Responsible Parenthood: Decriminalizing Contraception in Canada

Andrea Levan is an associate professor and co-ordinator of the Women’s
Studies Program at Thorneloe College, Laurentian University.

Responsible Parenthood is a study of the changing attitudes toward
contraception, with a particular emphasis on religious doctrine, that
resulted in the 1969 removal from the Canadian Criminal Code of sections
prohibiting the advertisement or sale of contraceptive devices. The
study is organized into three sections. Section 1 describes the Canadian
political landscape of the 1960s, during which four private members’
bills were proposed to amend the law, and subsequent hearings were held
by the Standing Committee on Health and Welfare. Though a little
repetitive in its summaries of all the major representations to the
committee and its questions to the presenters, this section gives us a
fascinating glimpse of what just 30 years later seem to be remarkably
antiquated attitudes. There was a broad consensus—particularly on the
part of the medical profession—that the law needed changing, but many
parliamentarians were concerned about the impact on public morality of
legalizing contraception (for example, they worried that it might be
used outside marriage). One member of the standing committee opposed the
changes even within marriage, arguing that spouses should use
“self-control” rather than birth control.

Section 2 details changing attitudes within the various Christian
churches toward the use of contraception. Appleby shows that after 1930,
Protestant denominations came to support the concept that contraception
should be allowed within marriage so that couples could practice
“responsible parenthood,” choosing the number and spacing of their
children. The Catholic Church, however, continued to maintain that
procreation was the primary function of sexual intercourse within
marriage and that civil laws should not attempt to impose religious
views on the whole population; this meant that Catholics did not have to
take a position against reform of the law, even though they did not
support the use of contraception.

Section 3 reviews the actual process of law reform and evaluates the
effectiveness of the changes. Appleby argues that the principle of
“responsible parenthood” was useful as a persuasive component of
public debate, but that it was badly flawed by considering sexual
intimacy exclusively from a marital perspective. From the point of view
of women, this had the effect of preserving the patriarchal structure of
society, limiting access to birth control for unmarried women and girls,
and de-emphasizing the importance of sex education. All in all, this
book gives a thorough overview of how this significant piece of
legislation came to be enacted.