A Twenty-Year History (1958-1978) of Contraception and Abortion as Experienced by the Catholic Medical Association Richard J. Fehring* ABSTRACT: This paper is an historical analysis of the issues of contraception and abortion as presented through the focus and lens of articles in The Linacre Quarterly, the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association (CMA). The twenty-year history includes the ten years before and after the pivotal papal encyclical Humanae vitae (HV). The articles show the clear link between the issues of contraception and abortion and how these issues led to the decline of the Federation of the Catholic Physician Guilds (the precursor of the CMA in the United States). It was a decline that, I propose, lessened opposition to liberalized abortion laws. There is, however, a new and revised CMA that has been built on a faithful and prolife membership of physicians and other health professionals. LTHOUGH MANY PRO-LIFE LEADERS and pro-life organizations do not see the connection between contraception and abortion, or do not wish Ato deal with this issue, the link is rather apparent. Pope John Paul II called abortion and contraception the fruits of the same tree.1 Research also has * Richard J. Fehring, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, is Professor Emeritus and Director of the Marquette University College of Nursing Institute for Natural Family Planning. He received his master’s degree and doctorate in nursing from The Catholic University of America and his baccalaureate degrees in biology and nursing from Marquette University. He has published over 180 articles and book chapters, co-edited three books, and has generated over $3 million in research and foundation grants. His research interests include effectiveness of fertility awareness methods of family planning, marital responses to family planning, and religious influences on human sexuality. 1 John Paul II, Encyclical letter Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life), March 25, 1995. 187 188 Life and Learning XXIX demonstrated, in population-based studies, the connection between use of contraception and abortion.2 Furthermore, some methods of contraception are potential abortifacients.3 To ignore this association is essentially closing one’s eyes to the issue, but it will not go away. This paper deals with a different type of association between contraception and abortion, that is, an historical link between contraception and abortion in the evolution of a Catholic medical journal (The Linacre Quarterly) and its parent organization, the Catholic Medical Association (CMA). The consequences of ignoring this link contributed to the near demise of the CMA and to the weakening of this 10,000 member organization just when it was badly needed to fight the liberalization of abortion laws in the United States. This paper will present a short historical analysis of the issues of contraception and abortion as presented in articles published in The Linacre Quarterly. The paper is divided into five short sections: (1) the early years of The Linacre Quarterly (1932-1951); (2) the post- World-War-II response (1951-1958); (3) the papal birth control commission and the United States rhythm commission (1960-1968); (4) the response to Humanae vitae (1968-1978); and (5) re- growth, recovery, and building the future. 1. The Early Years of The Linacre Quarterly (1932-1951) The Linacre Quarterly is the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association and one of the oldest ongoing journals dealing with medical- related ethical issues in the world. The journal is named after Thomas Linacre, a sixteenth-century physician from England, who was the personal physician to King Henry VII and King Henry VIII, a friend of Thomas More, and the one responsible for the development of the Royal Society of Medicine.4 The Linacre Quarterly began to be published in 1932. At that time one of 2 R.J. Fehring, “The Influence of Contraception on Abortion among Women of Reproductive Age in the United States,” Life and Learning. Proceedings of UFL Life and Learning Conference XXI (2011), pp. 1-21. 3 W.L. Larimore and J.B. Stanford, “Post-Fertilization Effects of Oral Contra- ceptives and Their Relationship to Informed Consent,” Archives of Family Medicine 9 (2000): 126-33; R. Rivera, I. Yacobson, and D. Grimes, “The Mechanism of Action of Hormonal Contraceptives and Intrauterine Contraceptive Devices,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 181 (1999): 1263-69. 4 James F. Gilroy, “Who is Thomas Linacre?” The Linacre Quarterly 22/3 (1955), available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol22/iss3/2. Richard J. Fehring 189 the vexing issues in medicine and nursing was the use and promotion of birth control methods. Margaret Sanger, a nurse, was one of prominent promoters and advocates of birth control, known for opening a birth control clinic in New York City in 1916 and for being arrested for her efforts.5 She is also known for starting The Birth Control League in 1921, which evolved into today’s Planned Parenthood Organization. The first issue of The Linacre Quarterly was thus published shortly after the 1930 Lambeth Conference, a meeting at which a major Christian religion proclaimed that married couples, with serious reasons, could use contraception. In response, the Catholic Church, under the guidance of Pope Pius XI reaffirmed, in the encyclical Casti Cannubii, that birth control is against the natural order, frustrates the marital act, and may not be used.6 Pius XI did, however, indicate that recourse to the natural rhythms of fertility and infertility of the woman was valid. It was in the early 1930s that the first scientific methods of natural birth regulation were being developed and published. The methods were based on the work of an Austrian scientist-physician Dr. Herman Knaus and a Japanese obstetrician gynecologist Kyusaku Ogino.7 In the United States Dr. Leo Latz, M.D. (a professor of medicine at Loyola University in Chicago) developed a calendar-based method of natural birth-control regulation based on Knaus’s finding and wrote a small book titled The Rhythms of the Sterility and Fertility of a Women’s Menstrual Cycle. The term “rhythm method” was popularized from the title of his book and erroneously used to describe all natural methods.8 5 Alexander Sanger, Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom in the 21st Century (Cambridge MA: Public Affairs and Perseus Book Group, 2004), p. 34. 6 Pope Pius XI, encyclical letter Casti connubii (On Christian Marriage), December 31, 1931. At the time of the encyclical the only methods of birth control were crude sheep-skin condoms, pessaries, and a selection of crude appliances that were inserted into the vagina. These methods and devices were obvious disrupters of the male to female act of intercourse. 7 Kyusaku Ogino, Conception Period of Women (Harrisburg PA: Medical Arts Publ. Co., 1934), pp. 79-80. Herman Knaus, Periodic Fertility and Sterility in Woman: A Natural Method of Birth Control (Vienna: Wilhelm Maudrich, Publisher, 1934). 8 Leo Latz, The Rhythm of Sterility and Fertility in Women (Chicago IL: Latz Foundation, 1932). It should be noted that in this book Latz viewed the use of rhythm as a preventive measure for abortion, i.e., to prevent unwanted pregnancies. See also Leo J. Latz, “The Latz Foundation: Its Aims and Achievements,” The Linacre Quar- terly 3/1 (1934), available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol3/iss1/2. 190 Life and Learning XXIX He and his foundation sold over 600,000 copies of his book in the U.S. In Europe Dr. Joseph Smulders published a book based on the work of Ogino about another natural birth-regulation method. It was published and distributed by the Dutch Catholic Medical Association.9 In the first issue there was a short article from Dr. Latz explaining his new method of birth regulation. The anonymous editor for ethical questions (called Ethicus) was wary of this new method and especially the distribution of this method and information into the hands of married couples.10 The thinking at that time, both within Catholic medicine and the Catholic Church, was that the decision of whether to use this new natural birth-regulation method should only be implemented in consultation with a priest and the couple’s physician.11 This information should not be distributed and used by couples on their own, and if used at all, should be used only for serious reasons. An illustration of how fixed this idea was is that Dr. Latz was dismissed from his position as a professor of medicine from a Catholic Jesuit University.12 He continued to research this new natural method of birth regulation and presented it at Catholic medical guild meetings.13 Latz also published short articles on his natural birth-regulation method.14 Information on how to use these new natural birth regulation methods was thus out in the open public, and they rapidly became rather popular.15 So too, 9 Jan Nicolas Joseph Smulders, Peeriodieke Onthounding in Het Huwelijk, Methode Ogino-Knaus (Nijmegen-Utrecht, 1930). 10 Ethicus, “The Morality of the Use of the Safe Period,” The Linacre Quarterly 1/2 (1933): 23-26. 11 Leslie Tentler, Catholics and Contraception: An American History (Ithaca NY: Cornell Univ. Press, 2004) and John D. Conway, The Rhythm (Notre Dame IN: Fides Publ., 1961), pp. 3-7. 12 Dr. Latz was let go from his position at Loyola University and lost his imprimatur from Cardinal Mundelein because at that time in history it was somewhat scandalous that married couples should have the information contained in his book. Dr. Latz continued teaching about his work and NFP at three Catholic nursing programs in Chicago. 13 Catholic Physicians Guild, “Guild Notes,” The Linacre Quarterly 1/2 (1933) available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol1/iss2/4 14 Leo J.