The Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction was founded in 1985 to answer the call for reproductive health care that fully respects life. The challenges in Pope Paul VI's 1968 letter Humanae Vitae prompted Thomas W. Hilgers, MD, to begin scientific research in the applications of natural fertility regulation and to open the Pope Paul VI Institute in order to build a culture of life in women's health care throughout the world. The Institute has developed a new approach to women's health care that embodies the best principles of medicine and offers superior treatments to women and challenges mainstream medicine, which relies on contraception, in vitro fertilization, and abortion.