Is It Ever OK to Use Contraception? (with Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio)

Do you ever wonder about the church’s teachings regarding contraception? Fr. Josh Johnson and Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio address this topic from both a moral reasoning and medical application standpoint. They also look at the broader picture of holistic understanding of fertility, fertility awareness-based methods and restorative reproductive medicine. Dr. Sarah advocates for improved education about these topics and acknowledges that it is valid to still be learning, growing, and wrestling with this complex area as long as we maintain our trust in the Lord.

Snippet from the Show

There may be church teachings that we do not yet understand, but that’s OK; the point of our faith is that we remain close to Jesus and trust that over time God will give us grace.

Glory Story (3:43)

Listener Question (8:19)

Is it OK to take birth control for health reasons if you are not using it as a contraceptive?
-Anonymous

Prayer (29:14)

Hail Mary
Hail, Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

About Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio

Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio holds a PhD in Bioethics from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, and her doctoral research argued for a “third way” of sex education that teaches young people fertility awareness-based methods both as preventive medicine and as proximate vocation preparation. Throughout the last 12 years, Sarah has taught at both the university and high school levels: working as an ethics professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, teaching and coaching young women at Archbishop Chapelle High School in New Orleans, and speaking and leading international trips for college students as a campus minister at Louisiana State University. Trained in two methods of fertility awareness–Creighton Model FertilityCare System (2013) and FEMM (2024)–her passion is to empower women through a deeper knowledge of the great gift and beauty of their bodies and sexuality. In her work, she consistently seeks to integrate the demands of medicine with the dignity of womanhood and highlights the essential role of human freedom in the education of young women. She is in the process both of developing a high school curriculum that brings light to these realities as well as creating similar resources for parents. She currently lives in New Orleans, LA, and works remotely as a Personal Consultations Fellow with the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

You can find out more on her website: What Women Are.

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