FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Mormonism and gender issues/Women/Childbearing
Criticism
Some claim that LDS teachings about childbearing put an improper burden on LDS families, especially women.
Source(s) of the Criticism
- Bob McCue, “Big Picture Analysis of Mormonism—And When Should We Speak Out?” web posting on 27 Oct 2004 13h48.
Response
While having children is an important priority for Latter-day Saints, the health of the mother, health of the father, and the ability of the family to properly care for them should factor into the decision:
- No doubt there are some worldly people who honestly limit the number of children and the family to two or three because of insufficient means to clothe and educate a large family as the parents would desire to do, but in nearly all such cases, the two or three children are no better provided for than two or three times that number would be....In all this, however, the mother's health should be guarded. In the realm of wifehood, the woman should reign supreme.[1]
As in all things, the Church enjoins the use of personal revelation to choose a proper course for an individual couple's situation.
More details on this subject are available in the section on birth control.
Endnotes
- [note] David O. McKay, Relief Society Magazine (July 1916) 3:7.
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles