Family Planning & The Church Posted on 19th Jun 2009, 11:55am by admin

By Dr Gabriel Seow.

The great Archbishop Fulton Sheen once remarked “the term birth control is misleading: the people who believe in it neither believe in birth, neither do they believe in control. So let us never use that term again.”

The Church’s teaching on contraception is not a Catholic invention.
Until 1930 every Christian denomination was unanimous in its condemnation of contraception as being intrinsically evil.
We need to ask some questions:
–    Why is it evil?
–    If it is true that it was evil then, why is it not evil now?
–    Does truth change?
–    Do we determine what is true?

People say, “The Church is opposed to any frustration of fruitfulness in marriage.” This is true. But non-Catholics are no less free to break God’s natural law. It so happens that the Church is defending a natural law, and because we are about the only people doing it, it will seem that it is solely a Catholic teaching.

Here is an analogy for you:
Supposing we were to wake up tomorrow and find that people are walking all over town with their eyes blindfolded or their ears plugged.  If this were to continue, you can be very sure that there will soon be a papal encyclical opposing this! Why? Because reason dictates that the ears were created to hear and the eyes for seeing! Will the people then cry out against the Church saying that she is against eye control or ear control?

What is Natural Law?
Natural law is often confused with the impersonal laws of nature which govern irrational beings (law of gravity, animal instinct to propagate their species, etc.).
Natural law refers to those that govern man’s rational action that is keeping with the nature of a being made in God’s image, a being with intellect and will.
The Church says that its teaching on sexuality is not revealed wisdom. It is something that man can discover by the basis of his own reason if his understanding is not obscured by his culture — and ours is an obscuring culture
Janet Smith puts it eloquently: if you want something to be successful, you have to use it in the way it was created to be used. . Natural law says that if you want things to prosper, you have to use them in accord with their nature.
So what are the purpose, meaning and nature of sexual intercourse? It seems quite clear to be for two things: babies and bonding.
It follows then, that human sexuality has a certain nature and unless you live in accord with that nature, chaos will result. In short, SEX = Babies + Bonding. Do not separate the two. This is the essence of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968.
Society has separated the two, and chaos has indeed resulted. We are waddling in the miasma of adultery, divorce, pornography, licentiousness, homosexuality, abuse of women, abortion. This may come as a surprise to you, but Pope Paul VI had already predicted all that these problems would be the inevitable consequences of the acceptance and practice of contraception. How was he able to foresee with such accuracy? He merely applied the Natural Law.
Natural Family Planning (NFP)
Every married couple is called to “be fruitful and multiply”(Gn 1:28).
The Church readily understands (how could she not!) that many couples do have good reasons for avoiding a pregnancy at certain times of their life; she does not oblige us to have as many kids as it is physically possible.
So what can parents do if there is a serious reason to avoid having a child? Yes they can abstain! This is the basis of Natural family planning (NFP): the knowledge of and respect for the fertility cycle of the woman.
That NFP is the only method of family planning for those who live by love should come as no surprise.  It is part of God’s genius that He created the female reproductive cycle the way He did, with its repeating cycles of fertility & barrenness. In fact, the whole of Nature moves in pulsating rhythms: night follows day, the seasons follow one another inexorably as planet earth spins in space.
A similar rhythm is impressed on the working of the female reproductive system. Menstruation itself fosters the concept of rest from sexual activity for one quarter of each cycle. The Creator has designed mankind for eight hours of sleep and the daylight hours for work; for 6 days of work & for rest on the seventh – and we depart from this at our peril. Ecclesiastes (3:1-8) expresses the same idea: “There is a time for every purpose under the sun…a time to be born, a time to die…a time for loving, a time for staying apart…” This is the essence of NFP, time for sex alternating with times of abstinence, self-control, self-mastery, self-sacrifice.
Couples who practice NFP show great reverence for the natural law; they never violate the free, total, faithful & fruitful self-giving of their wedding vows. A question often arises: So what is the big difference between sterilizing the act of intercourse yourself [contraception] and just waiting until it is naturally infertile [NFP]? The end result is the same: you avoid a pregnancy.

A simple principle in ethics is that the ends do not justify the means. Stated another way: “You must have good means to good ends. Not only your goal must be good, but also the way you get there must be good.” Consider two men, or individuals, who both want to support their family. One robs a bank and one gets a job. They’re both doing the same thing — they’re both supporting their family, but they’ve chosen very different means. In one you allow God to be God, in the other you take the power of life & death into you own hands and make yourself like God.
This is not the place for a detailed instruction in the use of NFP which requires practical “hands-on” instruction of the husband & wife by qualified NFP instructors. However, the general principles will be explained. .  NFP is based on the observable signs of fertility present in each cycle of the woman. (Do NOT confuse this with the “rhythm method” which is based on guesswork!)
1.    You cannot get pregnant if you do not have sex
2.    The wife is fertile for one about day in each cycle (i.e. the life span of the egg which is released on ovulation day)
3.    There are observable signs of fertility present in each cycle unique to each woman that can be learnt in order to pin point the day of ovulation.
The spouses can then choose to abstain on the day of ovulation, should there be a serious reason to avoid having a child, or to engage in sex if they plan to conceive. Anybody can use NFP if properly trained to do so.

Advantages of NFP
It remains only to list the advantages which NFP users enjoy.
These are often not appreciated until many years of married life have passed.
1.    It helps to avoid a pregnancy as well as to achieve one! It is true family planning.
2.    Normal intercourse is preserved.
3.    The method is esthetically & morally acceptable to people of all races & religions.
4.    No drugs, mutilating surgery or insertion of foreign bodies into the anatomy with all their attendant side effects and health risks.
5.    No cost involved.
6.    The responsibility and sacrifice in family planning is equally borne between husband & wife (and not the poor wife alone!)
7.    Self control is fostered. If a man can discipline his sexual nature, his life must be counted a success.
8.    It is a great marriage builder for the respect, love, patience, sacrifice and communication that NFP fosters. The rate of divorce among NFP users is exceedingly low.
9.    Those who use NFP seldom or never progress to abortion. This is hardly surprising since at the core of NFP is an unspoken reverence for the mystery of life, both of the spouse and of the child who is to come.

In conclusion,
Is NFP a good system? Yes
Is it the perfect system? No, there is a very small margin of error due to misinterpretation of the cervical mucus.
Is it the best system? Undoubtedly
Is it the only system? Yes. There is no alternative for those who live by true love.