Joseph Meaney The Differences between Contraception and Natural Family Planning

Here is my description of the many differences between artificial birth control and Natural Family Planning (NFP) in 10 minutes or less! Many people are under the mistaken impression that birth control and NFP have the same end and effects: namely preventing or postponing pregnancy safely. (Actually, there is often a lack of education about NFP resulting in prejudices against it) First, a fundamental point. Having children is a blessing and a privilege. The gift of life is the first blessing we receive. (This insight is common to almost all religious traditions. It is heavily emphasized in the Judeo-Christian scriptures and tradition)

Why make such an obvious point? Because the greatest promoters of contraception (who not by chance are also the largest promoters of abortion) equate an unplanned pregnancy with a sexually transmitted disease. This is both bad medicine and bad anthropology. I. The language of contraception is aggressive-contra-ception against conception. People commonly use the phrase; Do you have protection? Meaning a condom or birth control. what does it mean to protect oneself from a sexual partner? I think we can all agree this is a very impoverished model of human sexuality. Compare it with the vision of Blessed John Paul II of sexual love expressing the mutual and total self-gift of the spouses. He promoted NFP. Natural Family Planning speaks a gentler language, one of cooperating with the natural rhythms of human fertility. It can be used to facilitate conception or to avoid it, BUT it never causes infertility. My wife and I know something about infertility. We suffered from it for over 8 years before conceiving our daughter Therese. Infertility is a serious medical problem. Fertility is a healthy state. To intention ally cause infertility is not a medical act rather it is destructive and therefore it is not surprising that contraception has negative side-effects for health. This is particularly true of hormonal contraceptives, principally the Pill and birth control injections.

II. Environmental/Health Effects

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We live in an age that is increasingly concerned about the natural environment-with good reason. So why is it so uncommon for people to be worried about the effects of synthetic hormones for birth control on a womans body and her delicate reproductive system? (the only protests one hears from environmental scientists typically are about the feminization of fish or frogs affected by the trace quantities of contraceptive hormones that make their way into rivers and lakes[1]but no concern for the women taking the full dose every day) In fact, the current trend is to promote massively higher doses of hormones present in the so-called Morning After Pills and with out a prescription despite the well documented risks of blood clots, strokes, heart attacks, etc. for women, especially smokers.[2]

NFP has no negative medical side-effects for its users or on the environment in general. A major difference. (I have seen the printed list of side-effects that is included with packages of oral contraceptives in the USA. It is a large sheet with warnings in small print covering both sides) III. Do Natural Family Planning & Artificial Contraception lead to the same results? The most reliable contraceptive methods, other than surgical sterilization, have the same method effectiveness in preventing pregnancy as modern methods of Natural Family Planning. 99%[3]

BUT there are many different results from the two kinds of Family Planning. Artificial birth control users have no need to communicate with each other to use the method effectively-and frequently they do not speak about it. (generally the burden falls on falls almost exclusively on the woman) Natural Family Planning requires communication within the couple. Practitioners report this is one of the most positive aspects of NFP-since a major problem for many spouses is lack of dialogue. Every month the question arises of attempting toachieve or postpone pregnancy. This is much more likely to lead to a decision to have a child than in a couple using contraception where the question of having babies is rarely discussed. Even the days of abstinence from sexual relations required of those who use NFP top revent pregnancy-have the positive effect of encouraging other ways of expressing affection and a more egalitarian distribution of the burdens of family planning. speaking of results, animal studies are quite striking.

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In South Africa, in Kruger National Park a decision was made to put female elephants on the Pill to control their population. The results were dramatic. The social hierarchy of the female herds was disrupted. Erratic behaviour developed causing herd fragmentation and harassment by Bulls.[4]The Park authorities stopped this experiment.

In Bermuda, a group of Macaque monkeys was subjected to another birth control experiment. The dominant male, Austin had three female mates in a larger group. When two mates were put on the Pill he abandoned them and chose new mates from among the remaining fertile females. When all the females were given the Pill he began to rape, masturbate and behave in turbulent and confused manner. When the Pill was discontinued he returned to his original mates... One can certainly exaggerate the applicability of animal studies to humans, but it is troubling. Separation and divorce are recognized as highly traumatic events-second only to the death of a close family member. And countries with high rates of artificial contraception saw a subsequent huge increase in divorce rates. In the United States the divorce rate doubled in the decade after birth control became a dominant custom. It is impossible to single out just one cause for the rise in divorce since many factors played a role, BUT Studies among couples that use Natural Family Planning reveal abnormally low divorce rates. A group of505 NFP using couples in the US Ahad 0.2% or less than 1% of divorces.[5]This has to be highly significant. There is abundant anecdotal evidence of couples who started by using the Pill, were unsatisfied and after turning to NFP report that their marriages improved tremendously. In Summary: I. Contraception and Natural Family Planning are broadly comparable in terms of effectiveness in preventing a pregnancy; 99% method effectiveness rate, BUT NFP has the added benefit of allowing couples to maximise their fertility when they want to conceive a child. (hormonal birth control on the other hand can have last infraganti-fertility effects after it is discontinued) II. Contraception is an aggressive attack on natural fertility resulting in serious potential medical side-effects that fall heavily on the woman and even damaged the environment. NFP works with natural fertility, is 100% free of medical side-effects and 100% good for the environment. (On top of all these benefits women using NFP are more likely to discover gynecological problems and get treatment early due to their observation of their fertility cycle)

Joseph Meaney III. Studies have shown that contraception is devastating for harmonious relations in animal communities and there is good evidence it is destructive for human couples as well. NFP is statistically linked to stronger marriages and can make them more harmonious. Yes, there are big differences between Contraception and Natural Family Planning!

[1] http://www.hliamerica.org/truth-and-charity-forum/what-the-pill-is-doing-to-our-watersupply/ [2] http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/birthcontrol/a/thepilljstthefa_2.htm [3] http://ccli.org/nfp/effectiveness/compare-methods.php [4] http://www.savetheelephants.org/news-reader/items/planned-parenthood-for-elephants40south-africa41.html [5] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2558098/posts