Over the years, our perspective on birth control has moved from one of full acceptance, to one of questioning the health (physical, psychological, spiritual, marital and familial), safety and mechanisms of the various methods available. Since 1984 (when Silent Voices was “birthed”), countless new forms of birth control have become available - we are a culture that is consumed with contraception. While we have always encouraged couples to consider using Natural Family Planning as an alternative to the Pill, condoms, etc., we have recently gone a step further, and are now offering NFP classes to interested couples.

NFP has long been promoted within the Catholic Church, and is still the only accepted means of limiting family size (when it is deemed necessary for the health and welfare of the family) for practicing Catholics. Many Protestants have never considered the reasons why this is so, nor have they considered using NFP - the Pill (and other forms of contraception) is so much “easier.” Now that we’ve learned more about NFP and the reasons why the Catholic Church has stood its ground in rejecting the Pill (etc), we’re excited to be able to offer classes to non-Catholics, who, after looking at the evidence, have decided that NFP is the best method for them.

We’ve discussed the potential abortifacient properties of various birth control methods elsewhere, so we won’t go into that here. What we’d like to do is share several new things we learned as we trained to become NFP instructors. Something that was very surprising to us was learning that until the 1930's, EVERY Christian denomination stood opposed to birth control, including Protestants! The eugenics movement began in the ‘30's, as did Margaret Sanger’s promotion of birth control (if you want more of her history and her work in the churches to convince pastors to embrace birth control, you should read “Grand Illusions” by George Grant). When the Pill was developed in the 1960's, the only church to maintain their stand against birth control was the Catholic Church. (While this is true in the US, there are many churches in Eastern Europe that still “forbid” the use of birth control.) Many felt that the Church would issue a statement in favor of the Pill, and were stunned when Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae in 1968, which reiterated the church’s opposition to birth control.

Not being a Catholic, we’d never had reason to read Humanae Vitae - until taking the NFP instructor course. This document speaks almost prophetically to the consequences of the wide spread use of birth control. Pope Paul VI cautioned against four main problems that would arise if Church teaching on contraception was ignored. First, he warned that the widespread use of contraceptives would lead to “conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality.” There can be no question that this has happened - the rates of abortion, out of wedlock births, sexually transmitted diseases, divorce, extra-marital affairs, etc., have increased dramatically since the 1960's. While the Pill is not the sole reason for this increase, birth control played at least a part in transforming our attitudes towards sex, and the cultural revolution that started then would not have been possible or sustainable without easy access to reliable contraception.

Second, he warned that man would lose respect for woman and “no longer care for her physical and psychological equilibrium,” to the point that he would consider her “as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.” In other words, according to the Pope, contraception might be marketed as liberating for women, but the real “beneficiaries” of birth control pills and devices would be men. Decades later, we can see that contraception has released males from responsibility for their sexual aggression.

Pope Paul IV’s third warning was that widespread use of contraception would place a “dangerous weapon...in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies.” “ Population control policies are now an accepted part of nearly every foreign aid discussion. The massive export of contraceptives, abortion and sterilization by the developed world to developing countries - frequently as a prerequisite for aid dollars and often in direct contradiction to local moral traditions - is a thinly disguised form of population warfare and cultural re-engineering.”1 China, with its “one child” policy forces abortion on pregnant women when contraception has failed, and many doctors in Eastern European countries pressure women into an abortion to meet “quotas” set by the government. Pope Paul IV was right again.

Lastly, Pope Paul warned that “contraception would mislead human beings into thinking they had unlimited dominion over their own bodies, relentlessly turning the human person into the object of his or her own intrusive power. A man and a woman participate uniquely in the glory of God by their ability to co-create new life with Him. At the heart of contraception, however, is the assumption that fertility is an infection which must be attacked and controlled, exactly as antibiotics attack bacteria. In this attitude, one can also see the organic link between contraception and abortion. If fertility can be misrepresented as an infection to be attacked, so too can new life. In either case, a defining element of woman’s identity - her potential for bearing new life - is recast as a weakness requiring vigilant distrust and “treatment.” Woman becomes the object of the tools she relies on to ensure her own liberation and defense, while man takes no share of the burden. Once again, Pope Paul IV was right.”2

So - what’s the difference between using the Pill or following NFP? Why does the Church support one but not the other? The answer is simple: those who use NFP are not working against the way God has created them - they are not withholding part of themselves (their fertility) from God or their partner - and they believe that every act of intercourse should be fully an act of self-giving, and therefore open to the possibility of new life. “When, for good reasons, a husband and wife limit their intercourse to the wife’s natural periods of infertility during a month, they are simply observing a cycle which God Himself created in the woman. They are not subverting it.”3

“There are, of course, many wonderful benefits to the practice of NFP. The wife preserves herself from intrusive chemicals or devices and remains true to her natural cycle. The husband shares in the planning and responsibility for NFP. Both learn a greater degree of self-mastery and a deeper respect for each other. It’s true that NFP involves sacrifices and periodic abstinence from intercourse. It can, at times, be a difficult road. But so can any serious Christian life, whether or ordained, consecrated, single or married. Moreover, the experience of tens of thousands of couples has shown that, when lived prayerfully and unselfishly, NFP deepens and enriches marriage and results in greater intimacy - and greater joy.”4 Studies have shown that while the divorce rate is about 50% for all marriages (regardless of religious affiliation), it is only 4% for those couples using NFP!

Over the years there have been good scientific studies that have proven the effectiveness of NFP. Unlike the “rhythm method,” the Ovulation or Sympto-Thermal Methods of NFP are VERY effective when used correctly. (The Ovulation Method teaches the couple to recognize signs of fertile cervical mucous, which the couple records on a simple chart. The Sympto-Thermal Method teaches the signs of fertile cervical mucous, and also has the couple record the woman’s basal body temperature every morning. The charting process and “rules” for the Sympto-Thermal Method are a bit more involved - this is a good method for those who really enjoy graphs and records and keeping track of lots of details.) When the couple has received proper instruction, and are faithfully following the “rules,” the incidence of experiencing an “unplanned pregnancy” are about the same as for users of the Pill - without any of the health risks and/or side effects!

There are many resources available to couples interested in using NFP. The following websites have good, reliable information, as well as information about where you can find an NFP instructor:

www.boma-usa.com
www.woomb.org
www.simlsystems.com
www.ccli.org
www.familyplanning.net
www.canfp.org

Another good resource is your local Catholic Diocese. Sadly, we are unaware of any Protestant NFP resource - all of the NFP instructors we are aware of have received their training either from a Catholic organization, or from their Catholic Diocese. While some Catholic teaching is included in the NFP classes they offer, we have found that it is minimal, and that it is not an obstacle at all in learning the NFP method you have chosen to use. If you live in San Diego County, there are two Protestant NFP instructors available through the Diocese - Linda Crawford offers classes at Camp Pendleton in the North County, and Sharon Pearce offers classes in the Kearny Mesa/Serra Mesa area, or in Chula Vista.

For more information, please feel free to send us an email, and we’ll happily answer your questions, and/or help you find an instructor!

.“Of Human Life: A Pastoral Letter to the People of God of Northern Colorado on the Truth and Meaning of Married Love,” Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Denver, July 22, 1998.

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