Opinions on the Catholic Church's position on birth control?

Question

NFP (sympto-thermal method), when used properly, is equally as effective as the birth control methods shown below (see chart). It is also the only method of family planning sanctioned by the Catholic Church.

Given this information, what are your views on the Church's position against artificial birth control. The basic idea is that each act of intercourse in a marriage must be open to the gift of new life. Therefore, actively preventing pregnancy by artificial means is against Church teachings. However, couples are encouraged to plan their families based on their emotional, health, and financial constraints using NFP which uses periodic abstinence (abstaining from intercourse approximately 2 weeks per menstrual cycle).



User effectiveness of family planning
· Combined pill 97% - 99%+
· Progestogen only pill 96% - 99%
· Injectables and implants 98% - 99%+
· Intra-uterine system (IUS) 99%
· Intra-uterine device (IUD) 98% - 99%+
· Diaphragm or cap with spermicide 82% - 96

Answer 1

The use of NFP also teaches us self control and makes the times that we can be intimate with our spouse more special. Artificial birth control can lead to selfishness, not to mention the health risks that go along with it.

God bless,
Stanbo

Answer 2

NFP, and all similar methods, are vastly unpopular among people who have a great need to prevent pregnancy because it fails so often. In fact, despite what *some* sites and people claim, NFP is NOT 100% effective. However, they continue to claim that it is because they claim that the method is perfect but that people use the method imperfectly. What use is the theory, though, if the actual method cannot be used perfectly when you need it to? In fact, the assumption within the theory may be fundamentally flawed as well.

The basic assumption within NFP is that women can be taught to know the "signs" of their fertility, when they ovulate, and therefore they can abstain from sex during their fertile periods and escape pregnancy. However, this basic assumption is flawed from the start because our bodies are meant to keep our fertility a mystery from us. Also, even if you could know when you ovulate, sperm ejaculated within the body can live and fertilize an egg for 3-7 days. So, let's say you check your temperature/calendar/cervical mucus on Monday and you aren't receiving any signs that you shouldn't have sex. You have sex that evening. On Tuesday, your temperature is a little raised, your cervical mucus thins a bit, and it's getting close to the middle of your cycle. You decide to abstain just in case you ovulate. On Wednesday, you do ovulate and you decide to abstain another day. You can still become pregnant from the sex you had on Monday because there will still be sperm in your body alive that can fertilize your egg. You become pregnant 7-10 days later when implantation occurs.

The Catholic Church originally opposed birth control, including barrier methods, because it wanted the most followers paying tithes and pardons that could physically be born. Church documents have shown that this was the motivation behind the church's original disdain of birth control.

Also, the leadership of the church has always been composed of men. Men who are taken care of by the donations of the church goers (and the land holdings and art holdings of the church itself). These men are housed, fed, and clothed (some better than others - but all have a basic level of comfort) and thus are usually not faced with true, real poverty. However, impoverished women within their parish were and still are around the world. They worry how to feed their children, clothe them, etc. This is a worry that the men of the church do not understand because they have never had to live it themselves. Ignorance of the reality of life in poverty breeds indifference, even among the men of the church but especially among the leadership far removed from the realities of average people. Therefore, even to this day the leadership of the church opposes birth control because they are ignorant of the lives that some people have to lead in this world. They don't see the good that birth control can and HAS done in the lives of million of people because they have never had to actually live the horror that some people have.

I think the Church is negligent of the needs of the people they claim they want to help. People in Africa don't need prayers, ceremonies, or preaching about abstinence. They NEED access to condoms to save their lives. The ethnocentric ways that the church chooses to view the world and the needs of people around the world lead to the deaths of people. Whether that was the intention or not does NOT matter. The fact that they died for the mistaken dogma of the church does matter - at least to me - because it could have been so easily avoided if the church had gotten over itself and realized that not everyone believes or can be forced to believe in what they believe. Therefore not everyone can be held to the same arbitrary standards. To say that they must is ignorant of other cultures and this ignorance has proved deadly for people too poor not to be able to escape it.

Answer 3

The Billings Ovulation method is also accepted by the Church. It is just as effective as pills. Absolutely no side effects plus you can choose the sex of your child.
There is nothing wrong with having sex during periods of infertility. The Church does not object to it as long as it is done within the boundaries of marriage.
Peace and every blessing!

Answer 4

As a former Catholic - there are A LOT of things about the Catholic church that don't work for me. This is one of them. Part of me thinks that the church just wants you to make more little Catholics. Why else would this rule exsist?

Still - if Catholicism works for you - then so be it. My Mom is one of the best Catholics I know - and she is a wonderful woman. AND - if she had been allowed to use birth control - I probably wouldn't be here today.

So - my feelings are mixed.

Answer 5

Catholic doctrine being very dogmatic may never change it's verdict and that is if you are Catholic you must do all you can to breed like rats for the benefit of the greater numbers through which the Church is sustained as god's will be done.

Answer 6

the Catholic church cares not a wit about people's health...they live in denial of HIV, STD, and other lovely surprises that come with sex. Funny how a condom prevents so many things other than pregnancy. Yet decade after decade, this bunch of silly OLD men sit in judgement of all who fall under their riduculous spell. And the members of that church are even more foolish than the priests...Yes, I am an Ex-Catholic who will never set foot in any church again, let alone a Catholic church. More evil is committed in the name of "God" than all other reasons together. Sad but true. There are very few good Christians of any faith, there are just very loud ones. Good luck

Answer 7

Scripture says lots of things. The catholic church says lots of DIFFERENT things. The FALSE teachings they hold to began arising during the lifetimes of the apostles and continue to this day. They BEGAN as the TRUE church, but it SOON LOST that status as they began to follow HUMAN teachings rather than DIVINE:

Col 2:20 The people of the world believe certain basic things. You died with Christ as far as things like that are concerned. So why do you act as if you still belong to the world? Here are the rules you follow. 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” 22 Rules like that are all going to die out as time goes by. They are only based on human rules and teachings.
23 It is true that those rules seem wise. Because of them, people give themselves over to their own kind of worship. They pretend they aren’t proud. They treat their bodies very badly. But rules like that don’t help. They don’t stop people from chasing after sinful pleasures.

Answer 8

Oh, you forgot condoms. Condoms reduce the risk of catching STDs, too.

Not that I disagree with the Church, but with over population and poverty, birth control would be a wise choice.

Answer 9

Get this, even Islam accepts the idea of birth control for women. Why doesn't the Catholic Church accept contraceptive devices?

Answer 10

It's difficult at best to justify a celibate clergy telling adults how to run their sex lives. Given the problem of overpopulation on this planet, especially in countries where they can't feed themselves, the church needs to be much more realistic.