Catholicism and contraception

Abstract

Objective: The modern Catholic Church represents a body of 1.3 billion people who follow the Churchs teachings, given to them in the form of documents on different topics, including family issues, family planning, and many others. The latest 2016 Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, followed in the footsteps of previous documents on the topic in that it confirmed periodical abstinence is the only contraceptive method possible for Catholic Christians. The goal of this article is to show, analyze and discuss the Churchs reasons for its opposition to modern contraception.

Design: Original article.

Setting: Center for Outpatient Gynecology, Brno; Center for Prenatal Diagnosis, Brno; Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno.

Methods: This article is based on the analysis of the latest 2016 Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia as well as the previous Papal Encyclicals and documents on the topic.

Results: The Churchs reasons for the opposition to modern contraception are primarily modern contraceptions supposed un-naturality and (potentially) abortive character. Nevertheless, this article shows the unsustainability of such claims because modern contraception in its various forms is neither unnatural nor abortive and thus this view does not stand up to robust criticism.

Conclusion: This article concludes with a call for the Catholic Church to officially give approval to contraceptive use or to at least officially leave it to the individual consciousness of Catholic Christian women and couples.

Keywords: abortion; catholicism; conception; contraception; family planning.