Religious Barriers

Despite being invented by a faithful Catholic, the Pill was condemned by the Catholic Church. Religious leaders questioned the morality of preventing pregnancy and regulating family size. 

"Though it is true that sometimes it is lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or in order to promote a greater good," it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it —in other words, to intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order, and which must therefore be judged unworthy of man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general. Consequently, it is a serious error to think that a whole married life of otherwise normal relations can justify sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive and so intrinsically wrong." 

- Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 1968

The Church maintained its stance against all contraceptives, tolerating only the Rhythm method or total abstinence. Catholic leaders continued to encourage large families and denied the validity of poverty as justification for contraceptive use. Though Catholic laity called for lifting the contraceptive ban, Pope Paul VI refused to do so.