“I disagree. “Contraceptives” are tools - a device or a drug - but “contraception” is an action. A gun is a tool, but shooting it is an action”
What hasn’t been stated here is that the Catholic Church says, “No ARTIFICIAL contraception is allow. They do allow “natural” means, whatever you consider that to be. I don’t see how natural is any different than taking a pill. Also, if we are suppose to allow God to decide how many children we have then wouldn’t it be wrong for a Catholic to undergo fertility treatments that are unnatural also? Seems to me if you are to accept children from God you should also accept when God doesn’t send you children. Just asking, I’m not sure what the Church’s stand on that is.
So is a vasectomy a one time sin or a sin every time you have sex? What about women that have to have hysterectomies? How about tubes removed from ectopic pregnancies? I’m curious where the lines are drawn myself.
There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who "love Nature" while deploring the "artificialities" with which "Man has spoiled 'Nature.'" The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of "Nature" -- but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the Naturist reveals his hatred for his own race -- i.e., his own self-hatred.
--"Lazarus Long" (Robert A. Heinlein)
The natural means of not conceiving a child is ... not having sex. This is different from taking a pill and then having sex. For example, I’m telling my children to not have sex while they’re unmarried, in order (among other things) to avoid conceiving children.
As further illustration of the different between “contraceptives” and “contraception,” a man’s using a condom while having anal sex is not “contraception,” because there was never any possibility of a child’s being conceived. If a woman athlete is taking a hormonal treatment to avoid having periods, she is not “contracepting,” if she does not have sex. She is simply using a medical preparation (either wisely or foolishly - these drugs are not free of risk, irrespective of sexual activity).