*I can't recall any Popes endorsing promiscuity to accompany their anti-contraception stance. In fact, I can't think of any Pope who has actively encouraged large families *

Oto, of course no pope would endorse promiscuity. Fact is that
when people are married, they have sex, which is perfectly natural
and unless family planning methods are available, they will have
kids that they don't want.

Sexual urges are natural and normal, crossing your legs for Jesus
are not natural and normal, that is the reality of it.

Your parents in Australia, would have had access to all the family
planning methods available in the first world, from the pill to
having their tubes tied. My point is that people in the third
world should have the same rights and nobody has lobbied stronger
to deny them these rights, then the Vatican.

When I hear of women in places like the Philippines, who have
popped out 8 kids and plead for have a knot put in the line,
but the Catholic Church, controlling many hospitals, denies them
that choice, I become really really pissed off.

The pope himeself might not openly promote ever bigger families,
but his pro life agencies in the past, have done exactly that.

Thanks for your views, Yabby. I can understand where you are coming from. Certainly, I agree that nations have to make their own minds up about laws. And it is also certainly true that responsible nations will allow access to all of the population control facilities (sounds like a dry and unfeeling term, but in reality that is what it is) that are available today. Even in the most Catholic of countries, there are non-Catholics and people who can make up their own minds about what they do and don't want to do. In that regard, I think lobbying for banning of birth control is irresponsible and unreasonable.

The thrust of my argument, though, is more that the Catholic Church cannot should the whole blame for population problems, despite what some people may argue. If you look at the fertility rates across the world, many countries with few or no Catholics sit at the top of the table. While we can criticise the Catholic Church's stance on birth control, we cannot ignore the other reasons for high population growth rates in poorer countries.

To clear up my own stance, I am both pro choice and pro life. I think that families should have the right to choose and to access safe ways of carrying out their choice. I, however, would like to think that I would choose life every time.

A final note: my parents were not in Australia. They had very limited access to any forms of birth control in Rhodesia, not because of any religious mandate but because of economic and political sanctions.