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Why Does the Church Oppose Contraception?

The Short Answer

The Church teaches that the sexual union of husband and wife has two meanings that belong together: it unites them in love, and it is open to new life. Contraception deliberately separates the two, by rendering a freely chosen act of intercourse infertile. St Paul VI called this the “inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break” between the unitive and procreative meanings of the marriage act (Humanae Vitae 12). The Church does not require couples to have as many children as possible. Spacing births for good reasons is legitimate, and methods based on the natural rhythm of fertility respect both meanings.

To many people, including many Catholics, this teaching seems out of touch: an intrusion into private life, unrealistic, and harsh on couples with real reasons to avoid pregnancy. It is one of the most debated teachings the Church holds, and the reasons behind it deserve an honest hearing.

What the Church Does and Does Not Claim

The Church does not claim:

The Church does claim that “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil, while “periodic continence,” the use of infertile periods, “is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality” (CCC 2370).

Why Catholics Believe It

Two meanings that belong together

Sexual union is a total gift of self: of body, of love, of the future. The Church teaches that it speaks a language: “I give myself to you completely.” Contraception holds something back. It says, in effect, “I give myself to you, except for my fertility.” The Church holds that the act loses its full meaning when either of its two purposes is deliberately excluded.

The same principle explains the Church’s teaching on IVF, from the other side. Contraception seeks union while excluding procreation; IVF seeks procreation without union. Both separate what God has joined. (See Why Does the Church Oppose IVF?)

Children are a gift

God’s first blessing to humanity was “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Scripture calls children “a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Psalm 127:3). The Church sees openness to children not as a burden imposed on marriage but as part of its gift.

What about natural family planning?

Couples who have good reason to avoid pregnancy may use natural family planning, which identifies the fertile and infertile times in a woman’s cycle and has the couple abstain during the fertile time. “The Church teaches that then married people may take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and use their marriage at precisely those times that are infertile” (Humanae Vitae 16).

The difference is not that one is “natural” and the other is not. It is that in natural family planning the couple never acts to make a particular act of intercourse infertile. They simply refrain from intercourse at certain times. Modern methods, based on observation of bodily signs, are reliable when used correctly, and many couples find that the shared responsibility and communication strengthen their marriage.

A teaching with a long history

All Christian churches taught that contraception was wrong until 1930, when the Anglican Lambeth Conference first allowed it in limited circumstances. Most other Protestant churches followed in the decades after. In 1968, when many expected the Catholic Church to change too, Paul VI reaffirmed the traditional teaching in Humanae Vitae. He also warned of “how wide and easy a road would thus be opened up towards conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality,” and that men could come to lose respect for women (n. 17). Many observers, not all of them Catholic, have since thought those warnings prescient.

Common Objections

”Natural family planning is just Catholic contraception.”

Both can be used for the same purpose: to avoid pregnancy. But morality depends on means as well as ends. Two people may both want money; one works for it, the other steals it. With natural family planning the couple does nothing to make an act infertile. They respect the body as it is, and the act keeps its full meaning.

”The Church has no business in our bedroom.”

The Church does not police anyone’s bedroom. She proposes a vision of love and sexuality, and leaves couples to live it in conscience. She speaks about sex because it matters: it is where new human lives begin, and where husband and wife give themselves to each other.

”Most Catholics ignore this teaching.”

Many do, in many countries. But truth is not decided by a poll, and the Church has always taught things that were hard to live. The teaching asks a great deal. It also offers something: a way of loving that sees fertility as a gift to be respected rather than a problem to be suppressed.

”What about overpopulation?”

Concern for the world’s resources is legitimate, and the Church has spoken often about care for creation. But in much of the developed world, including Australia, birth rates are now below replacement level, and the challenge is ageing populations, not too many children. In any case, the Church holds that a good goal cannot justify any means.

In Summary

The Church teaches that the marital act has two meanings, union and openness to life, which God has joined and which should not be deliberately separated. Contraception separates them; natural family planning does not. Couples may space births for good reasons, and the Church leaves those decisions to their conscience. The teaching is demanding and widely questioned, but it rests on a high view of married love: that husband and wife give themselves to each other completely, holding nothing back.

See also Why Does the Church Teach That Marriage Is Between a Man and a Woman? and What Does the Church Teach About Contraception and Natural Family Planning?

This article follows the method St Robert Bellarmine used in his Controversies*: state the question fairly, clear away misunderstandings, make the case, then answer each objection. See How We Answer Objections.*

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