HHS Mandate Talking Point #7 – How is NFP different?

This is a series of short talking points that we have provided to our volunteers as information they can use in speaking out in various ways against the ObamaCare mandate on contraception. Feel free to use, build on, or share.

How is NFP any different from contraception? They both have the same goal.

NFP is knowledge; it helps to read the language of the sexual powers and does not interfere with a couple’s fertility. Spouses do not change their bodies; rather, they change their behavior and choose to refrain from sexual intimacy during the fertile days when postponing a pregnancy. NFP does not control fertility; it enables a couple to control their behavior and thus grow in the virtue of self-control.

The reason NFP is moral and contraception is not – when they both have the same ends – can be difficult to see. But only with NFP is a husband and wife able to give a complete self-gift to the other. Every time they have relations, they give themselves completely as they are at that moment according to God’s design. And, it’s not immoral to just not have sex; there is nothing immoral about avoiding sex for various reasons (i.e., illness, fatigue, need to postpone pregnancy). Controlling our natural desires and sacrificing them for the sake of our spouse or marriage is a noble act. But having sex and thwarting the natural design of sex to serve your own purpose is completely different.

The difference between using contraception and using the knowledge NFP provides to intelligently plan a family is sometimes likened to losing weight (a good end) through dieting versus bulimia.  In the first case a person who wants to lose weight intelligently decides what to eat and how much to eat and deliberately avoids over-indulging.  In the latter case, they does nothing to control their eating habits and instead vomits after every meal to avoid the consequences of eating.