The Evil of Contraception

Priests for Life ^ | Fr. Frank Pavone

[Polycarp IV]

Dear Friends,

Below, please find my column in English and Spanish. It is about contraception, a topic that I have preached forcefully on since the beginning of my priesthood. See some of my writings and listen to some of my talks on the topic at www.priestsforlife.org/articles/contraceptionmaster.htm

We have a limited supply of the audiotape "Why Contraception is Wrong" ($5) and the brochure "Abortion and Contraception: Fruits of the Same Tree" ($0.20). Contact orders@priestsforlife.org or call 888-PFL-3448, ext. 237.

May I ask you a favor? We are putting together a list of all the parish respect life coordinators in the nation. If you are one, or if you know one, would you email us at cchilds@priestsforlife.org with the coordinator's name, address, phone, fax, email, and name of parish. (Please be sure to say that this individual is a respect life coordinator!) This will help us to keep the coordinators informed of special information and projects that they should know about.

God bless you! Fr. Frank Pavone

[Polycarp IV]

Why Pro-Lifers Must Oppose Contraception

--By Fr. Frank Pavone

National Director

There are two basic truths that each person has to admit in this life: 1. There is a God. 2. It isn’t me. To understand these lessons is to understand why abortion is wrong. Only God has absolute dominion over human life. "None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master" (Rom.14:7).

This is also the reason that contraception is wrong. We know that human life begins at conception. But God’s dominion over human life does not begin at conception. It begins in eternity.

"God chose us in Him before the world began" (Eph.1:4). "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you" (Jer.1:5) We exist in time because God chose us from eternity. A human decision to prevent our conception is a trespass on God’s dominion over human life.

It is not, of course, the same type of trespass as abortion (unless the so-called "contraceptive" actually is abortifacient). Abortion destroys a human life. Contraception distorts the meaning of human sexuality. Both offend God because they fail to acknowledge Him as Lord of the entire process of human reproduction and life!

It is perfectly legitimate to acknowledge that there are circumstances in which a couple should not have a child. There can be medical, social, financial, psychological, or other reasons for this. To acknowledge God’s dominion does not mean to act imprudently. Methods of natural family planning are legitimate. In planning one’s family, however, one may never destroy the meaning of sexual union on one’s own initiative. In natural family planning, using the body’s cycles of infertile days, God closes the door to life. In contraception, we close the door. We have no authority to do so.

Scripture is clear that children are a blessing. "Happy the man who has filled his quiver with these arrows!" (Psalm 127:5). Scripture is also clear that in being generous with life, we must put all our doubts and fears in God’s hands. "Do not let your hearts be troubled," Christ says. "Trust in God and trust in me" (Jn.14:1). May we trust Him as we build our families in fruitful love!

Educational Materials on Abortion

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Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. 888-PFL-3448, (718) 980-4400
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Email mail@priestsforlife.org

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[Polycarp IV]

Abortion and Contraception: Fruits of the Same Tree

Fr. Frank Pavone

National Director, Priests for Life

Sex is an extremely powerful force, and never a neutral one. Either it serves life, or it serves death. Its fruit can be the highest joy of earth, bringing forth new life in the embrace of self-giving, or else its fruit can be violent and destructive activity, ruining and ending the lives of others or oneself.

Society is not obsessed with sex. It is afraid of it…afraid of the total reality and power of what it represents, where it comes from, and where it leads. Sex properly understood requires that we acknowledge God who made it. More than that, sex can never be separated from its purpose: to insert us into an immense, powerful movement of life and love that started when God said "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3) and culminates when the Spirit and the Bride say "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:17).

Sex is deeply symbolic. It is a language that speaks of things beyond sight and feeling. Many think of the Church's teaching about sex as "You cannot do it except in marriage and when open to life." That is true, but the fuller understanding of why this is true comes when we can see that sexual activity means so much that it is wrong to diminish its message or deny its full reality. It belongs in the context of committed love (sealed by marriage) and openness to life precisely because this is the only context great enough to hold its message and reflect the greater reality to which the gift of sexuality directs and commits us. The teaching is not just that it is wrong to have sex in certain circumstances. The teaching is that it is wrong to run away from the full reality of sex. It is wrong to think we have the kind of control that can change that reality to suit ourselves.

The most bitter fruit of this flight from the full meaning of sex is abortion. Thousands of lives a day in our nation are deliberately killed in order to control who will be born and when. They are even destroyed in the very process of being born. If we ask why abortion happens, or how we arrived at the culture of death, we would do well to consider another question: What happens when you distort the meaning of sex?

One of the many ways in which the meaning of sex is distorted is through contraception, which is an intrinsically evil act. The links between abortion and contraception are more and more widely recognized, and not only in Catholic circles.

They are linked by a common mentality, which is that I may stifle the power of sex to produce a new life. Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical The Gospel of Life, " It is frequently asserted that contraception, if made safe and available to all, is the most effective remedy against abortion. The Catholic Church is then accused of actually promoting abortion, because she obstinately continues to teach the moral unlawfulness of contraception. When looked at carefully, this objection is clearly unfounded. It may be that many people use contraception with a view to excluding the subsequent temptation of abortion. But the negative values inherent in the "contraceptive mentality"—which is very different from responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full truth of the conjugal act—are such that they in fact strengthen this temptation when an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the pro- abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected" (n. 13).

They are linked sociologically. Every culture and subculture which has opened the doors to contraception has likewise experienced an increased practice of abortion. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research division of Planned Parenthood, indicates the following as the main reasons women offer for their abortions. Ask yourself what resemblance they bear to the reasons for birth control. " On average, women give at least 3 reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 2/3 say they cannot afford a child; and 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner" (from the website www.agi-usa.org).

They are linked in law and jurisprudence. In 1973, the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion clearly built upon the recognized privacy right behind contraception. In 1992, the Supreme Court reaffirmed Roe in its Planned Parenthood vs. Casey decision, and explained that they could not remove the "right" to abortion from "people who, for two decades of economic and social developments, have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail" (505 U.S. 833, 835).

They are sometimes linked by being identical. Some "contraceptives" have a backup mechanism whereby a newly-developing life may be destroyed in its microscopic stages. These drugs and devices are abortifacients, capable of causing early and usually unknown abortions. The morally relevant point here is that "it is objectively a grave sin to dare to risk murder" (Declaration on Procured Abortion, 1974, n.12-13). If your action might kill a person, and you do it, you declare your willingness to kill a person (like shooting at what is behind the bush when you are uncertain whether it is a bear or a man).

The nature of the link between abortion and contraception needs to be accurately understood. The Pope writes, "Certainly, from the moral point of view contraception and abortion are specifically different evils: the former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of conjugal love, while the latter destroys the life of a human being; the former is opposed to the virtue of chastity in marriage, the latter is opposed to the virtue of justice and directly violates the divine commandment "You shall not kill". But despite their differences of nature and moral gravity, contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree" (n. 13).

"Fruits of the same tree." Contraception, in other words, is more like the sister to abortion rather than the parent. What gives rise to them both? The Pope continues, "Such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfillment" (n. 13). Dr. Bernard Nathanson, when asked whether contraception was "the beginning of the downfall of the issues of reproduction in this country," said that "contraception was not the fount…that spawned all of these other horrendous technologies...it was the perversion of autonomy…If you elevate autonomy to a deification status…then people are going to make choices which are irrational…" (Presentation to 1999 Legatus National Conference).

Yes, abortion and contraception are linked. They are linked with each other because they are linked with many other evils: the disconnection of freedom from truth, a relativistic view of morality, a positivistic view of law, a culture of hedonism, and many other problems.

What lies at the solution to these problems is to rediscover the dominion of God.

It is perfectly legitimate to acknowledge that there are circumstances in which a couple should not have a child. There can be medical, social, financial, psychological, or other reasons for this. To acknowledge God’s dominion does not mean to act imprudently. Methods of natural family planning are legitimate. (We are not referring here to outdated calendar rhythm methods, but to more advanced and fully reliable scientifically based methods like naprotechnology). In planning one’s family, however, one may never destroy the meaning of sexual union on one’s own initiative. Natural family planning respects the body's cycles, during portions of which God closes the door to life. In contraception, we close the door. We have no authority to do so.

There are two basic truths that each person has to admit in this life: 1. There is a God. 2. It isn’t me. To understand these lessons is to understand why both contraception and abortion are wrong. Only God has absolute dominion over human life. "None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as His servants. Both in life and in death, we are the Lord's" (Rom.14:7-8).

More Material on Contraception

Priests for Life
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Tel. 888-PFL-3448, (718) 980-4400
Fax 718-980-6515
Email mail@priestsforlife.org

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[Polycarp IV]

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN
CONTRACEPTION AND ABORTION

by Professor Janet E. Smith, PhD

Janet E. Smith is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Dallas, Texas. She has edited Why Humane Vitae Was Right: A Reader and authored Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later, and numerous articles on abortion, contraception, virtue, and Plato. This article was edited and reprinted with permission.

Many in the pro-life movement are reluctant to make a connection between contraception and abortion. They insist that these are two very different acts - that there is all the difference in the world between contraception, which prevents a life from coming to be, and abortion, which takes a life that has already begun.

With some contraceptives, there is not only a link with abortion, there is an identity. Some contraceptives are abortifacients; they work by causing early term abortions. The IUD seems to prevent a fertilized egg - a new little human being - from implanting in the uterine wall. The pill does not always stop ovulation, but sometimes prevents implantation of the growing embryo. And of course, the new RU 486 pill works altogether by aborting a new fetus, a new baby. Although some in the pro-life movement occasionally speak out against the contraceptives that are abortifacients, most generally steer clear of the issue of contraception.

Contraception creates alleged “need” for abortion

This seems to me to be a mistake. I think that we will not make good progress in creating a society where all new life can be safe, where we truly display a respect for life, where abortion is a terrible memory rather than a terrible reality, until we see that there are many significant links between contraception and abortion, and that we bravely speak this truth. We need to realize that a society in which contraceptives are widely used is going to have a very difficult time keeping free of abortions since the lifestyles and attitudes that contraception fosters, create an alleged “need” for abortion.

Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the US Supreme Court decision that confirmed Roe v. Wade [U.S. decision to permit abortions] stated “in some critical respects, abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception… for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail”.

The Supreme Court decision has made completely unnecessary, any efforts to “expose” what is really behind the attachment of the modern age to abortion. As the Supreme Court candidly states, we need abortion so that we can continue our contraceptive lifestyles. It is not because contraceptives are ineffective that a million and a half women a year seek abortions as back-ups to failed contraceptives. The “intimate relationships” facilitated by contraceptives are what make abortions “necessary”. “Intimate” here is a euphemism and a misleading one at that. Here the word “intimate” means “sexual”; it does not mean “loving and close”. Abortion is most often the result of sexual relationships in which there is no room for a baby, the natural consequence of sexual intercourse.

To support the argument that more responsible use of contraceptives would reduce the number of abortions, some note that most abortions are performed for “contraceptive purposes”. That is, few abortions are had because a woman has been a victim of rape or incest or because a pregnancy would endanger her life, or because she expects to have a handicapped or deformed newborn. Rather, most abortions are had because men and women who do not want a baby are having sexual intercourse and facing pregnancies they did not plan for and do not want. Because their contraceptive failed, or because they failed to use a contraceptive, they then resort to abortion as a back up. Many believe that if we could convince men and women to use contraceptives responsibly, we would reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and thus the number of abortions. Thirty years ago this position might have had some plausibility, but not now. We have lived for about thirty years with a culture permeated with contraceptive use and abortion; no longer can we think that greater access to contraception will reduce the number of abortions. Rather, wherever contraception is more readily available, the number of unwanted pregnancies and the number of abortions increase greatly.

Sexual revolution not possible without contraception

The connection between contraception and abortion is primarily this: contraception facilitates the kind of relationships and even the kind of attitudes and moral characters that are likely to lead to abortion. The contraceptive mentality treats sexual relationship as a burden. The sexual revolution has no fondness - no room for - the connection between sexual intercourse and babies. The sexual revolution simply was not possibly until fairly reliable contraceptives were available.

Far from being a check to the sexual revolution, contraception is the fuel that facilitated the beginning of the sexual revolution and enables it to continue to rage. In the past, many men and women refrained from illicit sexual unions simply because they were not prepared for the responsibilities of parenthood. But once a fairly reliable contraceptive appeared on the scene, this barrier to sex outside the confines of marriage fell. The connection between sex and love also fell quickly; ever since contraception became widely used, there has been much talk of, acceptance of, and practice of casual sex and recreational sex. The deep meaning that is inherent in sexual intercourse has been lost sight of; the willingness to engage in sexual intercourse with another is no longer a result of a deep commitment to another. It no longer bespeaks a willingness to have a child with another and to have all the consequent entanglements with another that babies bring. Contraception helps reduce one’s sexual partner to just a sexual object since it renders sexual intercourse to be without any real commitments.

“Carelessness” is international

Much of this data suggests that there is something deep in our natures that finds the severing of sexual intercourse from love and commitment and babies to be unsatisfactory. As we have seen, women are careless in their use of contraceptives for a variety of reasons, but one reason for their careless use of contraceptives is precisely their desire to engage in meaningful sexual activity rather than in meaningless sexual activity. They want their sexual acts to be more meaningful than a handshake or a meal shared. They are profoundly uncomfortable with using contraceptives for what they do to their bodies and for what they do to their relationships. Often, they desire to have a more committed relationship with the male with whom they are involved; they get pregnant to test this love and commitment. But since the relationship has not been made permanent, since no vows have been taken, they are profoundly ambivalent about any pregnancy that might occur.

Sexual Promiscuity Increases

By the late sixties and early seventies, the view of the human person as an animal, whose passions should govern, became firmly entrenched in the attitudes of those who were promoting the sexual revolution. One of the greatest agents and promoters of the sexual revolution has been Planned Parenthood. In the sixties and seventies, many of the spokesmen and women for Planned Parenthood unashamedly advocated sex outside of marriage and even promoted promiscuity. Young people were told to abandon the repressive morals of their parents and to engage in free love. They were told that active sexual lives with a number of partners would be psychologically healthy, perfectly normal, and perfectly moral. Now, largely because of the spread of AIDS and the devastation of teenage pregnancy, even Planned Parenthood puts a value on abstinence. Yet they have no confidence that young people can and will abstain from sexual intercourse, so they advocate “safe” sex, “responsible” sex, whereby they mean sexual intercourse wherein a contraceptive is used. Sex educators assume that young people will be engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage.

Young people do not need sex education of the Planned Parenthood type; they need to learn that sexual intercourse can be engaged in responsibly and safely only within marriage. Rather than filling young people’s heads with false notions about freedom, and filling their wallets with condoms, we need to help them see the true meaning of human sexuality. We need to help them learn self-control and self-mastery so that they are not enslaved to their sexual passions. They need to learn that sexual intercourse belongs within marriage, and that with the commitment to marriage comes true freedom; the freedom to give of one’s self completely to another, the freedom to meet one’s responsibilities to one’s children.
There are two cornerstones on which education for sexual responsibility should be built - cornerstones that are both corroded by contraceptive sex. One cornerstone is that sexual intercourse is meant to be the expression of a deep love for another individual, a deep love that leads one to want to give of oneself totally to another. Most individuals hope one day to be in a faithful marriage, to be in a marital relationship with someone one loves deeply and by whom one is loved deeply. One of the major components of that deep love is a promise of faithfulness, that one will give oneself sexually only to one’s spouse.

Contraception severs connection between sex and babies

The other cornerstone for a sex education program should be the refrain that ‘if you are not ready for babies, you are not ready for sexual intercourse, and you are not ready for babies until you are married’. Most people want to be good parents; they want to provide for their children and give them good upbringings. Contraception attempts to sever the connection between sexual intercourse and babies; it makes us feel responsible about our sexuality while enabling us to be irresponsible. Individuals born out of wedlock have a much harder start in life; have a much harder time gaining the discipline and strength they need to be responsible adults. Single mothers have very hard lives as they struggle to meet the needs of their children and their own emotional needs as well. Those who abort their babies are often left with devastating psychological scars. The price of out of wedlock pregnancy is high.

Indeed, even within marriage, contraception is destructive; it reduces the meaning of the sexual act; again it takes out the great commitment that is written into the sexual act, the commitment that is inherent in the openness to have children with one’s beloved.
Those who are unmarried do face a disaster, and abortion seems like a necessity since no permanent commitment has been made between the sexual partners. Those who are married have often planned a life that is not receptive to children and are tempted to abort to sustain the child-free life they have designed. I am not, of course, saying that all those who contracept are likely to abort; I am saying that many more of those who contracept do abort than those who practice natural family planning.

Contraception takes the baby-making element out of sexual intercourse. It makes pregnancy seem like an accident of sexual intercourse rather than the natural consequence that responsible individuals ought to be prepared for. Abortion, then, becomes thinkable as the solution to an unwanted pregnancy. Contraception enables those who are not prepared to care for babies to engage in sexual intercourse; when they become pregnant, they resent the unborn child for intruding itself upon their lives, and they turn to the solution of abortion. It should be no surprise that countries that are permeated by contraceptive sex, fight harder for access to abortion than they do to ensure that all babies can survive both in the womb and out. It is foolish for pro-lifers to think that they can avoid the issues of contraception and sexual irresponsibility and be successful in the fight against abortion. For, as the Supreme Court of the US has stated, abortion is “necessary” for those whose intimate relationships are based upon contraceptive sex.

References:

For verification of the claims here made about Planned Parenthood, see George Grant, Grand Illusions: the Legacy of Planned Parenthood (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth and Hyatt Publishers, Inc., 1988), and Robert Marshall and Charles Donovan, Blessed are the Barren (San Francisco, CA; Ignatius Press, 1991).

Portions of this article are printed as portions of chapters in “Abortion and Moral Character”, in Catholicism and Abortion, ed. By Stephen J. Heaney to be published by the Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research Centre and “Abortion and Moral Character”, in Doing and Being: Introductory Reading in Moral Philosophy, ed by Jordan Graf Haber, to be published by Macmillan.

Permission given for reprinting portions from ‘The Connection between contraception and Abortion’, by Dr. Janet E. smith, published by Homiletic & Pastoral Review, April 1993, distributed by One More Soul.

"The Connection between Contraception and Abortion" by Janet E. Smith is available from One More Soul.

[Polycarp IV]

Fr. Frank Pavone's Bi-weekly Column, which I posted above, covers a subject near and dear to my heart. I added a few other articles on the subject here for reference.

[Aquinasfan]

Great article. Fr. Pavone identifies the heart of the matter:

The ultimate root of the evil of contraception is that it denies that God is God. The attitude behind it is, "I am the one who ultimately decides whether a human being will come into the world."

It doesn't take much contemplation to realize how profoundly evil this attitude is.

[Gerish]

Very good article. The problem with contraception reduces itself to: how much do we love God and how much do we value our own souls and the souls of others? The subject of contraception always reminds me of when Our Lady showed the children of Fatima a glimpse of hell and told them that there are more souls in hell because of sins of the flesh than because of any other reason.

[old and tired]

I know I'm probably setting myself up to be raked over the coals around here, but here I go.

I find Dr. Janet Smith's treatises on contraception counterproductive. I was unfamiliar with her prior to FR, but have since seen her on EWTN.

Even if she believes NFP is only for the gravest of circumstances, she seems to go way overboard on her severity of contracepting married couples, particularly those who use barrier methods only. I think the ONLY argument a person can make that NFP is better than condoms (for married couples) has to include God, if not our Catholic faith. If it doesn't, the argument is disingenuous and will ultimately fail to convince.

We've all known plenty of good, holy, married Protestants who find nothing wrong with condoms. And that is because their faith has not forbidden it.

Maybe my problem with Dr. Smith is that to me, NFP really is just Catholic birth control, but I find myself wondering what world Dr. Smith lives in.

[Polycarp IV]

Dr. Smith's area of specialty is philosophy. So she approaches NFP and contraception from within a traditional Catholic philosophical framework.

I have seen her speak on this subject in person, and have discussed it at length with her over a dinner several years ago.

I think her perspective is refreshing and essential in our age. Please take the time to read her various books on the subject. I think you will come away much edified by the effort.

[Polycarp IV]

Our Lady showed the children of Fatima a glimpse of hell and told them that there are more souls in hell because of sins of the flesh than because of any other reason.

How many Catholics remember that contraception is a mortal sin of the flesh, one for which more Catholics are guilty than probably any other sin of the flesh in our day.

But listen for the cries of outrage if we are to suggest Catholics might go to hell for contracepting.

[old and tired]

My wife and I are well beyond child bearing years, but I promise I will give one of her books a try.

As the father of 11, I suppose it's a little ridiculous for me to be discussing the benefits of one type of family planning over another. But I do think contraception is a spiritual/religious issue, while abortion is not only a spiritual issue, it is a matter of civil and human rights.

[redgolum]

Sigh, you know I really should know better....

As a young many with an swiftly approaching marriage, contraception issues are soon to be something I actually have to think about!

I guess as a Lutheran, I have always found the NFP approach to be a bit disingenuous. It is still a form of birth control, and judging by the fact I don't know to many 10+ families RC, some form is being used. While I know that this is not neccessarly approved, it just seems to be a bit of disbelief in the trenches.

BY the way, I am not trying to stir up to much trouble!

[Polycarp IV]

As a young many with an swiftly approaching marriage, contraception issues are soon to be something I actually have to think about! I guess as a Lutheran...

...as a Lutheran ignore the Roman Catholics and listen to Martin Luther:

Historical Protestant views on this subject came from reading commentaries on Genesis 38, in which Onan, who married his deceased brother's wife to fulfill his familial obligation, withdrew from her during intercourse rather than impregnate her. God then killed Onan.

Martin Luther (1483 to 1546) - "Onan must have been a malicious and incorrigible scoundrel. This is a most disgraceful sin. It is far more atrocious than incest or adultery. We call it unchastity, yes, a Sodomitic sin. For Onan goes into her; that is, he lies with her and copulates, and when it comes to the point of insemination, spills the semen, lest the woman conceive. Surely at such a time the order of nature established by God in procreation should be followed."

I know you're one of the good Lutherans. You'll do what's right ;-)

[Polycarp IV]

As the father of 11, I suppose...

...I suppose now I know the origin of your screen name ;-)

[Maximilian]

I find the same problem with all these articles: there is no reference to any Church teaching prior to Humanae Vitae. Was the Catholic Church invented in 1968? Where is St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, great moral theologians like St. Alphons Ligouri, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, even (shudder) Vatican II? It seems that they've all be relegated to the memory hole.

So none of the above arguments can ever be convincing because they amount to personal opinions, whether they are the opinions of Fr. Pavone, Janet Smith or even JPII. None of them carry the authoritative stamp of the Catholic Church. All are arguing from contemporary bases dating back no more than 35 years. When limited to those arbitrary boundaries, no voice is more authoritative than any other, not even the pope, as we have found out by seeing that 98% of Catholic couples use birth control.

By definition, the ordinary magisterium amounts to what has been taught always and everywhere. If the Church refuses even to publish this information about what has always been taught, then there is no authority to bind men's consciences.

[Maximilian]

Dr. Smith's area of specialty is philosophy. So she approaches NFP and contraception from within a traditional Catholic philosophical framework.

Where is the "traditional Catholic philosophical framework" in the above article? Not only is there not even a passing nod to Aquinas or scholastic philosophy, her arguments are not even systematic.

[Maximilian]

As a young many with an swiftly approaching marriage, contraception issues are soon to be something I actually have to think about!

What could be more important to discuss ahead of time? Even protestants have traditionally believed that marriage is ordained for the procreation and education of children. So if that is the purpose of your marriage, it would seem that common prudence would tell you to be certain up front that you have some agreement about why you are getting married.

I guess as a Lutheran, I have always found the NFP approach to be a bit disingenuous. It is still a form of birth control, and judging by the fact I don't know to many 10+ families RC, some form is being used. While I know that this is not neccessarly approved, it just seems to be a bit of disbelief in the trenches.

Both of your points are valid. NPF used for birth control is a scandal. But the reality is that virtually no one is actually using it. Nearly all Catholic couples are using artificial birth control. There certainly is a major disjunction between traditional Catholic teaching (and practice) and what we see in the parishes today. Except in traditional Latin Mass parishes. There you will typically see many families of 10+ children.

[Polycarp IV]

Not only is there not even a passing nod to Aquinas or scholastic philosophy, her arguments are not even systematic.

She was not writing for a philosophical journal.

If you ever attend one of her talks directed to physicians, as I did, you will be pleased to note her more than passing nod to Aquinas and scholastic philosophy as well as her systematic approach.

However, its a bit disengenuous to demand same from an article aimed at an entirely different audience.

[old and tired]

I am not one of the best informed or most intelligent Catholics on this forum, but I am going to offer you some unsolicited advise anyway. :)

Remember that your wife is going to be your partner in life, and your partner in creating new souls. You and she have the responsibility in the formation of those souls - your collective goal is to raise children who possess the prayer lives and moral foundations to get themselves into heaven. Don't pass up the opportunity to bring into the world another soul who can bring greater glory to God.

Surely, there will be times in your married life when you will doubt yourselves capable of getting any souls to heaven. It is during these most difficult times that you must try even harder through prayer and sacrifice to let Christ take command of your home.

This next piece of advice may seem harsh but I am saying nothing to you that I haven't said to my own children. If you can't imagine taking advantage of this awesome opportunity to raise up souls who glorify God right at the beginning of your marriage, perhaps you and your fiancee should rethink your choices of life partners.

God Bless and Best Wishes!

[Maximilian]

If you ever attend one of her talks directed to physicians, as I did

I have attended one of her talks. At the time I was a big fan and ready to be impressed. But instead I was quite disappointed. Actually, it was her tape "Contraception, Why Not?" that first opened my eyes. I could see that not only were her ideas muddled, but she was not presenting an authentic alternative to contraception. Instead she was mostly shilling for NFP.

In fairness I must say that the talk I attended in person was superior to her tape. I think her ideas have progressed and improved. But they have not gotten any more systematic. I defy anyone to draw an outline of the talk she gave. It meandered and jumped back and forth. It did not demonstrate the clarity of order that should be the hallmark of a follower of the Angelic doctor.