Protestant and Catholic Couples Who Have Chosen Vasectomy

Catholic and Protestant couples in which the husbands had a vasectomy operation performed between 1966 and 1969 in London, Ontario were surveyed in 1970 for the purpose of comparing them on actual and desired family size, contraceptive use before the operation, contraceptive failures resulting in unplanned births, satisfaction with the operation, and on such other demographic characteristics as age, education and family income. We found that Protestant males and females were older and better educated than their Catholic counterparts and Protestant couples had higher median annual family incomes. Catholic males desired fewer children than their wives and the same relationship held for Protestants. Catholics desired more children than Protestants, and the Catholic couples had on the average more children. Both religious groups had more children than they desired, more a result of contraceptive failures than the non-use of contraceptives. Catholics and Protestants alike had used several contraceptive methods prior to resorting to vasectomy. Protestant and Catholic couples chose vasectomy at different average parity levels, with the Catholics being higher than the Protestants. From these data, it is hypothesized that the trend toward convergence in North America of Protestant and Catholic fertility will stop short of complete similarity.