Contraception and IVF have damaged our society. Humanae Vitae offers a better answer

Catholics are often taken by surprise when they discover the Church’s teaching on in vitro fertilisation. “How can the Church be against IVF? Abortion ends a human life, but IVF gives life!” As with contraception, Catholics often take the same attitude as wider society.

And in truth, the Church’s teachings on contraception and IVF are closely linked. Today is a good day to discuss why: it is both the 50^th anniversary of Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae, which reiterated the teaching on contraception, and the 40^th anniversary of the first live birth of an IVF-conceived child.