Expert Answer Forum
Contraception QUESTION from Patrick December 16, 1999
I have a question regarding contraception. My question is why is it OK to use natural family planning, but not birth control? It is my understanding that the reason birth control, as with homosexual sex, is wrong is because it closes the sexual act of love to the gift of children. Why is it OK to manipulate the natural cycle of a woman to avoid children for a period of time, but using birth control for the same period of time is wrong? Just for the record I am opposed to birth control personally but I think the Church is contradicting itself on this issue. I would really appreciate your views on this. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Patrick Murphy ANSWER by Mr. John Miskell on December 19, 1999
Dear Patrick, You're right that birth control closes the sexual act of love to the gift of children. It creates a barrier in the relationship. When we truly love someone we love everything about him or her. Before I married my wife I knew that I loved everything about her. I loved her look, her eyes, her nose, her mouth etc…. and I wanted her to have my children. Using a barrier we are in essence saying I love you and I want to have sex with you but I want to place an unnatural barrier between us. I want to prevent any chance of you having my children. Natural Family Planning (NFP) uses known cyclic and biological information but still remains open to the possibility of having children. NFP places no barrier between the man and the woman. Furthermore the most commonly used methods of birth control such as the pill and IUD are abortifacient. Their primary method of preventing birth is by preventing ovulation, but they fail in doing this all the time. Some estimate that there is an occurrence of breakthrough ovulation of at least 20%. The way they handle this problem is to prevent the newly conceived person from implanting in the uterus thereby terminating the pregnancy before the woman even knows she's pregnant. In other words the most commonly used methods of birth control cause untold numbers of early abortions. The same is true for the morning after pill. For the abortion providers to say the morning after pill PREVENTS pregnancy is an insult to our intelligence. In Christ, John Miskell Back to Index Page