The Sexual Revolution and the Orthodox Vision of Reproduction

That same culture also now prides itself on sex practices outside of marriage, which leads to the normalization of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, hookup culture, socially-accepted pornography use, and the generational pain and trauma that comes with those practices. 

The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s in the United States changed how society views marriage, children, fertility, and even the purpose of the family itself. It brought with it a mindset that separated marriage from procreation with its new attitude, that sex didn’t come with any real consequences. It promoted the idea in society that marriage is simply “a piece of paper.” 

Realistically, there’s no such thing as “premarital sex,” because the act itself, through the bonding that occurs, is marital. When we separate sex from procreation, we get abortion, contraception, reproductive technologies, single parenthood by choice, and casual sexual relationships—all of which endorse a mindset that says, “I can have kids however I want.” While the societally accepted ideas surrounding hormonal contraceptives and sex are loud and promoted, we as Orthodox Christians need to remain steadfast in the beliefs of the Church and Christ’s teachings and allow for His will to take root in our hearts, rather than the will of our own desires that can be heavily influenced by today’s societal practices. 

Declining Birth Rates

The birth rate peaked in 1957 with an average of 3.68 children per family. In 1972, birth rates fell below replacement level, and fell sharply in 1973, which was not only the year Roe v. Wade was enacted, but the year that the birth control pill was used en masse with over 10 million women utilizing the contraceptive. 

What’s more, a 2025 study found: “The number of births in the U.S. in 2021 decreased 14% since 1960. Between 1960–2002, the general fertility rate decreased 45%, with an average 1% decline in births between 2014–2019, and 2% decline between 2007–2013.” Also: “As of 2021, the total U.S. fertility rate is 1.664 children/woman which is below a population replacement fertility level of 2.1 children/woman.”

The CDC has reported that “The provisional number of births for the United States in 2025 was 3,606,400, a decrease of 1% from the number in 2024 (3,628,934).”

‘The Pill’

Margaret Sanger was a strong supporter of the first birth control pills. She viewed them as a tool of eugenics: they could be used to weed out the poor, the mentally ill, and the disabled. Sanger wanted “to raise the general level of intelligence of the nation’s population.” 

As Angela Franks notes in Margret Sanger’s Eugenic Legacy, she believed large families were “wicked” and women were responsible for limiting the creation of children in order to prevent “tyrannies of the Earth,” such as war, famine, and poverty.

Besides the fact that hormonal contraceptives can act as abortifacients and prevent embryos from implanting in the uterus, there have been several stories of women who developed and died from blood clots linked to their use. Among the deceased are a 16-year-old girl who was taking pills to alleviate painful periods, a 17-year-old ballerina, a 20-year-old student, and a 24-year-old makeup artist. 

Besides DVT, other risks of hormonal contraceptives include blood clots, heart attack, stroke, breast and cervical cancer, mood changes, a decrease in bone density, autoimmune disorders, and weight gain.

Another study, conducted on women between the ages of 15 and 32, found that hormonal contraceptives were “positively associated with a first suicide attempt, as compared with never-users.” Yet another found that women using hormonal contraceptives had greater susceptibility to chronic anxiety and greater overall fearfulness because of a thinning of the tissue in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. 

The thickness of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) tissue correlates with one’s ability to handle generalized fear, mental and emotional resilience, and the ability to stay calm. Synthetic hormones alter that process. 

Delayed Childbearing

The trend of delaying childbearing has led to reproductive technologies such as egg freezing and in-vitro fertilization, and is detrimental to those women who use hormonal contraceptives long-term. 

The CDC reported that from 2015 to 2017, 46.9 million out of 72.2 million women in the United States aged 15 to 49 were using contraceptives. Much like egg-freezing, birth control allows women to indefinitely postpone pregnancy and invest in their careers. How does long-term birth control use, specifically hormonal birth control, contribute to infertility in those who decide they are now ready to start families?

Studies have shown that taking oral contraceptives for more than two years before pregnancy can increase the risk of miscarriage, especially for women who are 30 to 34 years old. In addition, long-term use can result in decreased cervical fluid, which is necessary for conception. Hormonal contraceptives can actually prematurely age the cervix by decreasing the cervical crypts and prematurely age the ovaries, leading to a decrease in ovarian reserve. 

Also, progesterone is a hormone that’s essential to continue a full-term pregnancy. Since hormonal contraceptives can decrease progesterone levels, if a decrease in progesterone causes a post-pill imbalance at the time of conception, it is likely that a pregnancy will result in a miscarriage.

‘Consequence-Free’ Sex

Sex inside of marriage is the best guarantee that the man and woman are committed to giving themselves to each other fully, whereas sex outside of marriage often carries with it unequal desires between the partners to grow a bond with each other. It’s almost guaranteed that one partner will get more out of it—or want more out of it—than the other. 

Sex is a bodily act that carries specific meaning by its nature in that it is procreative and unitive. The “unitive” aspect of the conjugal act refers to mutual love and fidelity that reflects the love of Christ and the Church, as the unitive meaning of sexual essence is self-donation, fully, to the other person. The “procreative” aspect refers to the miraculous act of being a co-creator with God through conception, birth, and the education of children. The two aspects are inseparable when honoring the sacredness of the marital union and the unification of body and spirit present in marriage.

Uses of sex which void it of its specific, spiritual meaning, outside of the marital union and/or with the use of hormonal contraceptives, not only violate the meaning of the act but violate those performing the act. Sex becomes a lie, because the self-gift isn’t happening. 

The physical and spiritual unity that make up our beings is our whole nature. When we touch someone’s body, we are touching the whole person. We speak a lie with our bodies when we use them in the wrong way. 

We can see another example of speaking a lie with our bodies in the story of Judas’s betrayal of Jesus, when he used a kiss on the cheek—a bodily act which indicates tender affection—to identify him to the mob seeking to arrest him. 

It is the duty of Christians to desire marital fidelity and higher moral standards, a greater respect for women and their uniqueness, and a government that does not abuse its power, but allows its citizens to flourish (how often do women feel pressured to have abortions due to economic circumstances because they feel that contraception should have guaranteed they don’t have a pregnancy?).

The Rise of Cohabitation

The mindset created by the sexual revolution that marriage is simply a piece of paper has also led to an overall decrease in familial stability through higher cohabitation rates, and therefore, higher separation rates.

If we want better circumstances for children, then couples need to not act as if commitment to each other as spouses is optional before starting families. According to a study by Princeton, only 35% of unmarried couples are still living together five years after the birth of their child, and less than half of the 35% are married. Children born to unmarried parents are disadvantaged relative to children born to married parents in terms of parental capabilities and family stability. 

Additionally, parents’ marital status at the time of a child’s birth is a good predictor of longer-term family stability and complexity, both of which influence children’s longer-term wellbeing. 

Children of married couples are more likely to “experience higher academic performance, emotional maturity, and financial stability than children who don’t have both parents in the home.” Also, “children raised in single-parent homes are statistically more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, exhibit poor social behaviors, and commit violent crimes. They’re also more likely to drop out of school...marriage reduces the probability of child poverty by 80%.” 

Children born to cohabiting families (in the United States and Europe) are also approximately 90 percent more likely than children born to married couples to see their parents separate. 

Doesn’t living together without the full commitment of marriage also convey to one’s partner, if only subconsciously, “you’ll do for now?” 

The stability of a society depends on a secure, solid, ideal moral foundation for the sake of all human beings, especially our children. When we don’t have an ideal for the family structure, and when we have no moral consensus anymore, we have no idea of what’s right or wrong and what affects children for good or for ill. We get rid of everything that contributes to the development of well-balanced, functioning members of society.

‘Reproductive Technologies’

In-vitro fertilization has been touted as a “pro-life” practice for those struggling with infertility, or even those who chose to delay child-bearing, but is actually a process that plays trial and error with thousands of embryonic human persons annually. 

IVF is the process whereby eggs and sperm are retrieved and then allowed to fertilize “naturally” in a petri dish, or sperm are directly injected, through intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) individually into each egg. The whole process is a very mechanical, impersonal, scientific procedure, beginning with masturbation and the hyperstimulation of ovaries. It makes a mockery of the unitive nature of the marital act. Children are gifts, not products that we have the right to manufacture in laboratories when we feel we are owed children.

Of course, children conceived outside of the marital union are still human beings made in the image and likeness of God, but the difference is that those conceived outside of the marital union do not have their right to be conceived in love and viewed as gifts honored, because the means of their conception is an offense against one’s inherent dignity. These children, of course, still have dignity from the moment of fertilization. But their dignity is not fully honored when they are conceived outside of the marital act. 

In their parents’ reflection of Christ and the Church, and in male/female marriage, children get a wonderful glimpse into eternity. Distorting reproduction by creating children in petri dishes, allowing a third party into the marital union can’t properly reflect this Christ/Creation relationship to children. 

Jesus was worthy of respect right at the moment of conception. Upon becoming incarnate, He revealed how we, being made in His image, are worthy of this same respect. This respect is not afforded to those beginning their lives in laboratories, as every step leading up to their existence is overseen not solely under the gaze of the loving God, but also beneath the oversight of scientists chiefly concerned with calculating potential outcomes. Their calculations guarantee that IVF intentionally brings human life into existence, with the full knowledge that not all of the lives are going to make it.

Instead of IVF or hormonal contraceptives, fertility awareness-based methods and restorative reproductive medicine procedures to achieve and prevent pregnancy should be promoted by those in the Church.

Restorative Reproductive Medicine

Restorative reproductive medicine aims to treat the underlying causes of infertility instead of simply masking them. Those who seek fertility treatments via IVF are often diagnosed with “unexplained infertility.” Infertility isn’t a diagnosis, but rather a symptom of an underlying health issue. As reproductive physiologist Dr. Craig Turczynski states: “Infertility treatment needs to be therapeutic. IVF is not therapeutic—it’s actually traumatic. The benefit of restorative reproductive medicine is even if you don’t get pregnant, you’ll at least be healthier, you’ll have been treated therapeutically.”

The common causes of infertility can be diagnosed with fertility awareness-based methods, which fall into the category of natural family planning (NFP). Fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs) involve women charting details about their cycles, such as the Creighton Method, Marquette Model, and Billings Ovulation Method. FABMs can help determine the underlying causes of infertility based on factors such as the cervical mucus pattern and the rising and falling of progesterone, along with natural restorative medicine procedures. 

NFP can be used to understand a woman’s fertility cycle and then apply that knowledge to either try and achieve or postpone a pregnancy. NFP is the most widely accepted form of “contraception” in the Orthodox Church, since it is 100% natural and respects the natural rhythms and functions of the body. 

Having said that, many women can also lean on NFP exclusively for avoiding pregnancy. If we are using pastoral guidance and have legitimate medical reasons to avoid a pregnancy, then using NFP for those reasons is supported. But we must ask ourselves: If we have not been given the blessing to practice NFP for preventing pregnancy and instead are practicing NFP to avoid pregnancy due to our own self-rooted desires, are we actually following in the Church’s belief that married couples should be open to potential pregnancies when engaging in sexual intercourse? We, too, may be falling into the modern societal trap of controlling childbearing and procreation rather than allowing God’s will to be the center of our marriage.

Conclusion

God designed man and woman to marry, become “one flesh,” then be fruitful and multiply. It’s a simple commandment, but it’s not always easy to obey. While modern technology has done wonders for our health and allowing for women to better understand our bodies and our cycles, we also have to look at all of the impacts that the sexual revolution and hormonal contraceptives have had on the family. 

In every single form of contraception and modern ideas surrounding sex, there is a level of pain that comes with it—whether it be the pain of fertility issues after years of using hormonal contraceptives, the pain of regret or hurt in modern-day hookup culture, or the pain that comes with not getting to enjoy the experience of raising a child. Ask any couple that has battled infertility: it is one of the deepest pains one may have to have to endure in this life. 

On the other hand, we should not fear the idea of giving ourselves fully to God, allowing for His will, and, quite literally, multiplying. I guarantee if you ask any parents of large families, you’ll never hear a parent wish they had less children. 

The Sexual Revolution and the effects of hormonal contraceptives have led to a culture that controls how and when we have children, and therefore weakens the idea of God’s will for married couples. These modern ideas have led to the normalization of sex practices outside of marriage, therefore weakening the sanctity of marriage and the sacredness of sex the way God designed for a husband and wife. 

When we practice what Christ and the Church teach us about marriage, sex, and procreation, then we keep Christ at the center of the most sacred union God designed and allow for His will to truly lead us. Following the Church’s teachings results in more joy and peace than we could ever imagine.

Jillian (Mary) Hughes is the founder of The Myrrh Bearing Mother. Katie Breckenridge is the author of Silent Sorrows: Let’s Talk about Abortion, Reproductive Technologies, and Adoption. The views expressed in this op-ed do not necessarily reflect those of the Union of Orthodox Journalists.