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The morality of using contraception within versus outside marriage needs to be considered differently."
Contraception is only a minor part of the entire question of sexuality and marriage. Strictly speaking, there can be no discussion of the morality of contraception outside marriage because there should be no occasion of conception outside marriage. Clearly that does not reflect what happens in the world, but it raises the issue, it is not licit to do something evil so that something good might result. “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
If contraception is wrong within marriage, which should be a mutually supportive, respectful, stable, life-long commitment, then how much more wrong must it be in relationships which are transitory, impermanent, uncommitted or unstable, which are based on physical delights.
Teenage pregnancy is certainly a problem that cannot be shied away from. It may seem to be supportive and caring to say, “Well, if you can’t be good, be safe.” But it is false charity. How loving is it to deny someone the truth and encourage them to continue to live lives that are destructive of themselves and those around them. “Chastity training” in the United States has had enormous impact. Virginity until marriage is encouraged and embraced in a way that is inconceivable here where the mere thought of not having “tried before you buy” is considered abnormal. But we owe people nothing less.
Then, of course, there is the question of AIDS and other (albeit non-fatal) sexually transmitted diseases. All hail the Almighty Condom! “Safe sex” should really be called “safe-ish sex”, and even that’s being too generous. If the condom is only 75% effective (when used properly!) to prevent pregnancy which can only result from intercourse in a 2-5 day window during the month, why on earth are we lying to people by telling them it will prevent them from contracting HIV which doesn’t care what time of the month it is?!
If someone were robbing a bank, we wouldn’t teach them how to hold the gun safely. Why then do we give in with chastity and say, you’re not going to be able to be good, so here’s how to protect yourself from getting pregnant. Responsible care and use of our bodies and sexuality requires a lot of maturity and self-respect. Offering contraceptives to teenagers does nothing but diminish any chance they ever had of respecting themselves and their bodies in the way God intended. Not developing a sense of respect for their bodies and the dignity of the gift of sexuality in our children will place them in the most dangerous and precarious situations, and leave them very ill-equipped to cope.
Contraception, of course, is the easy “solution” to the problem. It’s easier to give a teenager a condom or a prescription for the Pill than it is to address the reasons it is so hard to be chaste in today’s world. But easy solutions are rarely the right ones. And this solution in particular is only compounding the problem so that it gets harder with each new generation of teenagers to deal with the problems.
In addition, a couple who is committed to marriage but decides to be sexually active during their engagement or beforehand and decides to use contraceptives until they are married are hardly likely to suddenly embrace NFP when they walk down the aisle. The point is that contraception develops a mentality that is ruining the Western World. That might seem a bit extreme, but I have no doubt that it is true, and Pope Paul VI predicted as much in Humanæ Vitæ. Allowing that mentality to develop outside of marriage can only have the most destructive influence on marriage itself.
In natural law terms, marriage has certain fundamental “goods” that are inherent in its nature: fecundity, fidelity and indissolubility. Any attack on one of these goods naturally leads to the weakening of the others. There is no doubt whatsoever that contraception and a contraceptive mentality has grave consequences on conjugal fidelity and the permanence of the marriage. The widespread problem of divorce in modern society can be laid fairly and squarely at the feet of the contraceptive mentality and the warped view of self, sexuality and married love that it entails. Proof of this can be seen in the extremely low divorce rates among couples who do not use contraception.
catholic-pages.com/morality/contraception.asp**
… Contraception goes against natural law. It frustrates the intended purpose of man and woman coming together… whether in marriage or outside of it.