Contraception introduces "a false note" that disturbs marital intimacy and contributes to a decline in society's respect for marriage and for life, the U.S. bishops say in a draft document that will come before them at their fall general meeting in Baltimore.

The brief document, called "Married Love and the Gift of Life," is intended for use as a brochure and is in question-and-answer format.

Developed by the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities in collaboration with the committees on Doctrine and Marriage and Family Life, the document strongly supports natural family planning, saying it "enables couples to cooperate with the body as God designed it."

"When couples use contraception, either physical or chemical, they suppress their fertility, exerting ultimate control over this power to create a new human life with God," the draft said.

But because natural family planning "does not change the human body in any way, or upset its balance with potentially harmful drugs or devices, people of other faiths or of no religious affiliation have also come to accept and use it from a desire to work in harmony with their bodies," it added.

The bishops disputed the view that the church's opposition to contraception means that Catholic couples must "leave their family size entirely to chance."

"In married life, serious circumstances --- financial, physical, psychological, or those involving responsibilities to other family members --- may arise to make an increase in family size untimely," the document said. "The church understands this, while encouraging couples to take a generous view of children."

That's where natural family planning comes in, the bishops said. The method helps couples avoid pregnancy by refraining from intercourse for the few fertile days around the time of the woman's ovulation.

"A couple need not desire or seek to have a child in each and every act of intercourse," the draft document said. "And it is not wrong for couples to have intercourse even when they know the woman is naturally infertile. ...

"But they should never act to suppress or curtail the life-giving power given by God that is an integral part of what they pledged to each other in their marriage vows," the bishops added.

Recalling warnings from Popes Paul VI and John Paul II that a "contraceptive mentality" would lead to more abortions and other evils, the bishops said, "These predictions have come true.

"Today we see a pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases, an enormous rise in cohabitation, one in three children born outside of marriage, and abortion used by many when contraception fails," the draft document said. "A failure to respect married love's power to help create new life has eroded respect for life and for the sanctity of marriage."

The bishops also cautioned Catholics that newer forms of contraception, such as the "morning-after pill," may cause an abortion if taken after a sperm and egg have joined.

In an introduction to the draft, Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore, chairman of the pro-life committee, said Catholic couples "report using contraceptives at about the same level as those of other faiths or of no faith" and that only four percent of Catholic married couples use natural family planning.

The target audience for the document is Catholics "engaged to be married, newly married or contemplating marriage"; priests and seminarians; and other lay Catholics, the cardinal said.

The draft was presented to couples in marriage preparation classes in four dioceses --- Peoria, Ill.; Phoenix; St. Augustine, Fla.; and San Diego --- and 78 percent found the document to be "welcoming/helpful" in tone, he added.

Discussion and a vote on the document were to take place during the Nov. 13-16 meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, taking place in Baltimore.

---CNS