In his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life), Pope Paul VI prophesied dire effects if contraceptives proliferated. He predicted:

-- Conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality.

-- Men coming to regard a woman as a mere instrument of sexual enjoyment and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.

-- Abuses by public authorities, promoting contraception for their own ends.

-- People deciding they had unlimited dominion over their own bodies, without consideration of Gods plan or moral restrictions.

All these predictions have come true. Today, many enter adulthood with half a dozen years of sexual experience, a sexually transmitted disease or the trauma of abortion. Angst seems reflected in girls dressing like prostitutes, youth self-mutilating, or sporting grotesque tattoos and extreme body piercings. Where is the reflective earnestness of a young woman preparing for life as a wife and mother? Where is the consideration a male shows a female, knowing she is a beloved daughter, someones sister, and possibly a future bride? As vulgarity, coarseness, and promiscuity intensifies, the culture becomes hostile to developing healthy relationships, forming life-long bonds, and nurturing children. Many nations today face underpopulation, as citizens choose not to marry, or to contain family size to just one child or two. Even committed couples face stresses when one partner, closed to life, pressures a mate to use birth control.

Jesus came so all people may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 16:21) America exists, planted on Christian bedrock, so citizens may have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I thank God my parents gave me the right to life by welcoming my conception. I flourished within the embrace of family. I learned from my mother and father what sacramental love required, by watching them grow deeper in love through both joyful times and adversity. My parents strove to live and convey Church teachings about chastity offering a vision of purity that once upheld mainstream America.

Fertility and sexuality are God-given gifts to be used rightly. True sexual liberation exists only in marriage, when a man and woman share a deep, healing embrace, open to life and free of artificial barriers. When serious reasons compel a couple to avoid or postpone pregnancy, however, working naturally with the womans monthly cycles proves highly effective. Practising the symptothermal method of charting temperatures and cervical secretions leads to just a 0.4 - 0.6 per cent rate of unplanned pregnancy, according to Human Reproduction Today. I can add my own and others anecdotal evidence that, as a woman learns her bodys signals for ovulation and fertility, she develops a keen self-awareness, identifying other health issues as they arise.

Spouses faithfully practising natural family planning (NFP) face only a 0.2 per cent risk of divorce, cites the Family of the Americas Foundation. NFP-users often find intimacies improve with age. Love deepens, becomes more generous-hearted. Periods of abstinence lead to mini-honeymoons. Gods vision for humanity is happiness, and the type of love that refuses to use the other, enriches. Members of stable, loving marriages and families, become their best selves.

No, Mr President, as a devout Catholic, I do not want to pay for contraception. I do not want to pay higher premiums because my insurance company is forced to provide free contraception.

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