Question about marital intimacy

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DiscerningTheTruth

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I had this question posed to me today and honestly had no way to answer. If a Catholic couple is expecting a baby, would marital acts that would be invalid before the conception (to be delicate) be acceptable during the pregnancy since they are not preventing a baby from being conceived?
 
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Contraception is immoral. That said, I have a hard time seeing why an expecting couple would want to use it, as another child cannot be conceived during pregnancy.
 
@EZweber, The question was not regarding birth control but sexual acts that cannot lead to conception. Since conception has already occurred, would the Church still regard such acts as invalid?
 
Augustine would have said no, but the Church has since clarified that sexual intimacy during pregnancy is permissable.
 
Completed sexual acts must be per se open to procreation, even if procreation is in fact impossible. So, yes.
 
No. Pregnancy does not give a green light to immorality.

Each marital act must be ordered toward procreation, even if procreation is impossible.
 
Here are a couple of points for you to consider.
  1. I am friends with someone who is 2 months older than her “twin” sister. It can happen. It is extremely rare.
  1. The ordered way of sexual intimacy is to have it be the “natural” ordered act. Regardless of infertility. Older people should practice the embrace in the ordered way… So should pregnant people.
 
Sexual acts that cannot lead to conception are often moral in and of themselves, because they are inherently procreative, even though procreation is impossible. For example, married intercourse past menopause, or sexual intercourse during pregnancy, can indeed be ordered towards procreation.

(1) contraception and sterilization (of any type) that has the sole proximate effect of impeding the procreative functioning of the generative faculty is intrinsically evil,
(2) no crimes of Sodom/ unnatural acts (all sex acts must be sexual intercourse)
(3) the couple must be validly married (no fornication or adultery),
(4) the act must be unitive (loving one flesh union),
(5) no crimes of Onan (the acts must end right).
 
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Apart from all the correct answers you received, I suggest you to use the search function of this forum. The question had been answered multiple times…
 
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