Book Preview: Theology of the Body - Explained

The following is a book preview of "Theology of the Body - Explained", by Christopher West. It is described as a "clear and profound commentary on Pope John Paul II's theology of the body, which 'breaks open' the Holy Father's thought regarding the human person and sexuality."

The Effect of Artificial Contraception on Society

I've been having discussions with several people on Twitter recently concerning artificial contraception (birth control). As a Roman Catholic, I believe that the use of artificial contraception is wrong. If people want to avoid or regulate pregnancies, I believe that Natural Family Planning (NFP) should be used. NFP takes advantage of the natural cycles of fertility and infertility that are built into a woman's body to avoid or regulate pregnancy, and can even be used to achieve pregnancy. Artificial contraception, on the other hand, is only used to avoid pregnancy. Some types of artificial contraception have serious possible side effects. For example, one of the possible side effects of using the birth control pill (BCP) is stroke. I personally know of a woman who suffered a stroke as a direct result of using BCP's.

Yesterday someone said that they could understand my opposition to the use of BCP's (presumably because of the aforementioned side effects), but they couldn't understand why I'm against the use of condoms. While I can see the benefit of using condoms to prevent the spread of infectious diseases like AIDS and STD's, I am against condoms and other forms of artificial birth control because of the effect that artificial birth control has on society. The easiest way for me to explain what I mean is this: imagine what the world would be like if artificial birth control was never invented. Some people might say that STD's would be rampant, and our world would quickly become overpopulated. I believe that the result would be different. If there was no artificial birth control, people would think twice about having sex outside of a marital context. This would result in a decrease in divorces due to marital infidelity, a reduction in STD's, a reduction in the number of unwanted pregnancies, which in return would result in a reduction in the number of abortions. NFP could be used to regulate the number of births to avoid a population explosion.

So, to answer my friend's question about why I am against the use of condoms, I say that it is not so much because it is bad for me, but because of the negative effect the use of condoms and other forms of artificial birth control have on society. I feel the same way about the use of alcohol. If I had it my way, the use of alcohol would be banned. I can drink alcohol responsibly, but I can see that there are many people in society who can't. Some people become addicted to it. Many people die every year at the hands of drunk drivers. I feel alcohol consumption should be banned for the good of society.

While I feel artificial contraception should be banned for the good of society, also, I do realize that if we just ban artificial contraception, and do nothing to instill morality in people, we will run into a lot of problems. In addition to telling people not to use artificial birth control, I also share with people the benefit of only having sexual relations within a marital context. It will be difficult to eliminate the use of artificial birth control until we can find a way to infuse morality into our society.

If people can begin to see the "big picture" of sexual morality, this world will quickly become a much healthier and happier place to live.

More information:

Papal Encyclical Humanae Vitae (Catholic teaching on the use of contraception)

FamilyDoctor.org (Natural Family Planning Information)

The Catholic Catechism on Contraception

Contraception: Humanity's Rebellion Against God's Plan for Life