Today, conventional wisdom puts religious actors on the opposite side of reproductive justice in the context of political debate in the United States. But history tells us that was not always true. In the decades after World War II, most Protestants and Jews were in relatively uncomplicated consensus that contraception was a moral good, and though they were in tension with the formal teachings of the Church, many Catholics agreed.
The Dittrick Museum of Medical History’s 2023 Percy Skuy Lecture will address this topic. Rana Hogarth, associate professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, will present “Contraception, Culture Wars and Congregations” Thursday, March 2, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Clark Hall, Room 206.
This talk will address what happened to get us from this moment of general consensus in the mid-20th century to the culture wars polarization we see today in debates over contraception and abortion.