Responsible parenthood is exercised “by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time”. It requires that spouses “recognize their own duties toward God, themselves, their families and human society”, since “they are not free to act as they choose in the service of transmitting life”. For just reasons spouses may wish to space births, provided the desire “is not motivated by selfishness but is in conformity with the generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood”. The methods must be those “that conform to the objective criteria of morality, that is, periodic continence and use of the infertile periods”.
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