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The Promises of Contraception HaveFailed
WhatContraceptionpromised:What Pope Paul VIwarnedcontraception wouldlead to:What Natural FamilyPlanning achievesinstead:
(1)Improved husband-wife relationships(2)Less divorce withless family stress(3)Women would befreed from maledomination
(4)
Less abortion andteenage pregnancy(1)A barrier in therelationship between ahusband and wife(2)More divorceMore promiscuityLess family stability(3)An increase in womenbeing seen as sexual‘objects’(4)More abortion(1)Increased communicationbetween a husband andwife(2)Less divorce(3)Respects a woman’sbodily cycle and views heras a ‘whole’
American studies have shown that the divorce rate among couples who use natural family planning is muchless than the divorce rate among couples who use artificial contraception. These studies are not religionbased and include many non-Catholics who follow natural family planning ‘fertility awareness’ methods.One reason for this seems to be that NFP increases communication between a husband and wife. The American figures, covering peoples of all religions:Divorce rates, natural family planning:between 2 and 4%; Divorce rates, artificialcontraception:approx 50%
Source: Janet Smith,
Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later
(Washington DC: CUA Press, 1991), pp.109-128.
Why is artificial contraception a sin?
Contraception is a sin because it
directly
opposes one of the God-givenmeanings of the sexual act.Both marriage and sex have a meaning that exists before a couple get marriedand before they engage in the act proper to marriage: sex. God has given usthis great gift and he intends us to use it in accordance with the purposes hehas established in it. Both marriage and sex are ordered to 2 things: union andprocreation. Concerning union: To seek sex without lifelong union is to opposethe unitive purpose God has established in sex. Concerning procreation: Notevery marriage bears fruit in children, but every marriage remains ordered
towards
children, and a marriage that intended to never have children would beseriously lacking. Similarly, not every sexual act leads to children, but everysexual act remains ordered
towards
children. To
directly
oppose theprocreative meaning by artificial contraception is to directly violate the meaningof the act, to directly violate the gift of sex that God has given.
What is “Natural Family Planning”?
In Natural Family Planning a couple seek to postpone or avoid pregnancy butseek to achieve this by using a method that respects the "nature" of themarriage act. Whereas contraception changes the marital act by an action thatdirectly renders it infertile, in Natural Family Planning a couple do not directlychange the act itself. In NFP a couple abstain from sex when the wife is fertile,and enjoy the marital embrace when she is not. This involves the couplecharting the medical signs that indicate the wife’s fertility.
In general, however, the procreation of new life is a good thing, and by getting married amarried couple commit themselves to "be fruitful and multiply"(Gen 1:28) and they should onlyseek to avoid pregnancy for good reason.
What is the moral difference between Natural Family Planning andArtificial Contraception?
In contraception, the couple engage in an act that they have altered, altered ina way that violates the inherent meaning of the sexual act which is both unitiveand procreative.
In NFP, the couple either abstain from sexual intercourse, or, they engage in anun-altered act of sexual intercourse: in both cases the acts that they do engagein have not been altered in any way.
The higher divorce rate among couples who use artificial contraception is a sign (though admittedly nota proof) that the separation of the unitive and procreative meanings of the marital act in contraceptiontragically tends towards the separation of other things in a relationship.
Natural Family Planning: The Billings OvulationMethod
Natural Family Planning provides a way for couples to
keep track of their fertility
so that they are enabled to make decisions according to their situation at anyparticular time. The Billings is a reliable, scientific method taught worldwide.
What NFP Involves:
•
Self-Awareness
:
The fertility indicator this method is based on is cervicalmucus, which can be detected by women simply by training themselves tobecome aware of it. There are no invasive or unpleasant procedures, no specialequipment, no hormonal tests.
•
One-to-One Tuition
:
The best way to learn the method is through a seriesof meetings with a qualified instructor who will teach individual women to chartconsistently and interpret correctly their own unique pattern of fertility andinfertility. The number of meetings will depend on individual circumstances,and the teacher will be available for advice at any time even when the womanhas learnt to apply the method independently. (A possible alternative is onlineteaching at www.woomb.org)
•
Daily Charting
:
It’s very important to keep a chart to accurately recordobservations every single evening because fertility is understood by watchingand interpreting a developing pattern, not by looking at individual days. Failureto chart daily will affect the success of the method.
•
Periodic Abstinence
:
The couple will be taught rules for the avoidance of pregnancy: fertile days and days of potential fertility are not available forintercourse unless they are happy to welcome a baby. (NB: the Billings is notcompatible with barrier methods).
•
Communication and Cooperation
:
The charting merely providesinformation: the couple then have to discuss whether to apply the rules foravoidance of pregnancy on each particular cycle and choose a course of actionthat they are both happy with, bearing in mind each other’s (and the wholefamily’s) feelings and needs.
The pattern of cervical mucus observed and recorded by the woman isdetermined by the changing levels of oestrogen in the ovaries and therefore the chart gives an accurate picture of what is happening inthe woman’s body on any given day of the cycle.
Advantages of NFP:
Promotes women's health:
There is no intake of drugs or artificialhormones; the Billings chart makes it possible to spot abnormalities andprovides very useful medical information.
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