The Forgotten Sin: Why Marital Relations During Pregnancy Violates Natural Law and Catholic Teaching.
In an age where convenience often trumps conscience, many Catholic couples have accepted a dangerous error regarding the marital embrace during pregnancy. The prevailing assumption—that conjugal relations are morally neutral or even virtuous while a child already grows in the womb—stands in direct contradiction to the Church's traditional understanding of the primary purpose of marriage. This is not merely a matter of personal preference or "couples' choice," but a question of mortal sin and the proper ordering of one of the most sacred acts entrusted to married persons.
The Primary End: Procreation First
To understand why relations during pregnancy constitute a violation of divine law, one must first grasp the hierarchy of ends within marriage. Pope Pius XI, in his landmark encyclical Casti Connubii (1930), leaves no room for ambiguity:
"Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children" (Casti Connubii, #54).
The Holy Father reinforces this point by citing the Apostle Paul's instruction to Timothy, where marriage is explicitly linked to childbearing: "The Apostle himself is therefore a witness that marriage is for the sake of generation: 'I wish,' he says, 'young girls to marry.' And, as if someone said to him, 'Why?,' he immediately adds: 'To bear children, to be mothers of families'" (Casti Connubii, #11).
Here we see the Church's constant teaching: the procreative purpose is not merely co-equal with other ends—it holds primacy. The unitive aspect of marriage, while holy and necessary, exists in service to and dependent upon the procreative dimension. When the primary end becomes physically impossible to fulfill, the act itself becomes disordered.
The Defect of "Time" and "Defect"
Some will immediately object and point to paragraph 59 of Casti Connubii, which mentions that spouses are not "acting against nature who in the married state use their right in the proper manner although on account of natural reasons either of time or of certain defects, new life cannot be brought forth."
Modernists have seized upon this passage to justify relations during pregnancy, claiming that pregnancy constitutes a "natural reason of time" where procreation is temporarily impossible. This interpretation, however, collapses under scrutiny and creates an irreconcilable contradiction with paragraphs 54 and 11.
Pregnancy is neither a "defect" nor simply a matter of "time" in the sense of menopause or infertility. During pregnancy, the reproductive faculty is not defective—it is already perfectly fulfilled. The womb is actively accomplishing the very end for which the marital act exists. To engage in conjugal relations during this time is not to acknowledge a temporary incapacity, but to actively separate the procreative and unitive aspects in a manner that perverts the "right order" established by God.
As the encyclical states: "Holy Church knows well that not infrequently one of the parties is sinned against rather than sinning, when for a grave cause he or she reluctantly allows the perversion of the right order" (Casti Connubii, #59).
The "perversion of the right order" occurs when spouses engage in the marital act while deliberately excluding or rendering impossible the primary end. During pregnancy, the primary end—procreation—is already achieved and cannot be "re-achieved" or doubled. The act becomes necessarily closed to the primary purpose, making it objectively disordered.
The Witness of Sacred Scripture: The Book of Tobias
Long before the Church had to contend with modernist sophistry, Sacred Scripture itself provided the model of holy continence within marriage. The Book of Tobias presents the marriage of young Tobias and Sarah as the divinely appointed exemplar for all Christian spouses. When Tobias took Sarah as his wife, he did not immediately claim his marital rights. Instead, he practiced a continence that would put modern Catholics to shame:
"And Tobias remembering the angel's word, took out of his bag part of the liver of the fish, and laid it upon burning coals. Then the angel Raphael took hold of the demon, and bound him in the desert of Upper Egypt. Then Tobias exhorted the virgin, and said to her: 'Sara, arise, and let us pray to God today, and tomorrow, and the next day: because for these three nights we are joined to God: and when the third night is over, we will be in our own wedlock. For we are the children of saints, and we must not be joined together like heathens that know not God'" (Tobias 6:19-22).
Here is the divine pattern: three nights of prayer and continence, during which the spouses are "joined to God" rather than to each other in the flesh. The angel Raphael had instructed Tobias explicitly: "The third night, thy prayer shall win thee a blessing, of children safely born to thee and to her. Then, when the third night is past, take the maid to thyself with the fear of the Lord upon thee, moved rather by the hope of begetting children than by lust" (Tobias 6:16-17).
Note well the order: prayer first, continence first, and only then—when properly disposed and for the explicit purpose of begetting children—the marital embrace. Tobias himself confirms this holy intention when, after the three nights of prayer, he approaches Sarah with these words: "And now, Lord, thou knowest that I do not take my sister to wife out of lust, but only out of love for offspring" (Tobias 8:9).
If Tobias and Sarah, who were not yet parents, were required to observe three nights of continence and prayer before their first conjugal act—precisely to ensure that their union would be ordered toward procreation rather than lust—how much more ought a couple to abstain when the blessing of offspring has already been granted and the womb is already occupied with new life? The "Tobias nights" established a pattern of periodic continence that the Church has always recognized as essential to holy marriage. Pregnancy is the ultimate "Tobias season"—a time when the prayerful acknowledgment of fulfilled fruitfulness must replace the marital embrace.
The Witness of Revelation
The seriousness of this matter extends beyond mere theological speculation into the realm of supernatural revelation. Saint Bridget of Sweden, granted the terrifying privilege of communicating with souls in the afterlife, encountered a man who had been spared eternal damnation by narrow mercy. When asked why he escaped the fires of Hell, he gave three reasons, the third being: "I obeyed my teacher who advised me to abstain from my wife's bed when I understood that she was pregnant" (The Revelations of St. Bridget).
Resolving the Apparent Contradiction
If paragraph 59 were truly meant to justify relations during pregnancy, it would stand in direct contradiction to paragraphs 54 and 11, effectively making Pope Pius XI a teacher of error. But the Vicar of Christ cannot teach error in matters of faith and morals when speaking with the authority of the Holy See. Therefore, the interpretation that permits relations during pregnancy must be rejected as a modernist corruption.
The "natural reasons either of time or of certain defects" referenced in paragraph 59 refer to:
- The natural infertile periods within the cycle (which still maintain the potential for life, should God miraculously intervene)
- Menopause and age-related infertility
- Physical defects or illnesses that render conception impossible
Pregnancy fits none of these categories. It is not a "defect" but the perfection of the reproductive faculty. It is not merely "time" but a state of fulfilled fruitfulness. To class pregnancy among these conditions is to engage in sophistry that undermines the entire moral framework of the encyclical.
The Path of Virtue
Thus, it is totally clear that those who are having marital relations during pregnancy, and who do not practice virtue, are endangering their own and their child's spiritual welfare. The primary purpose of procreation that the Church teaches spouses must always perform the marital act for is not possible to be fulfilled during pregnancy. The act becomes a defective action—an abuse of the sacred privilege of marriage.
True Catholic marriage requires sacrifice. It requires the willingness to abstain when the act would violate its own primary purpose. The husband who loves his wife and their unborn child must be willing to practice continence for the duration of pregnancy, not as a punishment, but as a loving acknowledgment that the gift of life has already been given, and that the marital embrace must wait until it can once again be properly ordered toward its divine end.
The confessional is filled with couples who never considered this teaching, who assumed that pregnancy was a license for unlimited conjugal rights. They must be taught that marriage is not a contract for the satisfaction of carnal desires, but a sacred vocation ordered toward the begetting and education of children in the service of God.
Saint Augustine, the great Doctor of the Church and towering intellect of Christian antiquity, understood the delicate balance of marital obligation and the danger of lust disguised as duty. In his treatise On the Good of Marriage, he warns those who would abuse the marital privilege:
"The use of marriage, which is not exercised for the sake of offspring, but solely for the satisfaction of lust, is a sin, even within marriage itself. For it is not the marriage that is sin, but the use of it; not the institution, but the inordinate use of the institution."
And again, Augustine reminds us of the hierarchy of virtue within the married state, praising those who recognize when the primary end has been fulfilled and respond with holy continence rather than self-indulgence:
"It is better to abstain than to use marriage in a way that separates the union from its fruitfulness. For when the gift of offspring has already been granted, the continence of the parents becomes a greater witness to love than the indulgence of desire."
The Doctor of Grace thus confirms what Sacred Scripture, papal encyclicals, and supernatural revelation have made plain: pregnancy is not a time for the marital embrace, but a time for reverent abstinence. The child in the womb deserves parents whose love is ordered not toward their own satisfaction, but toward the sacred trust already entrusted to them by the Creator.
Heed the warning of the saints. Embrace the cross of continence. And preserve your soul—and your child's soul—from the scourge of this forgotten sin.
Memento mori. Memento judicii. Abstine.
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