Birth Control and the Catholic Church

That the Catholic Church’s teaching on birth control is countercultural – there can be no doubt. Yet all men and women of good will must recognize the role that contraception has played in the proliferation of abortion, divorce, STDs and the sexual objectification of women in our age.

The 'contraceptive mentality' has lead to attacks on the special dignity of women.

One can truly say, with all seriousness, that the Church’s opposition to contraception is one of the most pro-women, authentic feminist stances in our civilization.

It’s no coincidence that the majority of early converts to Christianity were women; in Jesus Christ and Church doctrine they found refuge from the infanticide, contraception, abortion, adultery, pedophilia and divorce that were common aspects of the Classical world.

The Church’s ban on birth control stems from its understanding of marriage, which is a sexual union between a man and a women that is  open to procreation.

If either the unitve or the procreative aspects of a marriage is intentionally removed, the wholeness of the marriage is damaged.

The great prophet of our time was Pope Paul VI who rightly saw that when the procreative aspect of marriage is removed, sex becomes recreational and selfish; and men naturally seek sex from women without any feeling of responsibility or love.

The Pope also saw that contraception would create a false sense of “safety,” whereby one acts as if sex has forever been divorced from pregnancy. We know, however, that condoms have a ten percent failure rate – so there will always be unwanted pregnancies and in many cases, abortions.

The Church has always held marriage to be so sacred and special that it is reserved for married couples alone. Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Humane Vitae describes marriage this way:

“Marriage, then, is far from being the effect of chance or the result of the blind evolution of natural forces. It is in reality the wise and provident institution of God the Creator, whose purpose was to effect in man His loving design. As a consequence, husband and wife, through that mutual gift of themselves, which is specific and exclusive to them alone, develop that union of two persons in which they perfect one another, cooperating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives.”

Paul VI foresaw that that the “birth control mentality” would lead to the exploitation of women by those who look upon them only as objects of pleasure:

“Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection. “

Understanding this teaching, many claim that the The Church simply promotes the “rhythm method” – this us untrue. The Catholic Church teaches a scientific method of responsible parenthood called Natural Family Planning (NFP) where a women’s menstrial cycle is moitored by the married couple. Paul VI notes when aspects of this monitoring:

“If therefore there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile, thus controlling birth in a way which does not in the least offend the moral principles which We have just explained. (20)”

In addition to the negative consequences described above, it’s also clear that the call for gay marriage is also a result of the contraceptive mentality in the West. If one truly belives that sex – even within marriage – has no connection to procreation, then it naturally follows that one might conclude that even gay sex is a reasonable basis for establishing a marriage.

Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church states regarding birth control:

2399 “The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).”

The Catholic Catechism also teaches:

2370 “Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, “every 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:

Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality.”