Shame and Censure in Family Planning

Unconventional decisions about family planning can be occasions for both shame and censure. This essay explores why married couples who are childfree by choice, struggling with infertility or involuntarily childlessness, or are pursuing assisted reproduction instead of adoption deal with shame and social stigma. It concludes that both shame and censure have no place when such decisions are grounded in progressive Christian commitments that reject the “inseparability thesis” between union and procreation and affirm conscientious decision-making about the different ways a family can be expanded.