Why Does Silent Voices Encourage NFP?

By:  Sharon Pearce

When we first "birthed" Silent Voices, I had the typical non-Catholic perspective on birth control - "it was a far better alternative to nothing - and if people were using birth control, there would be fewer abortions."  It didn't take me long to realize that I'd been pretty naive in my thinking - because we were seeing many women who were using birth control who were getting pregnant!  Granted, many of these  women weren't using birth control consistently - or correctly - but they were making the attempt, and in their minds, that was good enough - they were "being responsible."  And - because they were "being responsible" - it wasn't their fault that they were pregnant, so having an abortion was their "right."

The other thing that was happening during these early years was that I was reading everything I could get my hands on from the pro-life movement in the US.  I wanted to know as much as I could about the issues we were dealing with - from people who had been "in the trenches" for years before we got started.  It was the first time I'd ever heard that the Pill could actually cause an early abortion - a chemical abortion - and I was horrified.  I never knew that - and I had used the Pill myself for years as "birth control."  When I learned how the pharmaceutical companies and powerful medical groups manipulated terminology to get women to accept the Pill without question, I was angry.  That's when my eyes were opened and I started to understand why my Catholic co-laborers were so opposed to the Pill and the IUD.

I still didn't see anything wrong with using a barrier method - condoms, diaphragms - or spermicides - those were all "OK" morally. I didn't start to question those options until I traveled to Eastern Europe to help Believers in Russia and Romania start pro-life ministries of their own.  I was always surprised when their first question to me was what I thought about birth control - did  I think it was morally acceptable?  I told them what I knew about the Pill and IUD, but told them that I didn't think anything was wrong with condoms, etc.

As the years passed - and as I continued my habit of reading through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, I started to feel convicted about my position on birth control.  I couldn't deny