5 - ‘Against Sin’

Summary

From the early 1970s government proposals for legislation permitting access to contraception reveal a consistent dilemma for politicians: how to make contraception available to married couples while restricting access by single people. Records of consultative meetings organised by the Department of Health, suggest that by the late 1970s there was consensus, sometimes grudging, among the main churches, medical groups, and the trade union congress that contraception should be available on a restricted basis, but it was also recognised that it would prove difficult to prevent access by single people. These consultations also reveal a determination on the part of doctors and pharmacists to protect their professional interests, and an incapacity to provide family planning through the public health system. The 1979 Family Planning Act legalised access to contraception, ‘for bona fide family planning purposes’ – terminology that was not defined, and it privileged ‘natural methods’, providing state support to promote them in order to placate the Catholic hierarchy. Its restrictive nature ensured that contraception remained a matter for political contention.