Catholics: Abortion vs. Birth Control?

Question

I'm a catholic college student, and I've got a question. 95% of people have sex before they get married. Obviously, some of these people are going to get pregnant. Since some people don't want these kids, doesn't it make sense to accept the use of birth control? Furthermore, since God made sex feel good, why does the Catholic Church believe that the sole purpose of sex is procreation? If it was, it wouldn't feel so good, right?

I think the Church has it all wrong. I think birth control should be permitted and encouraged. In this day and age, people are gonna have sex. The Church needs to respect that fact and adapt its laws to better benefit humanity.

Answer 1

I was raised Catholic, but don't consider myself Catholic (nor do I practice any faith).

The Catholic Church says sex before marriage is an absolute no-no. So before you're married, you have the one fail-safe kind of birth control: abstinence.

When you're married, they do allow sex for pleasure. And they do allow a certain type of birth control, called "Natural Family Planning" or the "rhythm method". Basically this involves studying the woman's menstrual cycle to determine when she's fertile and when she's not. How effective this is is a matter of some debate (my grandma had twice as many kids as she wanted!).

My personal opinion is this: do what you think is right. It's easy for me to say, since I don't subscribe to the Christian faith. However, I still feel you can be a good Christian or even Catholic even if you don't exactly follow their dogma. I don't see any problem with sex between two consenting adults; I fail to see how the use of birth control is in any way immoral.

Answer 2

So, if 95% of people decided to shoot themselves in the head, would that be o.k. also?

Now, lets see why the Church will not allow birth control. Sex is something between a married couple for 1) having children and 2) a way of giving themselves to their spouse (not a sin to have sex, just to have sex, with your spouse). If the Church would condone the use of birth control, then the frequency of people having sex would dramatically increase (and I doubt your statistic of 95% - can you provide evidence of this?), and STD's would also rise.

Knowing that there are very few sexually transmitted diseases that can be cured, are you willing to live the rest of your life taking medication, at best, or living with AIDS, at the other extreme?

People seem to rail on the Catholic Church for their stance on the use of birth control and abortion, but very few think back to 1930. Until 1930 EVERY Christian denomination was against these type of things.

I can not see a day when the Church allows birth control.

But if you are worried about getting pregnant try not having sex. I guarantee you if you do not engage in sexual activity, you will not get pregnant and birth control and abortion will be a "non-issue".

Answer 3

The fact that people are going to sin doesn't justify additional sin to prevent the effects of the first sin. Artificial birth control cannot be "allowed", for the simple reason that it is immoral. It isn't immoral because the Church doesn't allow it. The Church doesn't allow it, and never will allow it, precisely because it is immoral.

The Church does not teach that procreation is the sole purpose of sex. You claim to be Catholic, but seem to know very little about your own faith. You should buy a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, so you can know what the Church actually does teach, and why. The Church teaches that there are TWO purposes of sex, equally important, and that sexual union without openness to BOTH purposes is illicit. The first purpose is the mutual pleasure and growth in unity of the couple. The second purpose is procreation of children. To have sex "only" for procreation would be just as illicit as having sex "only" for pleasure.

Answer 4

I happen to agree that birth control should not be looked at as a sin. But since you've asked, let me give you a little more background on WHY the RCC teaches what it does.

The first thing to look at is the church's beliefs regarding life. The RCC holds all human life as one of the most sacred things on earth. It is not something to be taken lightly. How does life begin? With sex. The church gets very concerned with this because life is something given by God; therefore, HOW life begins is almost as important as life itself.

Next is the church's position on sex itself. The encyclical "Humanae Vitae" outlines current Catholic teaching on sex. Bottom line is that it says the sexual act is something that is extremely special and should be reserved for a married couple, the ultimate expression of romantic love. Within this context, it is supposed to be open to the possibility of procreation. (Our current pope has written an encyclical that talks about ALL the aspects of love. This is encouraging since up til now, people had to sometimes wonder about the church's feeling on romantic love.)

One last thing is that the church is by its very nature counter-cultural. It doesn't change easily which can be a strength as well as a weakness. It has held tight to its values for centuries, which is part of its stability.

Here's my take on the whole thing. I personally don't see birth control as being anti-life. What I do find concerning is the acceptance of casual sex that seems to be creeping into society. I'm not saying that I believe sex only belongs within the boundaries of marriage, but I have seen too many people treat that intimacy with such a careless attitude that it loses all meaning. This is where the danger lies - if society loses respect for self or others, when do we lose respect for life?

Answer 5

Abortion is wrong, nuff said. Birth control is wrong ONLY when it involves the use of contraception. Married couples can use fertility periods as indicators, and if a couple is close enough, as they should be, they know when they are "fertile" or not. It all has to do with faith. The reason contraception is morally disordered is because it doesn't allow you to give yourself fully to your spouse. It reduces the cojugal act to an act of pleasure and nothing more. Sex is for procreation, that is its purpose. Now, with that being said, sex is meant to feel good because it is giving oneself to their spouse, and if you do not make sex out to be what it is intended for, you are just making your spouse out to be an instrument for your enjoyment. God intended for married couples to give to one another fully, not partially. By doing this, the sex life is improved and the marriage has a way better chance of success. I believe that the ideal of sex in this world is what causes so many divorces, because people have lost sight of its purpose and its God-given intention.

Sex is a beautiful thing between married couples, this is how God wanted it, and it is how it is. But reducing it to an act of pleasure and not honor and love is what is ruining its purpose.

Answer 6

You've got it all wrong. Sex is beautiful, but God "made" it so for "procreation" within the mantle of marriage. When people engage in sex for the sheer pleasure of it, it becomes "lust" and therefore becomes a sin. Because when a man and a woman have sex, it should be more an expression of his/her love for the other that's why we often refer to the child as a "lovechild" or more as the symbol or fruit of the couple's love for each other. This is really quite an interesting subject. My regret is that I cannot answer it more extensively for time constraints. {The internet cafe is near closing time.]

Answer 7

Birth control prevents an egg from getting fertilizing and from a zygote and fetus from forming in the first place, whereas abortion terminates a fetus. There is a difference between prevent and terminate

Answer 8

What you are saying is because sex feels good that we are to accept sin and disobey our Creator who will judge each and every person by His Word, the Holy Bible.

God says abstain from sex until you are married. Sex feels good because God wanted married people to enjoy each other and have children and become one person in Christ.
God tells us that fornication brings diseases because diseases are nothing but sin manifested whether our sin or our ancestor's sin.

Abortion is a curse. Condoms are a curse. STD's are a curse. AIDS is a curse.

Proverbs 26:2 ....a curse causeless shall not come."
Every curse was caused by sin - disobeying God.

Answer 9

Not to mention overpopulation. I was so mad when the Pope went to Ethiopia in the 80s and told people not to use birth control. The whole country was filled with vacant-eyed starving babies covered with flies, and the Pope told them to have more. I'm not a Catholic, but I generally like Pope John Paul II, but this was plain morally reprehensible to me.

Answer 10

I'm a-religious, but I strongly strongly promote birth control. It made me sick when the Pope advocated against birth control in Africa. I think that condoms are the world's #1 lifesaver, both in terms of preventing STIs and preventing abortion later on.