Can contraception be used to protect an unborn baby?

[Rosie24]

One of my husband’s Catholic friends has recently been faced with a moral dilemma and I am trying to help him find the answer…

He and his wife are practicing Catholics, and have been using NFP to postpone pregnancy for two years. Now they stopped “postponing” and she just discovered she was pregnant. He recently read that couples should not have intercourse during pregnancy if the husband has a sexually transmitted disease, which he does.

I imagine they have been willing to accept the risk that she may contract the disease (which she hasn’t) but aren’t so willing to accept the risk of potential harm to the baby. It is morally acceptable for them to use barrier contraception during her pregnancy or is nine months of abstinence their only option?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Contraception may not be used for any reason whatsoever. If the baby could be harmed by sexual intercourse during pregnancy, then the only morally legitimate option is abstinence for the duration of the pregnancy. The couple should consult with their doctor to confirm the accuracy of the husband’s information. They can also contact the National Catholic Bioethics Center for the Catholic perspective on the medical bioethics of the question.

If the danger is confirmed and the couple decides to observe abstinence in order to protect their child, perhaps it might make it easier for them to observe the abstinence by offering up this trial for some special intention. Assuming that the sexually-transmitted disease was contracted as the result of past unchastity, one such intention might be atonement for any past sins that might have resulted in the STD. If there were such sins, I assume that they would already have been taken to the confessional and sacramentally forgiven, but suffering offered up for the temporal consequences of sin can be spiritually beneficial.

Recommended reading:

Primer on Indulgences