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It is commonly said that "hindsight is always twenty-twenty." This little phrase essentially means that it is easier to make a good decision when you are able to look back and see all its effects and consequences. It is easier to judge the past than the present.
In fact, it is very useful to use hindsight in evaluating our own decisions and the decisions of our leaders, as well as the decisions that are driven by our cultural attitudes and practices.
Right now there is a practice that we need to look back on and evaluate. There is a practice that has become so much a part of our culture that we have failed to see many of its effects, yet is eating away at the foundation of our society.
The practice I'm referring to is the use of contraception. That's right, contraception. It's been a defining aspect of our culture for the last half century - long enough for us to look back and see its effects.
And the time has come for it to go.
Looking back, the history of contraception is not very complex. Birth control has been around for centuries, however, before the early 1900's most methods were extremely dangerous or horribly ineffective.
Around 1930, the "pill" began to be developed. It became available for public use in 1963. When it first came out, the pill was hailed as a glorious achievement, and since then, the use of contraception has become extremely widespread.
According to a 2005 study by the Guttmacher Institute 62 percent of all women age 15-44 currently use contraceptives (31 percent have no use for contraception due to pregnancy, infertility or sexual abstinence). The same study reported that 98 percent of women in the same age group who have ever had sexual intercourse have used contraceptives.
This widespread use of birth control has changed the social attitude toward sex. It is no longer equated with family, marriage and procreation. We've convinced ourselves that we can have sex without any consequences, and we act like that is the case.
However, such a belief is untrue, and the effects of living this massive lie have gotten out of hand.
First, look to the decline of marriage since the pill made its debut. The divorce rate had been going slowly up in the 1900s, and then, between 1965 and 1975, it doubled. Since then it has gone up slightly and stabilized.
A 1977 study conducted by Robert Michael at the Center for Economic Analysis of Human Behavior and Social Institutions examined this sudden jump and concluded that a very large portion of this increase could be directly attributed to the increased use of contraceptives.
The correlation between contraception use and divorce rates is not too hard to see. People are able to have fewer children and have them later in marriage, they are able to commit adultery more easily and it allows communication to deteriorate. All of these things have been statistically shown to increase chances of divorce - and contraception makes them possible.
Then, look at how we as a society treat and view women. The booming pornography industry alone (2006 revenues were estimated at $13 billion) is enough to demonstrate the objectification of women and the female body that is so prevalent in our society.
Contraception allows people to grab onto that "sexual object" mind-set found in porn and take it a step further.
Contraception was intended to liberate women, but it has essentially allowed men to turn women into sex objects. Contraception turns sex into something done for mere pleasure, and it turns the people participating into objects of each other's pleasure.
The philosopher Immanuel Kant is famous for his claim that to have respect for the human person is to always treat him as an end unto himself and never as a means to an end. When put in this context, it should be easy to see how contraceptive sex is demeaning to the human person, particularly women.
Finally, look to the connection between contraception, unwanted pregnancy and abortion. As difficult as it may be to believe, figures from the Center for Disease Control show that the rate of pregnancy among unmarried women has consistently gone up since the 1960's.
The CDC also reports that current figures show almost 50 percent of all pregnancies occur outside marriage (nearly half of which end in abortion). All of this is going on despite an ever-increasing use of contraception among American women. That said, an increase in unwanted pregnancy is not terribly difficult to link to a greater need for abortion.
Looking back, I can understand why all of this has happened. I can understand why we bought into this contraceptive way of life. I can even understand the anger and the backlash in the 1960s and '70s against religious leaders who condemned the use of contraceptives. However, it has been nearly 50 years since we have turned down this path, and we know a lot more now than we knew back then.
In hindsight, it should now be obvious that this is not a good thing and that something needs to change.
Pope John Paul II once said, "As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live." Contraception is leading us down a dangerous path. It devastates marriages and fosters disrespect for the human person. It is destroying families and thus tearing apart the very foundation of our society.
It is time to stop buying into the lies of contraception so we can reverse these problems before it's too late.
Luke Fischer is a sophomore philosophy and history major. Reach him at lukefischer@dailynebraskan.com
