Samira Mehta discussed the history of contraception and religion in America, the subject of her recent research at the Library. Some clergy in post-World War II America framed the need for contraception in theological terms, including morally-inflected understandings of marriage and the family and Biblically-based commandments to care for the earth. Mehta's talk forefronts the role of ministers and rabbis in using their clerical authority to make contraception socially acceptable, but also in creating a moral language that would be used in support of birth control long after religious voices were the movement's strongest advocates. Speaker Biography: Samira Mehta is wrapping-up her year as a David Larson Fellow at the Library's John W. Kluge Center, where she has been studying the history of contraception and religion in America for a new book, "God Bless the Pill: Sexuality, Contraception and American Religion." For transcript and more information, visit www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=8244

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