An engaged couple hears "Natural Family Planning" in marriage preparation and exchanges a look. A Protestant friend asks, honestly puzzled, "Your church still teaches that?" A husband who had a vasectomy years ago reads one line of the Catechism and cannot stop thinking about it.
Most people assume birth control is a private medical choice. That assumption is new: until 1930, no major Christian church had officially approved contraception. The Catholic Church has never changed her answer, and she gives it from Scripture, the Fathers and the meaning of married love itself.
Short answer: Yes. The Catholic Church teaches that contraception, meaning any action before, during or after the marital act that is intended to make it infertile, is gravely wrong; the Catechism calls it "intrinsically evil" (CCC 2370). God joined the love-giving and life-giving meanings of the marital act, a bond "which man on his own initiative may not break" (Humanae Vitae 12). Direct sterilization is excluded for the same reason, and abortion, which takes a human life, is excluded absolutely (Humanae Vitae 14). Couples may space births for just reasons by using the naturally infertile times (Natural Family Planning, or NFP), because that respects the act instead of altering it (CCC 2368). And no one who has used contraception is beyond Christ's mercy.
Key verses on marriage and the gift of life
- "God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it." (Genesis 1:28)
- "Onan, however, knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he had intercourse with his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid giving offspring to his brother. What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too." (Genesis 38:9–10)
- "Certainly sons are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward." (Psalm 127:3)
- "So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate." (Mark 10:8–9)
- "This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church." (Ephesians 5:32)
Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What Protestants and Others Believe
Many Protestant churches today permit contraception within marriage, and many devout Protestants use it in good conscience. Their case, at its strongest, runs like this. Scripture never names or forbids contraception, and for a Christian who holds the Bible alone as the final rule of faith, that silence is decisive. Where God has not bound the conscience, no church may. Onan's sin was refusing his levirate duty to his dead brother, not a method. "Be fertile and multiply" is a blessing, not a rule for every act, and St. Paul describes marital intimacy as a mutual duty (1 Corinthians 7:3–5) without mentioning children. Choosing a family size a couple can raise well is good stewardship.
The first official church statement accepting this reasoning came from the Anglican bishops at the Lambeth Conference of 1930. Resolution 15 called complete abstinence "the primary and obvious method," but added that where "there is a morally sound reason for avoiding complete abstinence, the Conference agrees that other methods may be used," and it condemned contraception used "from motives of selfishness, luxury, or mere convenience." It passed 193 to 67 (Lambeth 1930, Resolution 15). These arguments deserve serious answers.
What Catholics Actually Teach
Every marital act must stay open to life. In Humanae Vitae (July 25, 1968), Pope St. Paul VI restated the constant teaching that "each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life" (HV 11). The reason is "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" (HV 12). The Catechism teaches the same (CCC 2366).
So contraception, direct sterilization and abortion are excluded. "Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means." "Equally to be condemned" is "direct sterilization," and above all, "all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons," is "absolutely excluded" (HV 14; see Is Abortion a Sin?). The Catechism calls every such action "intrinsically evil" (CCC 2370) and adds that "Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception)" (CCC 2399). Pope Pius XI taught in 1930 that those who do this "sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious" (Casti Connubii 54).
Spacing births for just reasons is permitted. "For just reasons, spouses may wish to space the births of their children," provided "their desire is not motivated by selfishness" (CCC 2368). "Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality" (CCC 2370; HV 16).
Medical treatment remains licit when infertility is a foreseen side effect and not intended (HV 15; see objection f).
Why this is true. The body speaks a language. Pope St. John Paul II wrote that "The total physical self-giving would be a lie if it were not the sign and fruit of a total personal self-giving" (Familiaris Consortio 11). With contraception, "the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other" (FC 32). The marital act says, "I give you all of me." Contraception adds, "except this." It changes what the act is, and so it "contradicts the will of the Author of life" (HV 13).
What Catholics do not teach:
- That couples must have as many children as possible. Parents may, "for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time" (HV 10).
- That sex is only for procreation. An act foreseen to be infertile "for reasons independent of their will" still "does not, moreover, cease to be legitimate" (HV 11).
- That governments may dictate family size: "certainly not by authoritarian, coercive measures" (CCC 2372).
It all points to Christ. On the night before He died, Jesus said, "This is my body, which will be given for you" (Luke 22:19). The Bridegroom held nothing back from His Bride, and His self-gift gives life to the world. Husbands are told to love their wives "even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her" (Ephesians 5:25). Married love that gives itself whole, fruitfulness included, tells the truth about Jesus and leads spouses to Him.
The Biblical Case
1. God made marriage fruitful from the first page
"God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). The next words are the first blessing God ever speaks over a man and a woman: "Be fertile and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). Malachi, rebuking unfaithful husbands, names what God seeks from marriage: "Did he not make them one, with flesh and spirit? And what does the One require? Godly offspring!" (Malachi 2:15).
Genesis 1:28 is a blessing, not a quota. But a blessing reveals what a thing is for. A couple may receive it, or for a just reason wait. What Scripture never imagines is enjoying the act that carries the blessing while deliberately disabling the blessing itself.
2. Children are a gift, never a product
"Certainly sons are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward... Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them" (Psalm 127:3–5). "Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your home, Your children like young olive plants around your table" (Psalm 128:3). Jacob asks, "Can I take the place of God, who has denied you the fruit of the womb?" (Genesis 30:2). Opening the womb is God's work: "A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift" (CCC 2378). Contraception and IVF mirror one mistake: one takes the child out of the act, the other takes the act out of the child's beginning (see Is IVF a Sin?). Both treat life as something we manage rather than receive.
3. "One flesh": what God has joined
Going back to creation (Genesis 2:24), Jesus teaches: "So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate" (Mark 10:8–9; compare Matthew 19:4–6).
Jesus spoke those words about divorce, but the principle is the one Humanae Vitae names. God joins what man may not pull apart: the spouses, and the meanings of the act that makes them one flesh, the very act through which a new person, flesh of both, can come to be. To keep the union while removing its fruitfulness is to separate what God joined (see What Does the Bible Say About Marriage?).
4. Marriage images Christ's total, fruitful love
St. Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 and then says, "This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:31–32). Christ's love for His Bride is total (He "handed himself over for her," Ephesians 5:25) and fruitful. Humanae Vitae describes married love the same way: it is "total," and "Finally, this love is fecund" (HV 9). A love closed to life by design paints a false picture of Christ, who never gives Himself to His Church with a reservation.
5. Your body is a gift, not a possession
St. Paul writes, "you are not your own... Therefore, glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). In marriage, "A wife does not have authority over her own body, but rather her husband, and similarly a husband does not have authority over his own body, but rather his wife" (1 Corinthians 7:4). That gift is meant to be whole; you cannot give your body while holding back part of what your body is. "Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled" (Hebrews 13:4).
6. Onan: "What he did greatly offended the LORD"
Judah tells Onan to fulfill his "duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother's line" (Genesis 38:8). Onan "wasted his seed on the ground," and God took his life (Genesis 38:9–10). Yet the penalty the Law sets for refusing the levirate duty is that the widow shall "strip his sandal from his foot and spit in his face" (Deuteronomy 25:9). That penalty is public shame, not death, which suggests Onan's sin was more than refusing the duty. Deuteronomy is later law, and Er was struck down too (Genesis 38:7), so this passage alone does not settle the question. But the traditional reading, held by St. Augustine, Pope Pius XI and John Calvin alike, is that the text points to the act itself (see objection b).
Objections Answered
(a) "The Bible never forbids contraception."
At its strongest: No verse names the Pill, the condom or sterilization. If Scripture alone binds the conscience, the Catholic Church has no right to add a rule God never gave.
Answer: True, Scripture does not name modern methods. But it teaches what marriage and the marital act are: a fruitful blessing (Genesis 1:28), a one-flesh union God has joined (Mark 10:8–9), an image of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32), an undefiled bed (Hebrews 13:4). Applying these principles to new questions is the work Christ gave His Church, the Catholic Church: "Whoever listens to you listens to me" (Luke 10:16; see Matthew 18:18), and the Church is "the pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Timothy 3:15; see Is the Church the Pillar and Foundation of Truth?). Christians outside the Catholic Church, from John Calvin to the Anglican bishops of 1920, read the same Bible and reached the same conclusion (see objection d). The Bible did not change in 1930. The reading did.
An honest note: some cite "sorcery" in Galatians 5:20 (Greek pharmakeia, which can mean "the use or the administering of drugs," Strong's 5331). Neither that lexicon nor the NABRE notes connect it to contraception, so we do not rest the case on it.
(b) "Onan was punished for disobeying the levirate law, not for contraception."
At its strongest: The text gives Onan's motive: "to avoid giving offspring to his brother" (Genesis 38:9). Even the NABRE note says "Onan's violation of this law brought on him God's punishment" (note on Genesis 38:8).
Answer: Concede what is true: Onan's motive was wicked, and the levirate duty is part of the story. But did the act itself also offend God? First, the Law's penalty for refusing the levirate is public shame, not death (Deuteronomy 25:7–10). Second, Judah also failed the levirate duty by withholding his son Shelah (Genesis 38:11), and admitted it: "She is in the right rather than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah" (Genesis 38:26). Judah was not struck dead. Third, the narrator describes the act and then says, "What he did greatly offended the LORD."
Onan could have refused openly and accepted the shame. Instead he used Tamar while making the act sterile. As St. Augustine put it, quoted by Pope Pius XI: "Onan, the son of Juda, did this and the Lord killed him for it" (Casti Connubii 55). And the Catholic case does not rest on Genesis 38 alone.
(c) "Natural Family Planning is just Catholic contraception."
At its strongest: The goal (avoid pregnancy) and the result (no baby) are the same. Calling one holy and the other sinful looks like a technicality.
Answer: NFP can be misused, which is why just reasons are required (CCC 2368). But the two are different acts. With NFP, "the married couple rightly use a faculty provided them by nature"; with contraception, "they obstruct the natural development of the generative process," so "these two cases are completely different" (HV 16). Intention alone never settles morality; it "must be determined by objective standards" (Gaudium et Spes 51). Two people may both want money; one works for it and the other steals it.
A couple using NFP never sterilizes any act. When they abstain they do what St. Paul allows: "Do not deprive each other, except perhaps by mutual consent for a time" (1 Corinthians 7:5). No one sins by not having intercourse. Pope St. John Paul II taught that couples who contracept "act as 'arbiters' of the divine plan," while couples who respect the cycle "are acting as 'ministers' of God's plan" (FC 32).
(d) "The Anglicans changed in 1930, so the Catholic Church should too."
At its strongest: Churches develop. If careful Christian bishops could revisit the question, why can't Rome?
Answer: Ten years earlier, the Lambeth Conference itself had declared, "We utter an emphatic warning against the use of unnatural means for the avoidance of conception" (Lambeth 1920, Resolution 68). In 1931 the Anglican theologian Francis J. Hall said 1930 sanctioned, under exceptional circumstances, "a practice which Christians have hitherto regarded as necessarily impure and unholy" (Hall, 1931). On Onan, John Calvin had written: "It is a horrible thing to pour out seed besides the intercourse of man and woman" (Commentary on Genesis 38:10; the 1847 English translation left this comment out, and the linked CCEL edition supplies it).
After Lambeth, on December 31, 1930, Pope Pius XI wrote that some, "openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition," had "judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine regarding this question" (CC 56). The Catholic Church held firm then, in 1968 and in the Catechism, because "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). Pope St. Paul VI warned that contraception could "open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards" and that a man might "forget the reverence due to a woman" (HV 17).
(e) "My conscience allows it," or "Most Catholics ignore this anyway."
At its strongest: The Catholic Church herself says conscience must be obeyed. If a couple has prayed and concluded otherwise, who can overrule them?
Answer: She does teach that "A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience" (CCC 1790), and also that "Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened" (CCC 1783). Conscience is a witness to God's law, not its author. On this exact question, the Second Vatican Council said spouses "cannot proceed arbitrarily" but "must always be governed according to a conscience dutifully conformed to the divine law itself" (Gaudium et Spes 50). As for numbers: "You shall not follow the crowd in doing wrong" (Exodus 23:2). Many Catholics were simply never taught this, and "Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense" (CCC 1860). Now you have been taught.
(f) "But the Pill has real medical uses."
At its strongest: Hormonal drugs treat real conditions. A blanket ban would make women suffer for a rule.
Answer: There is no blanket ban. The Catholic Church "does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from—provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever" (HV 15). The moral question is not a chemical but a choice to make the marital act infertile. Talk with a good doctor and a good priest.
(g) "The world is overpopulated, and families can't afford more children."
At its strongest: Children cost money, health and time. Responsible people should limit births.
Answer: The Catholic Church takes hardship seriously: she allows spacing births for reasons arising even "from external circumstances" (HV 16). What she rejects is solving a real problem with an evil means: "it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it" (HV 14; compare Romans 3:8). Pope St. John Paul II warned against "a certain panic deriving from the studies of ecologists and futurologists on population growth" (FC 30). "Children are really the supreme gift of marriage" (GS 50).
The Early Church Agrees
- Clement of Alexandria (The Instructor 2.10, c. AD 195): The English edition leaves this passage in Latin: "semen non est abjiciendum, neque injuria afficiendum," that is, for those who share in God's work of bringing forth life, the seed is not to be cast away or wronged (our translation; ccel.org). Within about a century of the apostles, the power to give life was treated as sacred.
- St. Hippolytus of Rome (Refutation of All Heresies 9.7, c. AD 225; usually attributed to him since the nineteenth century, though some scholars question the authorship): "Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived" (newadvent.org). He treats Christians' use of sterilizing drugs as a scandal.
- St. Jerome (Letter 22.13, AD 384): "Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception" (newadvent.org). Sterilizing potions attack human life at its threshold.
- St. Augustine (On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.17, c. AD 419): "this lustful cruelty, or, if you please, cruel lust, resorts to such extravagant methods as to use poisonous drugs to secure barrenness"; of spouses who agree to this, "they are not husband and wife" (newadvent.org). He condemns contraception within marriage, not only outside it.
- St. Augustine (On Adulterous Marriages 2.12, c. AD 420, as quoted by Pope Pius XI): "Intercourse even with one's legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked where the conception of the offspring is prevented" (Casti Connubii 55). This is the traditional reading of Onan, sixteen centuries old.
From Alexandria to Rome to North Africa, the Fathers speak with one voice: deliberately sterilizing the act that carries God's gift of life is gravely wrong. The Catholic Church is not clinging to a novelty; she is the one who did not let go.
Conclusion
The case rests on the whole shape of Scripture: a fruitful blessing on the first page, children received as gifts, two made one flesh by God, and marriage as an icon of Christ's total, fruitful love for His Church. The Fathers saw it, John Calvin saw it, and no major Christian body officially taught otherwise until 1930. Contraception changes what the act of love says. NFP, used for just reasons, tells the whole truth and waits.
If this teaching stings because of your own past, hear this first: Christ did not come to condemn you. "If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing" (1 John 1:9), and He gave His apostles power to forgive in His name (John 20:23). If you are Catholic and have used contraception or chosen sterilization, go to confession; Humanae Vitae tells struggling couples "they are not to lose heart" but to "have recourse to the mercy of God, abundantly bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance" (HV 25; see Why Do Catholics Confess to a Priest?). Then ask your parish or diocese about NFP classes, or start with the U.S. bishops' Natural Family Planning Program. If you are not yet Catholic, confession is ordinarily not yet open to you, but Christ's mercy already is.
Come home. The Church that has taught every generation, from the Fathers to today, that married love must stay open to life is the Catholic Church. Christ did not found many churches. He founded one, on St. Peter and the apostles (Matthew 16:18), and that Church is the Catholic Church. "It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (CCC 816). If you are a baptized Christian, you already share "a certain, although imperfect, communion" with her (CCC 838). Every truth you already hold is a call to the rest of the way. If you are not yet a Christian, we invite you to come and see. Christ is calling you into the Catholic Church.
Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.
FAQ
Is using birth control a mortal sin? Contraception is grave matter: the Catechism calls it "intrinsically evil" (CCC 2370), and Pope Pius XI taught that those who do it "are branded with the guilt of a grave sin" (Casti Connubii 56). For a sin to be mortal, "three conditions must together be met" (CCC 1857): grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent. Ignorance can lessen guilt (CCC 1860), but once you know, bring it to confession (see Are Mortal and Venial Sins in the Bible?).
I had a vasectomy (or tubal ligation). What now? Direct sterilization is gravely wrong (HV 14; CCC 2399), but not unforgivable. Go to confession and talk with a priest. Your marriage is still a sacrament, and your love can still be generous.
Is withdrawal ("pulling out") allowed? No. It is the very act described in Genesis 38:9, and Humanae Vitae excludes any action "at the moment of" intercourse that is intended to prevent procreation (HV 14).
Sources
Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Genesis 1:27–28; Genesis 2:24; Genesis 30:2; Genesis 38:8–11, 26; Exodus 23:2; Deuteronomy 25:7–10; Psalm 127:3–5; Psalm 128:3; Malachi 2:15; Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:18; Matthew 19:4–6; Mark 10:8–9; Luke 10:16; Luke 22:19; John 20:23; Romans 3:8; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; 1 Corinthians 7:3–5; Galatians 5:20; Ephesians 5:25, 31–32; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 13:4, 8; 1 John 1:9.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 816, 838; 1783; 1790; 1857, 1860; 2366, 2368, 2370, 2372, 2378; 2399.
Church documents: Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii 54–56 (December 31, 1930); Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes 50–51 (1965); Pope St. Paul VI, Humanae Vitae 9–17, 25 (July 25, 1968); Pope St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio 11, 30, 32 (1981).
Church Fathers: Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.10 (ANF vol. 2); St. Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 9.7; St. Jerome, Letter 22.13; St. Augustine, On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.17; St. Augustine, On Adulterous Marriages 2.12 (quoted in Casti Connubii 55).
Other sources: Lambeth Conference 1930, Resolution 15 (Anglican Communion resolutions archive); Lambeth Conference 1920, Resolution 68 (Anglican Communion resolutions archive); Francis J. Hall, "Is the Use of Contraceptives Ever Right?" American Church Monthly 29 (1931), Project Canterbury; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, chapter 38; Strong's Greek 5331, pharmakeia; USCCB, Natural Family Planning Program.