Inventor of the birth control pill now regrets his work

Eighty five year old Carl Djerassi the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill now says that his co-creation has led to a "demographic catastrophe."

Djerassi outlined the "horror scenario" that has occurred because of the population imbalance, for which his invention was partly to blame. He said that in most of Europe there was now "no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction." He said: "This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete."

He described families who had decided against reproduction as "wanting to enjoy their schnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it."

40 years ago Pope Paul VI in his 1968 encyclical prophetically condemned artificial contraception forecasting  that the pill would result in dramatic decline in birth rates in Europe. His Holiness had it wrong in many decisions of his pontificate but he hit the nail on the head on this one. Most Roman Catholic churchmen of the time, as most Trads will recall, disparaged and disagreed with the Pope on his thinking as expressed in the encyclical. History is proving them wrong on this and many other things. (Photo credit - CathNews).