Contracep­tives include drugs and devices like condoms, the Pill, and spermicides. It might come as a surprise to some to learn that the Catholic Church does not always oppose the “use of contraceptives.” A couple of trivial examples can help explain this point. The Church would not oppose the use of a contraceptive spermicidal gel to lubricate the axle of a bicycle tire to improve its rotation, nor would it specifically oppose the use of in­flated condoms as party balloons. The particular context is important. More serious examples of accept­able contexts and uses for contra­ceptives would include using the Pill medically to treat serious gyne­cological problems, or using the Pill to block the release of an egg from a woman’s ovary in a situation of rape to protect her from becoming pregnant from the attack. Contrary to popular confusion, as we can see, the Church does not always oppose the “use of contraceptives.”

What the Church does always oppose, however, are acts of contra­ception. An act of contraception is a very particular type of disordered human action that involves the decision freely to engage in marital inter­course, while pursuing countermea­sures in anticipation of, contempo­raneously with, or after the comple­tion of the sexual act, to try inten­tionally to block it from achieving its proper finality, namely, the engendering of new human life. These countermeasures can in­clude, to borrow the words of Pope Paul VI, “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” (Humanae Vitae, n. 14). 

Pope Francis, in a recent interview, pointed out that Pope Paul VI, in a difficult situation in Africa, “permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape.” This use of contraceptives by a group of nuns occurred during an exceptional wartime situation in the Belgian Congo. Although no document has ever been found in the Vatican indicating that per­mission was actually given by the Pope, these women were given the Pill by their physicians be­cause they appeared to be in im­minent danger of sexual assault during the uprisings of 1960. The Pill was provided to prevent their ovaries from releasing an egg, so that if they were raped during the chaos, the attacker’s sperm would not be able to fertilize any of their eggs, and a pregnancy would not oc­cur. This “use of contracep­tives” would clearly not be an act of contra­ception, because there would be no consensual sexual act, but only an act of violence and brutality forcibly di­rected against the women. Hence, this use of contraceptives constituted, in its essence, an act of self-defense, not an act of contraception. A rapist, of course, has absolutely no right to forced sex­ual intimacy with his vic­tim, nor does he have any right to bring about her impregnation, and the woman has absolutely no moral duty to make her eggs available to an attacker’s sperm. Hence the use of contraceptives in an emergency situa­tion like this would be morally per­missible precisely be­cause it would not constitute, morally speaking, an act of contraception, but would rather repre­sent a defensive and self-protective maneuver in a situation of grave and imminent dan­ger.

The use of contraceptives can be morally acceptable in other con­texts as well, again, because such uses do not constitute acts of contraception. For example, when a woman has se­vere menstrual bleeding, or pain from ovarian cysts, the hormonal regimen contained in the Pill may sometimes provide a directly therapeutic medical treatment for the bleeding or the pain. This use of contraceptives is an act of medical therapy to address a pathological situation, not an act of contraception. The secondary effect from the treatment, namely, marital infertility, is only tolerated, and should not be willed, desired, or in­tended in any way by the couple. It is worth noting that it would not be acceptable to make use of contracep­tives like the Pill for these medical cases if other pharmacological agents or treatments were available which would offer the same therapeutic benefits and effects without impeding fertility.

In sum, while the Church has always taught that marital acts of contra­ception are morally wrong, the use of contraceptives can sometimes be ac­ceptable within certain other contexts outside of consensual conjugal acts. Janet Smith has succinctly summa­rized the issue this way: 

“The Church teaches that acts of contraception are always against the plan of God for hu­man sexuality, since God in­tended that each and every act of spousal intercourse express both the intention to make a complete, unitive gift of one’s self to one’s spouse and the willingness to be a parent with one’s spouse. These meanings of the spousal act are, as Humanae Vitae stated, inseparable.”

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