When discussing pro-life issues, abortion is typically seen as the gravest offense against the dignity of the human person.
Abortion certainly is a deeply serious issue, as it concerns the killing of an unborn child before they draw their first breath.
However, all forms of contraception are not that far from abortion, as they stem from a similar viewpoint.
Fruits of the same tree
St. John Paul II wrote at length about abortion and contraception in his encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, explaining why they are similar:
[D]espite their differences of nature and moral gravity, contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree. It is true that in many cases contraception and even abortion are practiced under the pressure of real- life difficulties, which nonetheless can never exonerate from striving to observe God’s law fully.
He then goes on to write about the underlying viewpoint that can influence a person to use contraception or get an abortion:
[I]n very many other instances such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfillment. The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes the only possible decisive response to failed contraception.
Furthermore, modern means of chemical contraception may actually act as abortions:
The close connection which exists, in mentality, between the practice of contraception and that of abortion is becoming increasingly obvious. It is being demonstrated in an alarming way by the development of chemical products, intrauterine devices and vaccines which, distributed with the same ease as contraceptives, really act as abortifacients in the very early stages of the development of the life of the new human being.
Abortion and contraception may work differently, but they share the same root desire to avoid responsibility for the sexual act.
