Contraception | What You Need to Know

Artificial contraception is one of the least understood moral issues of the modern world, yet it affects our attitudes toward life, love, marriage and family. The Catholic Church teaches that the use of artificial contraception in marriage is a grave sin.

The issue is so confusing that a brief but comprehensive examination of the moral arguments in favor of the Church's teaching is absolutely essential.

Once convinced of the rightness of the Church's position, couples may wish to study natural family planning, a moral alternative which respects the openness to procreation required in marriage.

Finally, those who have trouble seeing the logic of the Church's position should make a commitment to read the most comprehensive reaffirmation of that position, Pope Paul VI's brilliant encyclical of 1968, which has proven so prophetic in recent years.

Essential Perspective

1. Why Contraception is Wrong
2. Natural Family Planning with the Couple to Couple League
3. Paul VI's Encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life)

Extra Reading

It is also important to realize that the term contraception in modern parlance frequently includes abortion. Thus all chemical and intrauterine contraceptives are abortifacient. If they fail to prevent conception, they bring about the death of the conceptus, or fertilized ovum—a human person. In other words, their success rate is improved by their ability to abort the baby at the earliest stages if they fail to prevent conception.

This alters the moral case considerably while also showing the close connection between contraception and abortion. For an introductory article on this subject, see The Contraception Misconception.