Samira K. Mehta, "God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion" (UNC Press, 2026)

About this episode

Dr. Samira K. Mehta discusses the surprising history of contraception and its intersection with American religion and women's liberation.

Most people today understand contraception as central to women’s liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God’s plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women…

People in this episode

Guest: Samira K. Mehta

Topics covered

• contraception
• American religion
• women's liberation
• mid-twentieth century
• family dynamics
• social change
• feminism

Keywords

• contraception
• sexuality
• American religion
• birth control
• women's rights
• family
• social change
• feminism
• mid-twentieth century
• Cold War

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UNC Press

Books & works: God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion

Places: American, post–World War II, Cold War

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