Khamenei’s Rulings on the Use of Contraception
[Question 1255]:
1) Is it permitted for a healthy woman to prevent pregnancy temporarily by using methods and materials which prevent the attachment of the small seed in a firm resting-place?
2) What is the decision on using a birth control device, which prevents pregnancy in a way which is not yet known, but which is known to be a means of birth control?
3) Is it permitted for a woman who is afraid of the effects of pregnancy to use birth control?
4) Is it permitted for a woman who has not the means to bring a child into the world or who suffers from genetic physical or mental illnesses to sterilize herself?
Answer:
1) If this is with her husband’s permission, there is no problem.
2) If it means the elimination of the small seed after its establishing itself a firm resting place, or entails touching or viewing [the woman by a strange man], it is forbidden and is not permitted.
3) Birth control under this hypothesis is not a problem. Indeed, if pregnancy endangers the mother’s life, it is not permitted for her to voluntarily get pregnant.
4) If it is done on rational grounds and there is no noticeable damage and it is done with the husband’s permission, there is no problem.
[Question 1256}: What is the judgment on tying the fallopian tubes to prevent population increase?
Answer: If this is done on rational grounds and there is no noticeable damage, there is no problem per se.
[Question 1257]: Is it permissible for a healthy woman for whom pregnancy is not harmful to practice birth control by abstinence, using a diaphragm, using contraceptive pills, or having her fallopian tubes tied. Is it permissible for her husband to compel her to utilize one of these means, except for abstinence?
Answer: There is no problem per se with birth control by abstinence. Similarly, using other means is not forbidden if it is done on rational grounds and there is no noticeable damage and it is done with the husband’s permission and entails no touching or viewing [of the woman by a strange man], but the husband has not the right to compel his spouse to do this.
[Question 1258]: Is it permissible for a pregnant woman who intends to have her fallopian tubes tied to have her son born using a Caesarian section so that she could, simultaneously with this operation, have her tubes tied?
Answer: The decision on having ones fallopian tubes tied has been made previously, but the permissibility of a Caesarian section is based on its necessity or the request of the pregnant woman herself, and in any case it is forbidden for a strange man to touch or view the woman in the course of the Caesarian section or tying the fallopian tubes, unless it is necessary.
[Question 1259]: Is it permissible for a woman to use [aids to conception] without her husband’s consent?
Answer: This is a problematic area.
[Question: 1260]: A man who has four children had vasectomy. If his wife is displeased with this, is the man to be considered a sinner?
Answer: The permissibility of this operation is not dependent on the wife’s consent, and the man is free of obligation.