Ask a Priest: How is Natural Family Planning different from other non-chemical contraception?

First of all, we need to distinguish between “birth regulation” and “contraception.”  When Pope Paul VI released his 1968 landmark encyclical, Humanae Vitae (HV), whose English title is “On the Regulation of Birth,” he clarified this distinction.

First, he notes that “responsible parenthood” may be exercised “either by the deliberate and generous decision to raise a numerious family, or by the decision, made for grave motives and with due respect for the moral law, to avoid for the time being, or even for an indeterminate period, a new birth” (HV 10).

Married couples who duly respect the moral law “must conform their activity to the creative intention of God, expressed in the very nature of marriage and its acts” (HV 10). The conjugal act, as God intends, has two inseparable meanings, the “unitive meaning and the procreative meaning” (HV 12). The unitive meaning is the physical, emotional, and spiritual bond expressed and strengthened in the act of conjugal union. The procreative meaning is the openness to the transmission of human life.

Pope Paul wrote to affirm the constant teaching of the Church, that “each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life” (HV 11). On the basis of this teaching, then, he distinguishes “natural means” from “artificial means” of birth regulation. Artificial means would be any of those methods, chemical or mechanical, which “either 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” (HV 14).

Natural means, on the other hand, are those which licitly “take into account the natural rhythms inherent in the generative functions, for the use of marriage in the infecund periods only, and in this way to regulate birth without offending the moral principles described earlier” (HV 16). So, as we can see from his statements, both the intent of the couple and the method used are factors in the inherent moral good or evil of their particular choice of birth regulation.

The great moral concern about chemical means of contraception, in addition to the deliberate separation of the unitive and procreative meanings of the marriage act, is the potential abortifacient character of the various pills used. They may either prevent conception or prevent the implantation of a life already conceived. So a couple concerned with this aspect of chemical contraceptives might opt for mechanical barriers to conception, such as a condom, diaphragm, cervical cap, and so forth. Yet the intent is still the same: to deliberately render procreation impossible. Hence such means are still morally illicit.

In the encyclical, Pope Paul encouraged men and women of science to continue working toward “providing a sufficiently secure basis for regulation of birth, founded on the observance of natural rhythms” (HV 24). That is exactly what many have done in developing the various systems of Natural Family Planning in use today. They have in common the observance of signs of fertility, so that couples can utilize the marriage act during the infertile phase of the monthly ovulation cycle and thereby legitimately avoid a pregnancy. Mechanical or non-chemical means, on the other hand, deliberately prevent conception during the fertile period as well. This would be the “moral chasm” between the two choices, “natural or artificial.”

I was a student in theology at the time the first of these natural systems was being promoted. That peaked my interest, and my hopes, in seeing couples learn the art of Natural Family Planning. I continue living in that hope today.
The Diocese of Fargo requires instruction in Natural Family Planning for all engaged couples preparing for marriage and offers the same programs of instruction for couples already married. Engaged or married couples of childbearing age can access these instruction programs by searching www.fargodicoese.org/nfp.

The site says in its introduction: “Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a way of life. While NFP provides a scientifically sound means of achieving or avoiding pregnancy, it is so much more. NFP is a way of life that allows couples to build on their marriage relationship with greater trust, care, and concern, and to experience the ways of true love.”