Am I doing enough to stop my wife from taking birth control?

[Gregory24]

My wife is Protestant and refuses to try natural family planning. I sometimes don’t know if I am doing enough to try and stop her from taking artificial contracetives. Can I still receive the Eucharist, or do I need to confess?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

So long as your wife knows of your opposition, so long as you are not actively contracepting yourself (e.g., using a condom), and so long as you are continuing to pray for her conversion and educate her (at appropriate times) about the moral problem of birth control, you are doing all that is required of you. You need not abstain from marital relations with her in order to receive the Eucharist.

You cannot “stop” your wife from contracepting if she is adamant about doing so. Even God does not “stop” us from sinning because he respects our free will, even though our sins grieve him deeply.

If your wife is open to information on birth control from a Protestant perspective, I recommend a couple of the books listed below. The Vatican document and Catholic resources are for your further research on the subject.

Recommended reading:

Protestant resources

Open Embrace by Sam and Bethany Torode
The Bible and Birth Control by Charles D. Provan

Catholic resources

Birth Control
Contraception and Sterilization
Vademecum for Confessors Concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Conjugal Life by the Pontifical Council for the Family
Good News About Sex and Marriage by Christopher West