This is an issue that many Catholics as well as non-Catholics struggle with, so it is very important to be clear on what the Church does indeed teach. First, let us define the terms. Artificial contraception is the intentional prevention of conception or impregnation through the use of various devices, agents, drugs, sexual practices, or surgical procedures before, during, or after a voluntary act of intercourse. Natural Family Planning (NFP), on the other hand, is a scientific method involving systematic observation of a woman’s bodily signs of fertility and infertility through daily changes in body temperature and cervical mucus. All of these signs are carefully charted and studied to determine a woman’s fertile period, and, on those days, the couple would have no sexual intercourse. Thus, normally no pregnancy would occur. This is not, by the way, the old “rhythm method” that is often confused with NFP. Another thing to keep mind about NFP is that it is often used quite successfully to achieve pregnancy too.
Without careful consideration, one might conclude that artificial contraception and NFP amount to the same thing since both appear to be an attempt to prevent pregnancy. To the world, this may be so, but in the eyes of God, and the Church, they are very different, in the moral sense. What do we mean by that? Scripture tells us that God, out of His infinite and powerful love, created man and woman for each other. He then said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1: 28). Even after they fell from His grace, He did not destroy them, but rather He continued to love them and immediately made a way for them and all their descendants to find their way back to Him. Here we see the creation and the plan of God for marriage.
It is precisely because of the testimony of Scripture and the teachings of Jesus Christ that have been handled down to us by the apostles (Tradition), that the Catholic Church has always and consistently taught that each and every marital act must remain open to the transmission of life. This is not something that the Church invented. It has come to us from God. He made marriage for two purposes: to be unitive – uniting the spouses in love – and procreative – to bear children, if and when it should be His divine will. These two purposes are inseparably connected in marriage, and man and woman can do nothing to break this connection, for to do so, would go directly contrary to the plan of the God (CCC# 2366).
Knowing that God wills that every marital act of intercourse be open to the possibility of life, we can see that Natural Family Planning, if practiced for serious reasons, would not violate the natural law of God because with NFP there is no intercourse at all. Instead, there is abstinence – the man and woman say no to their own desires. With artificial contraception, however, there is sex with little or no possibility of life. Thus, artificial contraception is always wrong because it violates both the unitive and procreative purposes of marriage, whereas it is different with NFP when used in serious circumstances.
Sex is a beautiful and holy gift from God. Therefore, the husband and wife, under normal conditions, should not deprive each other. However, there may be times in their married life when a pregnancy would cause an undue hardship for either of the spouses or the family. Is the intention to cooperate with God’s plan or to go against it? By practicing artificial contraception, knowing that it is contrary to God’s plan for marriage, the couple is essentially saying, “We want this and it does not matter what God wants.” This is so because, in this case, they have sex but say no to life.
Science teaches us that normally there are only a few days in a month when a woman may conceive a child. Even knowing this, many couples feel they cannot handle that. Yet, there can occur many times in a marriage when they must abstain from sex for a variety of reasons. This is truly something to think about. Often, we forget that we do not belong to ourselves, but to the One who made us out of love. The beautiful mystery is that doing His will and living the life He meant for us will always and forever lead to our truest happiness and fulfillment.
© Copyright 2002 Grace D. MacKinnon
This article taken from the book Dear Grace: Answers to Questions About the Faith, coming in March 2003 from Our Sunday Visitor. Order online at osvbooks@osv.com or call 1-800-348-2440. You may visit Grace online at www.DearGrace.com and submit questions about the Catholic faith to: grace@deargrace.com.