Pope Paul VI predicted four things would happen if contraception was wholeheartedly accepted and practiced in society. Decide for yourself if these prophecies have come true:
1. Promiscuity, marital infidelity, breakdown of the family
2. Increased objectification of women
3. Governments will begin mandating and forcing contraception, sterilization and abortion in various ways
4. We will begin to think we can do anything we want with the body, rather than treating it as sacred
WHY WE DON'T SAY "ARTIFICIAL" CONTRACEPTION
Contraception isn't wrong because it's "artificial." There is nothing as "natural" as a prosthetic arm or a pacemaker or a hearing aid. Why? Because, these things do what an arm does, do what a heart does, do what an ear does. Catholics use all kinds of medical interventions that either prevent or cure bad health, or preserve good health. Contraception, instead, takes a perfectly healthy, functioning system in the body (fertility) and makes it malfunction, often over long periods of time--with all the accompanying harmful side effects. Contraception does the opposite of doing what a healthy body does.
NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING
So, if every marital embrace needs to be open to life, wouldn't that result in lots of pregnancies, lots of babies one right after the other? No. (Also remember that infertility is a huge problem today.) Couples are free to use Natural Family Planning.* Natural Family Planning [not the old "rhythm method"] uses the latest science and understanding about a woman's fertility cycle and is 97-98% effective in both achieving and avoiding pregnancy. No contraceptive, device or even sterilization is 100% effective either--because life is persistent, life will find a way to slip through at times!
Natural Family planning is completely natural and costs nothing. How it works is that the couple refrains from the marital embrace during the days of the month (about 7-10) that the woman is fertile. (Men are always fertile.) That's it. This way, every time they do engage in the marital embrace, they are not doing anything to thwart one of its two essential components (life) at the same time. There is real and true contact each time, no holding back, total acceptance of each other. There is no stress, because even if the couple isn't hoping for a child at that time, they are ready to welcome the life they have called into being by their actions, and, of course, every child is a gift of God.
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONTRACEPTION & NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING?
If both are a means to avoid pregnancy, what's the difference between contraception and NFP? There are many differences. 1. NFP is not just a means to avoid pregnancy, but also a means to achieve pregnancy by targeting a woman's fertile time. Contraception is only a means to avoid pregnancy. 2. Contraception is doing something while frustrating it and subverting it at the same time. NFP is not doing something. 3. Contraception splits love and life. NFP keeps love and life together. 4. The end doesn't justify the means. The end (the desired result, the goal) doesn't justify the means (the method used). This is a moral principle for all human action. The end (buying something I want) doesn't justify the means (robbing a bank). It's not just the end that matters and that can be good or bad, the way we get there matters and can be good or bad. 5. Some actions are wrong in themselves ("inherently" or "intrinsically" wrong), regardless of our good intentions or the desired result. This is a moral principle for all human action. 6. The "contraceptive mentality" tends to be closed to life. The "NFP mentality" tends to be open to life. 7. With "the contraceptive mentality," couples don't always agree on how many children to have. With the "NFP mentality," the couple agrees that, ultimately, even with their planning, they will be open to what God will decide. (But often, what the couple plans is how many children they will wind up having.)
NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING IS PRO-WOMAN AND PRO-COMMUNICATION
One of the greatest things about Natural Family Planning is that it's completely healthy and respectful of a woman's body and her psyche. For couples who use contraception, every day is like every other day. There is no need to communicate about sex or family planning. It's a done deal. For couples who use Natural Family Planning, every day is not like every other day. There is frequent communication about sex and family planning. Something like a whopping 93% of couples' communication is nonverbal, so NFP helps add the often missing conversations!
Did you know that "Matrimony" means "mother's mission"? Oh yeah. Because when she gets pregnant? It's all about her. And baby. In a good way. A really good way.
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In Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI stated, “[W]e must once again declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun, and, above all, directly willed and procured abortion, even if for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as licit means of regulating birth. Equally to be excluded, as the teaching authority of the Church has frequently declared, is direct sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary, whether of the man or of the woman. Similarly excluded is every action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” (HV 14).
This was reiterated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “[E]very action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil” (CCC 2370). “Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means . . . for example, direct sterilization or contraception” (CCC 2399).
The Church also has affirmed that the illicitness of contraception is an infallible doctrine: “The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable. Contraception is gravely opposed to marital chastity, it is contrary to the good of the transmission of life (the procreative.aspect of matrimony), and to the reciprocal self-giving of the spouses (the unitive.aspect of matrimony); it harms true love and denies the sovereign role of God in the transmission of human life” (Vademecum for Confessors 2:4, Feb. 12, 1997).
Some Contraceptives Can Cause Early Abortions
Advocates of contraception claim it doesn't cause abortions. However, that claim rests on an inaccurate redefinition of "pregnancy" as beginning only after an embryo successfully implants in the mother's uterus. This, then, excludes from the meaning of abortion all pills and devices that cause the death of an embryo before implantation. Yet it's scientifically indisputable that a new human life begins when an embryo first forms at fertilization—6 to 8 days before implantation.
Physicians' textbooks and handbooks reveal that some types of contraception sometimes work by preventing a living, developing, embryonic baby from reaching the uterus and successfully implanting, which results in his or her death.
Physical Risks for Women
Contraception also presents significant health risks for women. Combined oral contraceptives (COCs), as well as contraceptive patches and the "ring," have long been known to cause cancer (of the breast, cervix, and liver).2 They also substantially increase the risk of potentially life-threatening blood clots,3 which have resulted in heart attacks, strokes, and hundreds of deaths in healthy young women.
Intrauterine devices (IUDs) present other risks. For example, the following are just some of the warnings by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about one common IUD: septic shock and death may occur in the event of pregnancy; about half of pregnancies are ectopic; the device may embed, perforate, or penetrate the uterine wall, resulting in its migration outside the [uterus], adhesions, peritonitis, intestinal perforation/obstruction, abscesses, and erosion of adjacent internal organs. (Source: USCCB)
Providing a comprehensive understanding of the Catholic Church's teaching on contraception, Angela Franks, PhD, an experienced pro-life speaker and educator, explores how to live in accordance with Catholic sexual teaching and equips readers with the knowledge to explain the teaching to others.