“Why teach people how to postpone or avoid pregnancy? God said (in the book of Genesis in the Bible) ‘Be fruitful and multiply’!”

This question recently resurfaced as there are persons informing us that there are married couples successfully using the Billings Ovulation Method® who have the means and wherewithal to have children (or more children), yet refuse to do so, citing they are using the “morally acceptable” way of family planning! God’s “Be fruitful and multiply” in the very first book of the Bible is a clarion call for married couples to be generous in bringing life to the world. Each child is a gift from God and a blessing to a family and society – even the National Insurance Board would agree with us here!

There are, however, numerous reasons couples may not want to have more family members. There are serious reasons such as illness that warrants a rest from having children, neither husband nor wife being employed or they just do not have the means to feed, shelter and clothe any additional child.

But there can be silly reasons too, such as the couple wanting a luxurious vacation! Some reasons are frightening, where there is a complete rejection of the gift of one’s or one’s spouse’s or both spouses’ sexuality and call to motherhood and fatherhood.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that “…the refusal of fertility turns married life away from its ‘supreme gift’” (#1664). Each child is a gift from God. “Sacred Scripture and the Church’s traditional practice see in large families a sign of God’s blessing and the parents’ generosity” (#2373).

Each married couple is called to discern what God is asking of them…together, knowing that they are called to responsible parenthood.

What exactly is ‘responsible parenthood’? Pope St Paul VI sheds some light in Humanae Vitae (10): “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.”

In other words, married couples are called to have as many children as they can manage. However, they are not to hamper their fertility in any way, by way of contracepting (going against conception).

For married couples not to violate their wedding vows of giving to one another freely, totally, faithfully, and fruitfully (being open to life), in his book Good News about Sex & Marriage Christopher West purports that the couple recalls times when they would naturally not have sex, even if they wanted to.

Such as “when one or the other spouse is sick” or “the couple is staying with one of the in-laws and there are thin walls”, or no walls (p 112).

Therefore, if there is a just reason to avoid a pregnancy, “couples aren’t always obligated to have sex”, they can “exercise their freedom to say no and abstain from sex” (112–113).

Sex is the most intimate and sacred body language in a marriage. To respect each other’s “human dignity”, couples must understand that “the only acceptable birth control is self-control” (113).

This is why we (at BOMA-TT) teach couples how to postpone or avoid pregnancy: not for family-avoidance, but for planning a family, discerning what God wants for them as a community of life and love (a domestic Church). Avoiding growing your family size without just reason, is avoiding love and true happiness.

BOMA-TT Phone or WhatsApp:

384-1659

Email: naturalfertility@catholictt.org

or billingstt@gmail.com

Local Website: billingstt.com

International Websites: woombinternational.org or billings.life