Family Planning & Birth Control

[Allweather]

I’m not too knowledgable about NFP. I got a vasectomy several years before swimming the Tiber, so it never was a big issue for me, except that I’ve had many an occasion to regret the vasectomy, because, among other things, I saw how it worked to distort sexuality. But that is another story.

What I’m curious about is the role of abstinence as a means of avoiding pregnancy. Isn’t it legitimate for a married couple to refrain from having sexual relations in order to avoid pregnancy? My understanding is that NFP involves monitoring the fertile period and abstaining sexual intercourse during that period.

What about a longer period of abstinence? If both partners were in agreement, is there anything sinful about abstaining from sexual relations for, let’s say for example, two or three years, primarily or only for the purpose of avoiding pregnancy?

 

[Antwill]

I’m not too knowledgable about NFP. I got a vasectomy several years before swimming the Tiber, so it never was a big issue for me, except that I’ve had many an occasion to regret the vasectomy, because, among other things, I saw how it worked to distort sexuality. But that is another story.

What I’m curious about is the role of abstinence as a means of avoiding pregnancy. Isn’t it legitimate for a married couple to refrain from having sexual relations in order to avoid pregnancy? My understanding is that NFP involves monitoring the fertile period and abstaining sexual intercourse during that period.

What about a longer period of abstinence? If both partners were in agreement, is there anything sinful about abstaining from sexual relations for, let’s say for example, two or three years, primarily or only for the purpose of avoiding pregnancy?

Long term pregnancy avoidance is acceptable if done for serious reasons. That does get a bit hairy, in that there is not a definition of what comprises “serious” reasons. That is where a well formed Catholic conscience comes into play.

 

[Timidity]

Only one who does not really know the Church’s teachings against contraception and for NFP would call NFP “birth control”.

But I do know the Church’s teaching, and I acknowledge the truth that NFP is a form of birth control. Just because some methods of birth control are morally unlawful doesn’t suddenly mean that morally acceptable methods are not birth control.

If we deny that NFP and other acceptable means are not birth control then not only to we take liberties with truth, but we send a negative messages. Non-Catholics and ignorant Catholics are always asking “Why is the Church against birth control?” It’s not! It’s against morally unacceptable methods of birth control.

Humanae Vitae calls it something like “regulation of births”. Regulation is synonymous with control, and “control of births” is still “birth control.”

 

[Antwill]

But I do know the Church’s teaching, and I acknowledge the truth that NFP is a form of birth control. Just because some methods of birth control are morally unlawful doesn’t suddenly mean that morally acceptable methods are not birth control.

If we deny that NFP and other acceptable means are not birth control then not only to we take liberties with truth, but we send a negative messages. Non-Catholics and ignorant Catholics are always asking “Why is the Church against birth control?” It’s not! It’s against morally unacceptable methods of birth control.

Humanae Vitae calls it something like “regulation of births”. Regulation is synonymous with control, and “control of births” is still “birth control.”

The meaning of words and the perception of those words are very important. Therefore NFP is properly referred to as birth regulation. “Six of one, half dozen of another”, you might say. However, if one truly understands the Church’s teachings on NFP, you know the importance of not lumping it together with artificial means by simply calling it “birth control” or “Catholic contraceptive” (a term which I have heard). Doing so gives the impression that NFP can be used haphazardly and for frivilous reasons, just like artificial birth control is used.

Case in point is the OP misunderstanding of NFP as simply another type of “birth control” not much unlike the pill, etc.

This may be a technicality in some sense, but it is important to distinguish between NFP and other forms of birth control. Perpetuating the misconception is harmful.

 

[Seatuck]

The standard is that Catholics may limit family size for serious reasons, not grave reasons. “Serious” is a lower standard in moral theology than “grave”.

– Mark L. Chance.

Can you show me something explaining this? I understood the two to be equal.

 

[mark_a]

***Can a Catholic in good conscience use birth control ? ***

One can think he/she is in good concience using birth control, he/she may call himself/herself Catholic, but he/she is not a good Catholic following the teaching of the Church.

And if the issue is pressed too harshly, you can bet your sweet and sour bippy he/she will find himself/herself in a church badmouthing the Church.