Natural Family Planning

Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God. "Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibility."

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2367

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a way to cooperate with the natural pattern of fertility and infertility implanted in our bodies by God to achieve or postpone pregnancy. NFP uses natural signs of fertility in the woman's body to indicate to a couple whether sexual intercourse will likely result in a pregnancy. Those couples who have a serious reason to postpone pregnancy can abstain from intercourse during the fertile phase of a woman's cycle and have sexual intercourse only when she is infertile thus avoiding a pregnancy. NFP, unlike contraception, does not purposely cut off the possibility of conception through the use of artificial means. Rather, NFP allows a couple to choose when to engage in sexual intercourse and when to abstain using their knowledge of whether that act of intercourse will likely result in pregnancy.

Many people contend that NFP is morally equivalent to contraception since both methods result in not getting pregnant. Abstaining from sexual intercourse is never morally equivalent to interrupting conception. As human beings, we can choose freely whether to engage in sexual intercourse or not. A couple may abstain from intercourse for a number of reasons--sickness, birth of a child, travel, etc. Choosing to abstain to avoid pregnancy is a morally justifiable act. Deliberately interrupting the act of intercourse or the conception or development of a child through contraception is both morally evil and substantially different from NFP.

Resources:

Phoenix Natural Family Planning Center

US Conference of Catholic Bishops Natural Family Planning Homepage

One More Soul

Pope Paul VI Institute

Other Resources:

NFP Only Physicians and NFP Teachers in Arizona presented by One More Soul

Still wondering about the difference between NFP and contraception?