Before answering, we must better understand the expression “family planning.” It began to be used and promoted by the Population Council in the 1950s. This NGO, founded by the American billionaire John Rockefeller III, together with other magnates and demographers, had as its primary mission to convince the U.S. government that global population growth would pose a threat to American security.
To that end, the Population Council launched intense campaigns around the world to encourage families to have fewer children. It also funded research on contraceptive methods and made multimillion-dollar donations to poor and densely populated countries so they would implement these methods and other population control policies. All of this was presented under the appealing narrative of a necessary “family planning.”
Thus, the term “family planning” does not originate from the Catholic doctrine and in no way reflects its teachings. It is unfortunate that the expression “natural family planning” has gained ground within the Catholic Church, when other more appropriate terms have already been used in Magisterial documents, such as regulation of birth.
It is not enough for “family planning” to be “natural” (and I am certain that most Catholics do not even understand what natural truly means, but that is another matter) for us to assume that it is therefore acceptable. The very notion of planning needs to be examined.
According to the Magisterium, there is no such thing as “Family Planning”
In the documents of the Magisterium, there is no suggestion whatsoever to “plan” the number of children. What is stated is that “for just reasons, spouses may wish to space the births of their children” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2368). Nowhere in these texts do we find the expression natural family planning, nor verbs such as “define,” “limit,” or “plan” the number of children. Much less will we find anything like “the couple may stop having children when…” All of the Church’s guidance revolves around a temporary, not indefinite, spacing and only for very just reasons.
“To space” or “to avoid” means living out the faith that a present impossibility, whatever it may be, might no longer exist a few years from now. It means allowing for an interval, a time, when truly necessary. And there is a great difference between stopping and spacing. Children can be spaced by one, five, ten years, or any time frame. Yet “planning” implies an attempt to predict and control the future — a future that we, as catholics, profess that belongs to God.
Natural Methods versus Family Planning
Natural methods, such as the Billings Ovulation Method, the Creighton Model, among others, are important technical means of supporting couples. They serve to regulate pregnancy, to assist in achieving it, and also to foster better knowledge of the body and monitoring of women’s health. However, they cannot become instruments for a “Natural Family Planning”, because even if the technique is natural, the concept of planning, in its origin, is not.
“Today the scientific basis of the natural methods for the regulation of fertility are recognized. Knowledge about these methods is useful. When there is just cause, their use must not only be a mere behavioral technique but be inserted into the pedagogy and process of the growth of love.” (Preparation for the Sacrament of Marriage, 35)
The technique must be at the service of conjugal love, which is naturally fruitful. The eventual need to avoid a pregnancy should be experienced by the couple as a sorrow, as an impediment. This is not family planning; it is rather the use of intelligence and available techniques to make necessary decisions. Pope Saint Paul VI leaves no room for doubt when he states that the recourse to natural methods is conditioned by necessity — in other words, there is a clearly stated “if”:
“If therefore there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile, thus controlling birth in a way which does not in the least offend the moral principles.” (Humanae Vitae, 16)
And serious reasons should not be understood merely from a financial perspective. Pope Saint Paul VI, in Humanae Vitae, points to a group of conditions that serve as a basis for a couple to assess the need to resort to natural means for spacing births.
With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, 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.” (Humanae Vitae, 10)
It is not merely a matter of material conditions, but rather a set of criteria based on physical, economic, psychological, and social factors. Just to mention a few examples (recognizing that the situations are countless and that there is no “checklist”) we might consider the mother’s health (both for pregnancy and for caring for children), the psychological well-being of both mother and father, and the social context in which the couple lives (whether they are in the midst of war or a natural disaster, whether they are living in a single and tiny room with no prospect of change, whether the government enforces a limit on the number of children and imposes penalties that compromise the family, etc.).
We must not presume to define for couples what constitutes a serious reason. That discernment belongs to each couple. What we can do is exhort them, as the Church does, to be generous, courageous, and trusting in God’s grace. We must also strive to help couples understand the dignity of being open to God’s action, for in doing so, they are not merely allowing the birth of a child, but the coming into existence of a soul destined to adore God and populate Heaven. And that, provided there are serious reasons, and in full freedom, they may space pregnancies in accordance with the natural law.
To use natural methods with a mindset of planning is an attitude that leads in two opposite directions. On the one hand, the couple seeks harmony with the Creator by using the recommended technique; on the other, they move away from Him by trying to control everything and failing to trust in His help in the gift of children. Therefore, our task is to teach responsible parenthood, not family planning.
