The first thing God told Adam and Eve was to “increase and multiply” ( Genesis 1:28). Contraception is therefore a deliberate contravention of God’s will. It’s the ultimate act of selfishness, because those who use contraception make the sexual act (which is, after all, a gift from God) all about themselves, as if to say to the Lord, “You may want us to create another living being, but we do not. Furthermore, we know what’s best for us.”
People were slain by God for that—Onan in Genesis 38:1-10, for example. Throughout Scripture, we see the message repeated that married couples must always be open to God’s precious gift, and that castration (as “surgical” as you could get in those days) was an abomination:
Genesis 1:28; 9:1,7; 28:3; 35:11; 38:3, 8-10; Deuteronomy 7:13-14; 22:13-21; 23:1, 25:7-14; Exodus 23:25-26; Leviticus 18:22-23; 20:13; 21:17,20-21; 1 Chronicles 25:5; Psalms 127:3-5; Hosea 9:11; Jeremiah 18:21; Malachi 2:14,15; Matthew 19:5-6; Ephesians 5:29-31; Acts 5:1-11; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:7-8; 19-20; 7:5; Galatians 5:19-21; 6:7-8; Phillipians 3:2; 1 Timothy 2:15; Revelation 9:21; 21:8; 22:15.
For non-Catholics, these sources are presented to illustrate that the Church’s teaching is not arbitrary, but Scriptural. It’s interesting to note that it wasn’t until the Seventh Lambeth Conference in 1930 that Protestants broke with Catholics on this issue. Until then, birth control was pretty much universally prohibited among Christians. For those who are already Catholic, the Catechism explains it well.
The Revelation passages mentioned above, among others, use the word sorcery, but the original Greek word is pharmakeia—chemical contraception. Most methods of chemical contraception, including “the pill,” Depo-Provera, Norplant, and IUD’s fall into a category known as “abortifacients”, which actually kill the embryo by preventing its safe implantation in the womb. In other words, if you employ some form of chemical birth control like those just mentioned, you may be “getting an abortion” every time you have sex.
Pharmacists know this, which is why many have argued for an exemption to dispensing birth control chemicals—the so-called “conscience clause.” Click here for an honest pharmacist’s view.
There are pragmatic reasons to reconsider chemical contraception, too: research has revealed a long list of potential side effects such as poor drug interactions, depression, weight gain, menstrual-cycle disturbances, stroke, heart attack, and cancer. The link provided is sponsored by the Feminist Women’s Health Center and the Cedar River Clinics, which perform abortions. If you don’t believe me, perhaps you’ll believe them.