"Time to Admit It: The Church Has Always Been Right on Birth Control" (Business Insider, 2/8/12)

"The Church teaches that love, marriage, sex, and procreation are all things that belong together. That's it. But it's pretty important. And though the Church has been teaching this for 2,000 years, it's probably never been as salient as today....

"Humanae Vitae....warned of four results if the widespread use of contraceptives was accepted:
1.General lowering of moral standards
2.A rise in infidelity, and illegitimacy
3.The reduction of women to objects used to satisfy men.
4.Government coercion in reproductive matters.
Does that sound familiar?...

"In 1960, 5.3% of all births in America were to unmarried women. By 2010, it was 40.8%....In 1960 married families made up almost three-quarters of all households; but by the census of 2010 they accounted for just 48 percent of them. Cohabitation has increased tenfold since 1960.

"And if you don't think women are being reduced to objects to satisfy men, welcome to the internet, how long have you been here? Government coercion: just look to China (or America, where a government rule on contraception coverage is the reason why we're talking about this right now)....

"The Population Bureau of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations sees...the rate of population growth slowing over the next decades and stabilizing around 9 billion in 2050...and holding there until 2300. (And note that the UN, which promotes birth control and abortions around the world, isn't exactly in the be-fruitful-and-multiply camp.)

"More broadly, the Malthusian view of population growth has been resilient despite having been proven wrong time and time again and causing lots of unnecessary human suffering. For example, China is headed for a demographic crunch and social dislocation due to its misguided one-child policy.

"Human progress is people. Everything that makes life better, from democracy to the economy to the internet to penicillin was either discovered and built by people. More people means more progress. The inventor of the cure for cancer might be someone's fourth child that they decided not to have.

"So, just to sum up:

"•It's a good idea for people to be fruitful and multiply; and
•Regardless of how you feel about the Church's stance on birth control, it's proven pretty prophetic" (Business Insider, 2/8/12).