Birth Control
The First Presidency
The First Presidency is being asked from time to time as to what the attitude of the Church is regarding birth control...We seriously regret that there should exist a sentiment or feeling among any member of the Church to curtail the birth of their children. We have been commanded to multiply and replenish the earth that we may have joy and rejoicing in our posterity. Where husband and wife enjoy health and vigor and are free from impurities that would be entailed upon their posterity, it is contrary to the teachings of the Church artificially to curtail or prevent the birth of children. We believe that those who practice birth control will reap disappointment by and by.
(First Presidency, David O. McKay, Hugh B. Brown, N. Eldon Tanner, April 14, 1969)
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General Handbook of Instructions
It is the privilege of married couples who are able to bear children to provide mortal bodies for the spirit children of God, whom they are then responsible to nurture and rear. The decision as to how many children to have and when to have them is extremely intimate and private and should be left between the couple and the
Lord. Church members should not judge one another in this matter.
(Church Handbook of Instructions, p. 158)
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Birth Control
The First Presidency
When married couples are physically able, they have the privilege of providing mortal bodies for Heavenly Father's spirit children. They play a part in the great plan of happiness, which permits God's children to receive physical bodies and experience mortality.
If you are married, you and your spouse should discuss your sacred responsibility to bring children into the world and nurture them in righteousness. As you do so, consider the sanctity and meaning of life. Ponder the joy that comes when children are in the home. Consider the eternal blessings that come from having a good posterity. With a testimony of these principles, you and your spouse will be prepared to prayerfully decide how many children to have and when to have them. Such decisions are between the two of you and the Lord.
As you discuss this sacred matter, remember that sexual relations within marriage are divinely approved. While one purpose of these relations is to provide physical bodies for God's children, another purpose is to express love for one another--to bind husband and wife together in loyalty, fidelity, consideration, and common purpose.
(First Presidency, Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, James E. Faust, True to the Faith, 2004, p. 26)
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Birth Control
President Ezra Taft Benson
Young mothers and fathers, with all my heart I counsel you not to postpone having your children, being co-creators with our Father in Heaven. Do not use the reasoning of the world, such as, "We'll wait until we can better afford having children, until we are more secure, until John has completed his education, until he has a better-paying job, until we have a larger home, until we've obtained a few of the material conveniences," and on and on. This is the reasoning of the world, and is not pleasing in the sight of God. Mothers who enjoy good health, have your children and have them early. And, husbands, always be considerate of your wives in the bearing of children. Do not curtail the number of your children for personal or selfish reasons. Material possessions, social convenience, and so-called professional advantages are nothing compared to a righteous posterity. In the eternal perspective, children--not possessions, not position, not prestige--are our greatest jewels.
(President Benson, All-Church Parents Fireside, 22 Feb. 1987)
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Birth Control
President Spencer W. Kimball
I have told many groups of young people that they should not postpone their marriage until they have acquired all of their education ambitions... that when they marry they should not wait for children until they have finished their schooling and financial desires. Marriage is basically for the family and when people have found their proper companions there should be no long delay. They should let the children come. There seems to be a growing feeling that marriage is for legal sex, for sex's sake. Marriage is basically for the family; that is why we marry--not for the satisfaction of sex, as the world around us would have us believe. Young wives should be occupied in bearing and rearing their children. I know of no scriptures where an authorization is given to young wives to withhold their families and to work to put their husbands through school. There are thousands of husbands who have worked their own way through school and have reared families at the same time. Though it is more difficult, young people can make their way through their educational programs.
(President Spencer W. Kimball, Speeches of the Year, 1973, pp. 262-263)
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Boyd K. Packer
Never has a generation been so surrounded with those who speak irreverently of life. Never has there been such persuasion to avoid responsibilities of parenthood... Young couples are continually told that parenthood means forfeiture of advanced degrees and limiting of occupational progress, a representation they will live to know false...Whether you will be blessed with many children or but a few...is a matter that will be made known as your life unfolds. But I urge you, I warn you to approach parenthood with reverence. When you covenant in marriage and are free to act in the creation of life, when you stand at the threshold of parenthood, know that you stand on holy ground...Young couples, draw reverently close to your Father in Heaven in these monumental decisions of life...Grow close to Him. Perhaps you, as He, will come to "suffer the little children to come unto (you), and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God."
(Mark 10:14) (Boyd K. Packer, CR, Oct. 1966, p. 132)
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Birth Control
Hugh B. Brown
...to a great extent, the readiness of a couple to enter into the bonds of matrimony can be measured by the desires they have to bring children to this earth. A lack of this desire indicates immaturity, and a couple that feels this way is probably not ready for marriage.
(Hugh B. Brown, You and Your Marriage, p. 135)
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President Joseph F. Smith
I think it is a crying evil that there should exist a sentiment or a feeling among any members of the Church to curtail the birth of their children. I think that is a crime wherever it occurs, where husband and wife are in possession of health and vigor and are free from impurities that would be entailed upon their posterity. I believe that where people undertake to curtail or prevent the birth of their children that they are going to reap disappointment by and by. I have no hesitancy in saying that I believe this is one of the greatest crimes of the world today, this evil practice.
(President Joseph F. Smith, Relief Society Magazine, 4:318)
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Birth Control
President Brigham Young
There are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles. Now what is our duty? To prepare tabernacles for them: to take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of the wicked, where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery, and every species of crime. It is the duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can.
(Brigham Young, JD 4:56)
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Birth Control
President Spencer W. Kimball
Women who are deliberately childless will regret it. I am not sorry for women who sacrifice their lives for children. I am not sorry for those women who have many children. But I am sorry for women who come to the Judgment Day who have never assumed the responsibility of rearing children, who have been afraid of pain, resistant to sacrifice. They are the ones whose hearts will be heavy...
(President Kimball, Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, pp. 328-29)
