What is NFP?

NFP or Natural Family Planning includes methods of spacing births that utilize physical signs of fertility and infertility to achieve or avoid conception. Contraception is any means by which a couple intentionally disrupts the ability for conception to occur.

Why does the Church embrace NFP, but not contraception?

As a part of their Catholic wedding vows, couples married in the Church vow to accept children lovingly from God. The Church embraces NFP because it empowers couples to live their vocation of fertility without using artificial means to inhibit conception. NFP is open to life while contraception opposes life. A full account of the Church’s teaching on contraception can be found in Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter, Humanae Vitae.

For more information about NFP read this introduction to Natural Family Planning.

NFP Resources

Natural Family Planning (NFP) Methods

Good News About Sex and Marriage

Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body