Natural family planning

Natural family planning (NFP) comprises the family planning methods approved by the Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant denominations for both achieving and postponing or avoiding pregnancy. In accordance with the Church's teachings regarding sexual behavior, NFP excludes the use of other methods of birth control, which it refers to as 'artificial contraception.'If it should be declared that contraception is not evil in itself, then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit had been on the side of the Protestant churches in 1930 (when the encyclical Casti connubii was promulgated), in 1951 (Pius XII's address to the midwives), and in 1958 (the address delivered before the Society of Hematologists in the year the pope died). It should likewise have to be admitted that for a half century the Spirit failed to protect Pius XI, Pius XII, and a large part of the Catholic hierarchy from a very serious error. This would mean that the leaders of the Church, acting with extreme imprudence, had condemned thousands of innocent human acts, forbidding, under pain of eternal damnation, a practice which would now be sanctioned. The fact can neither be denied nor ignored that these same acts would now be declared licit on the grounds of principles cited by the Protestants, which popes and bishops have either condemned or at least not approved.We also see honest congruity with the language of the body by saying 'no' to conception with our bodies (via barrier methods or sensual massage) when our minds and hearts are also saying 'no' to conception. We don’t believe this angers God, nor that it leads to the slippery slope of relativism or divorce. We strongly disagree with the idea that this is a mortal sin.... It’s a theological attack on women to always require that abstinence during the time of the wife’s peak sexual desire (ovulation) for the entire duration of her fertile life, except for the handful of times when she conceives.The use of the term 'Natural Family Planning' has come under sharp attack from traditional Catholic writers in recent years because it implies the right of the couple to 'plan' their family; whereas the Catholic norm is to let God plan one's family and to accept the children when (and if) God gives them--as a blessing from Him on the marital union and on society. Natural family planning (NFP) comprises the family planning methods approved by the Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant denominations for both achieving and postponing or avoiding pregnancy. In accordance with the Church's teachings regarding sexual behavior, NFP excludes the use of other methods of birth control, which it refers to as 'artificial contraception.' Periodic abstinence is now deemed moral by the Church for avoiding or postponing pregnancy for just reasons. When used to avoid pregnancy, couples may engage in sexual intercourse during a woman's naturally occurring infertile times such as during portions of her ovulatory cycle. Various methods may be used to identify whether a woman is likely to be fertile; this information may be used in attempts to either avoid or achieve pregnancy. Effectiveness can vary widely, depending on the method used, whether the user was trained properly, and how carefully they followed the protocol. Pregnancy can result in anywhere from 1 to 25% of the user population per year for users of the symptoms based or calendar based methods, depending on the method used and how carefully it was practiced. If perfectly practised, pregnancy rates can be as low as 1% per year; if imperfectly practised, as high as 25%. (See sidebar.) The largest natural family planning study was of 19,843 women in Calcutta, India who were 52% Hindu, 27% Muslim and 21% Christian. The unexpected pregnancy rate was 0.2 pregnancies/100 women users yearly. Natural family planning has shown very weak and contradictory results in pre-selecting the gender of a child, with the exception of a Nigerian study at odds with all other findings. Because of these remarkable results, an independent study needs to be repeated in other populations. In ancient history, some Christian writers were against abstinence to prevent childbirth and some allowed it. Possibly the earliest Christian writing about periodic abstinence was by Clement of Alexandria. He wrote, 'Let the Educator (Christ) put us to shame with the word of Ezekiel: 'Put away your fornications' . Why, even unreasoning beasts know enough not to mate at certain times. To indulge in intercourse without intending children is to outrage nature, whom we should take as our instructor.' In the year 388, St. Augustine wrote against the Manichaeans: 'Is it not you who used to counsel us to observe as much as possible the time when a woman, after her purification, is most likely to conceive, and to abstain from cohabitation at that time...?' The Manichaeans (the group the early church father St. Augustine wrote of and considered to be heretics) believed that it was immoral to create any children, thus (by their belief system), trapping souls in mortal bodies. Augustine condemned them for their use of periodic abstinence during fertile periods: 'From this it follows that you consider marriage is not to procreate children, but to satiate lust.':120 About the year 401, St. Augustine wrote 'Of the Good of Marriage' in which he affirmed married couples have the option of having sex without either of them intending procreation: 'For, whereas that natural use, when it pass beyond the compact of marriage, that is, beyond the necessity of begetting, is pardonable in the case of a wife, damnable in the case of an harlot; that which is against nature is execrable when done in the case of an harlot, but more execrable in the case of a wife.' Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote in his Summa Contra Gentiles: 'Hence it is clear that every emission of the semen is contrary to the good of man, which takes place in a way whereby generation is impossible; and if this is done on purpose, it must be a sin. I mean a way in which generation is impossible in itself as is the case in every emission of the semen without the natural union of male and female: wherefore such sins are called 'sins against nature.' But if it is by accident that generation cannot follow from the emission of the semen, the act is not against nature on that account, nor is it sinful; the case of the woman being barren would be a case in point.' However, in the Catholic Church, the Council of Trent, issued the following anathema: 'If any one saith that the Church errs in that she declares that, for many causes, a separation may take place between husband and wife, in regard of bed, or in regard of cohabitation, for a determinate or for an indeterminate period; let him be anathema.' Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, were opposed to unnatural birth control. Centuries later, John Wesley, the leader of the Methodist movement said that unnatural birth control could destroy one's soul.