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Birth Control and Contraception

140 bytes added, 13:57, June 21, 2018
A less crude characterisation of an opinion on sex and contraception.
Opinions about contraception have varied in the Orthodox Church. There is complete unanimity that no form of contraception that is abortifacient is acceptable and there are definitive ecumenical canons that proscribe abortifacients. The Fathers of the Church, such as Ss. Athanasius the Great, John Chrysostom, Epiphanios, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, Caesarious, Gregory the Great, Augustine of Canterbury and Maximos the Confessor, all explicitely condemned abortion as well as the use of abortifacients. However there are a range of opinions on the issue of non-abortifacient contraception.
:1) There are those who hold the view that one of sex's natural purposes is the procreation of children (i.e. sex should only be is naturally oriented towards or "for " procreation), and that to actively separate the procreative aspect of sex from its purpose of procreationuniting husband and wife, and so even natural family planning would be prohibitedis to distort it.
:2)There are those who argue that natural family planning is acceptable, because it simply involves abstinence from sex during times when fertility is likely. Such is the opinion expressed by the Church of Greece in her encyclical of October 14, 1937<ref>[www.ecclesia.gr/greek/holysynod/commitees/family/3.pdf]</ref>.
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