The Religious and Secular Arguments Surrounding Prevention and Termination of Pregnancy

Contraception is the deliberate prevention of pregnancy using several methods available today. Family planning is the method that refers to the making decisions about when and how many children to have, and choosing way to achieve this.

Catholics believe that sex should be procreative, unitive, communicative and respectful. They believe that a human's sexuality is a gift from God and that it should be respected, they believe that unnatural forms of contraception encourage 'casual sex' with many partners. 'Casual sex' is neither unitive nor communicative. Instead of the use of unnatural forms of contraception such as the condom or the use of Spermicidal or hormonal contraceptives, they suggest the practice of Natural Family Planning. This system is one whereby the couple restrains from sexual intercourse during the most fertile period of a woman's menstrual cycle. This period ranges from five days before ovulation to two days after ovulation.

One way of determining fertility is the basal body temperature method, where a woman takes her temperature at the same time each morning before getting out of bed. In a lot of women, body temperature rises about one degree on the day of ovulation and stays raised for several days. This kind of contraceptive method can only is used in a stable and ongoing relationship, a relationship wherein sexuality is respected and the relationship is unitive. People often decide against this option because it is only 81 percent effective. Catholic couples that use Natural Family Planning will have to except and care for the child that my result from that 19 percent, this is not a problem recognized in the Catholic faith, as sex to them must be procreative. Many people use contraception so that a relationship can be avoided but this is not procreative or unitive so again this argument for contraception is dismissed by the Catholic Church.

Non-religious and religious groups both support contraception for a number of good reasons one of the arguments they use in favor of contraception is that in the USA, about 56 percent of women between 16 to 45 years old practice birth control. When birth control is not used about 85/86 percent of sexually active parents experience a pregnancy. Contraception clearly prevents unwanted pregnancies, which if the woman has any medical ailments could result in death of the mother or of the child or both.

It is often mentioned by people other than the catholic' s that it is up to the specific individuals involved and that they should follow their conscience, this is not rejected by the catholic faith but they argue that if an individual is left to follow their conscience they must have an informed conscience.