My father always says that when it came time for him and my mother to have kids, it was like bam, bam, bam. Pregnancy. Delivery. Three kids. Three years. And that was all there was to it.

It doesn’t seem like so long ago that pregnancy was that simple. Men and women were copulating. Embryos were being inseminated. And, nine months later, wailing children were born unto this world. Bam. Bam. Bam.

Recently, Pope Benedict XVI made headlines by saying that condoms are an inappropriate and counter-productive solution to HIV/AIDS. Some have expanded on the implications of the Pope’s comments and have considered Church teaching on contraception in light of overpopulation. However, many understand what the Catholic Church says regarding contraception, but few understand why it says it. As such, I now offer this information, assuming that overpopulation is a problem. It is my hope that, whatever moral view you ultimately take, you at least understand the Catholic position, and do not come to a decision without considering all of the ideas here presented.

In a single day’s work, Prof. W. B. Currie, animal science had chartered an airplane, battled a flood, and stood knee-deep in thousands of sheep placentas. With a grin, Currie recalls an Australian experiment synchronizing 10,000 sheep pregnancies at once.

Using a syringe full of semen, the sheep were all impregnated on the same day so they would all give birth around the same time using a syringe full of semen. The researchers Currie worked with then waited five months for nature to take its course. The scientists then gave the sheep a hormone injection that induces pregnancy in 24 hours.