A good friend of mine asked me this question once. My friend wasn't the first to ask me this question, because hers is not an uncommon one (even among Catholics). In fact, this was one question that I struggled with when coming back home to the Church. Here is the exchange we had (slightly edited to fill in the context of the conversation we had been having):
Why don't Catholics use contraceptives? Isn't abstinence sort of a form of birth control? Selectively opting not to have sex in order to prevent birth? Or timing things so that a baby is less likely?
The topic of birth control often becomes a confusing subject because a lot of people tend to fixate on a 'legalistic' view of it, i.e. you can do this/can't do that, while forgetting the reasons for its prohibition. You are correct, abstinence is a form of "birth control". What should be clarified is the use of artificial contraceptives. To the average person, when the word contraceptive is used, the first thought is the pill, condoms, the morning-after pill, or sterilization. Someone in the medical field may be familiar with other methods that utilizes breast-feeding, or fertility-symptoms measuring. These natural methods are allowed by the Church if there is sufficient reason (so, it being artificial v.s. 'natural' isn't the factor that makes it allowable). Even natural "contraceptives" can be a perversion, and thus lead to sin.
Confusing as this may be, it may help to explain the why behind it. Sexuality, in Catholic understanding (theology/morality/etc.), has its roots in the Sacrament of Marriage.
Yes, I threw out 'Sacrament' as a potential topic to take up further, because this is one other subject that is uniquely Catholic, I think. A brief explanation of Sacrament can be compared to against that of a contract. Contracts are agreements between two parties, exchanging goods or services, where if one side faults, the agreement is dissolved (sometimes with punitive damages)--from the experiences that I have had, i.e. what I have seen, this tends to be more how protestants see marriage.. please correct me if I am wrong. Sacraments (Latin: sacrāmentum, which means oath/obligation... covenant), on the other hand, while like a contract is an agreement between two parties, the 'agreements' are vows sealed with the exchange of persons, and is more intimate (familial), thus indissoluble. A good example is Christ,
and the New and everlasting covenant. He was the person whom God exchanged from His family to seal His final 'promise'. So we find in Genesis this first covenant taking place, between God, Adam and Eve, where man shall leave his father and mother, cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. It is very striking what Adam says of Eve: This now is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. In this covenential context, we understand better the blessing that 
God says to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1: "And God blessed them, saying: be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth..." This being said, we see that the Sacrament (a more official definition being "an outward sign of an inward grace") of Marriage is a covenential promise between a man and a woman... with the familial exchange being themselves giving each other completely as Christ gave Himself completely on the Cross. One of many blessings that comes of this is the fertility and conception of life, where man shares in God's creation. In fact, the conception of a child
is the closest reflection of the Trinity that man can get here on Earth. To intentionally eliminate, or remove the fertility aspect of this, is to pervert the covenential vows and God's blessings. It even becomes a contradiction to some extent, because how can one, in a covenential vow, say "I give you my all", and then place a barrier in the act of giving your all? Or, "I give you my all", then withhold the part of the self which includes fertility? (This is another place where we see the beauty of sexuality in that every time a man and women embrace in bed, they are renewing, or making present again, their marital vows).Natural Family Planning is simply knowledge. Knowledge of being able to recognize the natural fertility cycles that a woman goes through in order to either aid in achieving pregnancy, or to avoid/delay pregnancy. An object/process is not introduced to cause infertility, as in the barrier/oral method (artificial). As mentioned earlier, even Natural Family Planning can become a perversion of what has been explained, especially when there isn't a sufficient reason to delay/prevent pregnancy. Any time sexuality deviates from the understanding within the context of Sacrament/Covenant of Marriage (contraception-natural or artificial, masturbation, pornography... even marrying only for political/monetary reasons or marrying with no intention of having children-or not being open to having children... etc.), this deviation becomes occasion for sin.
God Bless You!
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