Jen relates a story about a co-worker who had a one night stand with a woman that resulted in a pregnancy. Because they took the “necessary precautions”, said co-worker was pretty shocked at the outcome and said, “I just don’t know how it could be possible.”

Sadly, because of the lies our contraceptive culture has told us, this comes as a shock to many people. But that’s nature, folks, and it’s good and it’s what sex was created for! If you are having sex and you (or your partner) get pregnant, it doesn’t mean something went wrong. As Christopher West says, it means something went beautifully and fundamentally right! Fertility is not an abnormal medical condition and babies are not STDs. Ovulation and pregnancy are perfectly natural and healthy and good things.

Another fact of the nature of sexual intercourse is that it is meant for the intimate union of a man and woman bound together in holy Matrimony.

“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

Yes, God designed sex for a special purpose and, no, it’s not just for our own physical gratification. Though He did certainly make it pleasurable, that is not the point. Sex is meant to be a physical expression of the wedding vows, where the words expressed at the altar are expressed with the language of the body. This act is to be a total mutual self giving, of body and soul. The use of contraception not only destroys (or attempts to destroy) the procreative aspect of the marital act, but by one or the other spouse withholding his or her fertility, it destroys unity as well.

This month marks the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae – a fabulous, prophetic document worth reading and re-reading:

This particular doctrine, often expounded by the magisterium of the Church, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act.

The reason is that the fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life—and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman. And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called. (Humanae Vitae, 12)

P.S. For those (even pro-lifers like Sean Hannity) who tout the need for abortion “prevention” through the regular use of contraception. Some facts: from the Guttmacher Institute’s latest study on induced abortions:

• Fifty-four percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually the condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant. Among those women, 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users report having used their method inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users report correct use.

Contraception is not the answer to abortion.

Read more:
God, Sex, & Babies: What the Church Really Teaches about Responsible Parenthood
Other Christopher West articles
NFP posts
Jen’s post: It’s Nothing Personal
With My Body, I Thee Fool – from the Great Deception
For even more resources see Jen’s post: Catholics and contraception – where do they get those crazy ideas? and my page Sexuality, Marriage and Family