--- title: Chris Christie Says He Used Birth Control: 'Not Just the Rhythm Method' description: The Catholic Republican presidential contender made the statement Tuesday at a town hall meeting. canonical: https://time.com/3983711/chris-christie-birth-control/ author: Tanya Basu article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-04T15:49:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:29.558Z article:section: Politics og:title: Christie: 'I'm a Catholic, But I've Used Birth Control' og:description: "And not just the rhythm method." og:url: https://time.com/3983711/chris-christie-birth-control/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e706fb80dd8248f/69885dc935ba6fcff8c0e80d/chris-christie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4096 og:image:height: 2304 og:image:alt: Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and candidate in the Republicans' presidential candidates race, talks with a voter at The Puritan Backroom in Manchester, N.H. on Aug. 3, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Christie: 'I'm a Catholic, But I've Used Birth Control' twitter:description: "And not just the rhythm method." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e706fb80dd8248f/69885dc935ba6fcff8c0e80d/chris-christie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chris Christie Has Used Birth Control—'And Not Just the Rhythm Method' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Aug 4, 2015 3:49 PM UTC  Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and candidate in the Republicans' presidential candidates race, talks with a voter at The Puritan Backroom in Manchester, N.H. on Aug. 3, 2015. Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and candidate in the Republicans' presidential candidates race, talks with a voter at The Puritan Backroom in Manchester, N.H. on Aug. 3, 2015. CJ Gunther—EPA  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Aug 4, 2015 3:49 PM UTC Gov. Chris Christie announced he has used birth control at a town hall meeting Tuesday morning, and he made sure to leave little room for ambiguity. “I’m a Catholic, but I’ve used birth control—and not just the rhythm method, ok?” the Republican presidential candidate admitted to a crowd at a Manchester, N.H. restaurant. Christie made it clear that he has struggled with his faith’s doctrine on sex and family, which holds that contraceptives [“work against the natural gift of fertility.”](http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/love-and-sexuality/index.cfm#yes) “My church has a teaching against birth control,” said the governor. “Does that make me an awful Catholic, because I believe and practiced that function during part of my life? I don’t think so.” Watch the full video below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3983711/chris-christie-birth-control/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3983711/chris-christie-birth-control/"},"headline":"Chris Christie Has Used Birth Control—'And Not Just the Rhythm Method'","datePublished":"2015-08-04T15:49:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:29.558Z","description":"The governor doesn't think using birth control makes him \"an awful Catholic\"","url":"https://time.com/3983711/chris-christie-birth-control/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Chris Christie","Religion","Birth Control","catholicism","Republican"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e706fb80dd8248f/69885dc935ba6fcff8c0e80d/chris-christie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tanya Basu","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e706fb80dd8248f/69885dc935ba6fcff8c0e80d/chris-christie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and candidate in the Republicans' presidential candidates race, talks with a voter at The Puritan Backroom in Manchester, N.H. on Aug. 3, 2015.","caption":"Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and candidate in the Republicans' presidential candidates race, talks with a voter at The Puritan Backroom in Manchester, N.H. on Aug. 3, 2015.","creditText":"CJ Gunther—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3983711/chris-christie-birth-control/","name":"Chris Christie Has Used Birth Control—'And Not Just the Rhythm Method'"}}]}] ```