is not burdensome. It’s not burdensome. So what’s your answer?
So even individuals like Nancy Pelosi, so rabidly for abortion, and that just was such a hallmark of her entire life advocacy. And I remember, you know, hearing her say, you know, I had five, you know, was it four or five children?
Amy: I think she has five children.
Cy: Five children under the age of five. So she had them very close together, you know, and so I so like, Lord, was she just so overwhelmed that that just seared her into her… So how do we support women? Right. But if you actually, you know, teach, you know, NFP, natural family planning, it’s actually healthier and leads to better relationships. It leads to better relationships because husband and wife, hopefully in the marital union, like you are working with the rhythms of your bodies.
Cy: Well, what if I’m… I mean, I feel like if a young man were to say to a young woman, I don’t want you to take those because I don’t want you to do that to your body. That’s too much. I feel like that’s a gracious thing to say. So that if he can participate in the, you know, you have these married couples participate in the kind of regulating of their own sex life according to her cycle. In a sense, he’s taking a burden on himself of attentiveness to her. That he, that the man who just wants her to be chemically kind of sterilized for the month, he doesn’t have to, he doesn’t take on that attentiveness. He doesn’t do that.
Amy: He doesn’t, and you know, he also doesn’t get the same wife because she’s actually altered by…
Cy: Oh, that’s a very good point.
Amy: No, I’m very serious.
Cy: I hadn’t thought about that.
Amy: She is taking on a burden and she’s actually altered in her own emotions, mood, and health. And what they don’t know is how that’s sabotaging future desires for children. Right. Future fertility. Why is every so suddenly we contracept and we prohibit, you know, we prevent pregnancy through the most fertile years? And then in the 30s, you know, when it’s harder to get pregnant, we start trying to get pregnant. And then all these years of hormonal contraceptives in the body are supposed to have had no effect. We want to shut it down completely for years, and then at a flip of a switch, we’re supposed to turn it back on. And then there’s the predatory fertility industry ready and waiting to say, oh, you’ve, you know, you’ve aged your cervix through these hormonal contraceptives. So now we’re here and we’re going to pump you full of more hormones to give you IVF and you’re going to lose. It’s a destructive cycle when it would be just so much better to embrace. Oh, sex has responsibility and we’re going to mutually steward this gift.
And the other thing that Katherine Pakaluk’s research has pointed out is that as the fertility… We talk about the birth dearth, you know, and then of course, she’s got her wonderful book, you know, *Hannah’s Children*, about the women who are defying the birth dearth, you know, but in general, across the board, women have one fewer child than they would want if they say their ideal fertility. So there’s all these hidden costs, the things that we don’t see.
Cy: Yeah, we don’t talk about them.
We have to take a quick break, but we’re going to come back. I am going to get to the callers. I promise. There’s folks on the line I will get to. If you just don’t go away this time, I’ll get back to you. 60 years now.