Pope Francis: Women do not need to breed like rabbits

Pope Francis has maintained that Catholic women do not need to breed “like rabbits” and criticised a woman for “tempting God” by risking her life with an eighth pregnancy after delivering seven children by caesarean section according to The Independent’s report.

Expressing his opinion to reporters as he traveled back to Rome from the Philippines, Francis said there are plenty of church-approved ways to regulate births.

Still speaking, he gave his strongest defense yet of the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which enshrined the church’s opposition to artificial birth control.

On the plane, the Pope insisted that being a good Catholic did not involve breeding “like rabbits”, arguing that “responsible parenthood” requires that couples regulate the births of their children, as church teaching allows.
The Catholic Church upholds a strict ban on contraception. Instead, it advocates that women monitor their menstruation cycle to avoid intercourse when she is ovulating.

Pope Francis cited the case of a woman who was pregnant with her eighth child after seven caesarean sections, saying that is “an irresponsibility.”

According to the National Catholic Reporter, he said: “This is to tempt God”. He also asked: “Does she want to leave the seven orphans?”

“God gives you methods to be responsible,” he continued. “Some think that – excuse the word – that in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits. No. Parenthood is about being responsible. This is clear.”

But he said most importantly, no outside institution should impose its views on regulating family size, blasting what he called the “ideological colonization” of the developing world.