Over the past two years, President Obama’s health care reform law has been front and center in the news. People across the entire political spectrum have had differing opinions about it. But I think we can agree that the most controversial element of it has been the HHS Mandate, which would force all companies to pay for birth control, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs as a part of their employees’ health insurance plans.
Some Christians are against the mandate because they are morally opposed to birth control, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs. The Catholic Church’s position on this mandate has especially been front and center in this health care reform debate for that reason. It doesn’t want to be forced to pay for devices that it opposes for moral and religious reasons, and it supports other organizations who feel the same way. Some people have painted this opposition as misogyny or sexism. For example, Lisa Maatz, writing for the website Rh Reality Check, says this: This month, a for-profit arts-and-crafts chain and a for-profit custom cabinet manufacturer will go before the U.S. Supreme Court to argue against a woman’s right to use her insurance plan to access contraception. If you think you’ve entered a time warp, you are correct. If you also think this sounds like bosses trying to control the private lives of their employees, you’re right again. The leaders of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation have invited themselves into their employees’ bedrooms and medicine cabinets under the guise of religious freedom, and these bosses are seriously out of line.”
To clarify things, Church-run organizations are not deliberately trying to block women from using contraception. They allow their female employees to use contraception as long as they (these said companies) don’t have to pay for it. But that’s not the point I want to make here. Many non-Catholics, and perhaps some Catholics, would say that the Church’s opposition to birth control is misogynistic in and of itself. But it’s not at all. We Catholics may not be in favor of artificial birth control, but we do believe in something called Natural Family Planning. Natural Family Planning, or NFP, puts a man and a woman in touch with a woman’s fertility cycle, and the couple uses that information to decide how to plan their family. If you do the research, you’ll find that it’s pretty amazing. Let me explain.
Many people think NFP is the rhythm method (which is inaccurate), and thus they are opposed to it because they think it’s not effective. But couples have multiple options to choose from should they choose to pursue NFP. There are the Billings Model, the Creighton Model, the Marquette Model, and the STM method. These are all upwards of 95% effective at spacing out pregnancies.
But there are other positive side effects that come along with using fertility awareness methods besides the ability to avoid pregnancy. First of all, because artificial hormones are not being pumped into the woman’s body, it’s 100% medically safe. Secondly, it’s effective at helping couples conceive children, because the couple knows when the woman is fertile and when she isn’t. Third of all, it’s cheap. The couple doesn’t have to pay for pills, shots, or condoms or anything like that. NFP classes usually require registration fees, but aside from that it’s cost effective. Fourth, because of the lack of hormones, it’s also environmentally friendly. There’s no artificial estrogen leaking into our water supply.
Oh, did I mention that the divorce rate for NFP couples is DRAMATICALLY LOWER than the rate for those who use contraception? Because couples who use NFP have to talk about what’s happening with the woman’s body, they have to communicate openly with each other about what’s happening in their lives. NFP also promotes gender equality within marriages because the burden of spacing out pregnancies is placed on the man’s and woman’s shoulders, as opposed to the woman shouldering it by taking pills to suppress her fertility. Furthermore, because the man and woman aren’t pressured to be constantly sexually available for each other, they take each other for granted less, reach a new level of consideration for each other’s needs, and learn how to express love in non-sexual ways. How awesome is that?
Now, as a caveat, I would like to say that it’s true that NFP couples do tend to have bigger families than those who use artificial birth control. But let’s think about that for a second. NFP couples aren’t drugging themselves or wrapping themselves in plastic to suppress their fertility. They’re not trying to “protect themselves” from each other. They’re planning their families in a way that the man and and woman are actively involved in the process. They’re learning how to love each other without using each other. To sum it up, they seek to understand how their fertility works. And what happens when this is going on? They don’t see their fertility as a problem to be solved or avoided. So they’re more open to having more kids. And there’s nothing the matter with that at all.
There are other things I could say here to extol the virtues of NFP, but then this post would be way too long and I would lose your attention. But there are a few main points I want to leave with you. First, I hope everyone here has a better understanding of why Catholics feel the way they do about artificial contraception and why they feel the way they do about the HHS Mandate. It’s not condemning anyone, or saying “You belong in Hell if you use condoms and the Pill.” This is about being in favor of something that’s a solid alternative to artificial birth control. Secondly, I think all my readers here, regardless of what your religion or lack of it is, can agree that all I things I just said about NFP are good things. I don’t want to force Catholicism on anyone. I just want to explain the Church’s teachings in ways that anyone can understand. But above all, I really do wish more women (especially feminists!) knew that when it comes to family planning and relationships in general, there is something better for us to use than condoms and pills. We deserve better, as well as our spouses and families we have or may have some day.
To learn more about NFP, check out the links below. 🙂
Briana's Thoughts....Religion, Politics, Current Events 