Dr. Janet Smith is a prominent American Catholic moral theologian, philosopher, and public speaker renowned for her defense of the Church’s teaching on contraception, particularly as articulated in Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. Born in 1950, she earned a B.A. in Classics from Grinnell College (1972), an M.A. in Classical Languages from the University of North Carolina, and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. She taught philosophy at the University of Notre Dame for nine years before joining Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit in 2001, where she held the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics until her retirement. Smith is widely recognized for her talk “Contraception: Why Not?”, which has been distributed in over two million copies worldwide (with updated versions and free downloads available on her site). She has authored books including Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later and edited Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader, emphasizing the moral, social, and relational harms of contraception while promoting natural family planning and a God-centered view of sexuality. She has spoken nationally and internationally on Catholic teachings regarding sexuality, marriage, bioethics, and related issues, appearing on programs like EWTN, CNN, and Fox News. Smith served multiple terms as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family and has received honorary doctorates and awards for her scholarship and service.
