Think Again Thursday #3 (belated)

Em, I'm looking for more correct information on NFP. Anyone?

Here’s the belated Think Again Thursday post, and one I’ve wanted to do for a couple weeks since I read about Cherie Blair’s latest verbal blunder regarding family planning.

Now Mrs. Blair’s no rookie in the Church teaching disobedience department. She’s a regular on the the-Church-should-change-her-teaching-on-contraception circuit, grinding her axe at every turn. In fact, the article prompting this latest edition of Think Again Thursday is a perfect example. It’s evidently a piece about her attitude about money, lifestyle and don’t miss this segueway, “Mrs Blair also says in the interview, in the January edition out on Thursday, that MPs have been pilloried over their expenses. ‘They saw it as an allowance, which is not the same thing.’…An ardent Catholic, she says she hopes that the Church will change its view on contraception.” I’m sorry, what does one have to do with the other? Journalism has gone as far downhill as faith.

Theological misinformation and journalistic disability aside, my beef is largely with this statement, which I believe my readers (of all faiths/ political viewpoints) will have a problem with (the money line in bold):

The Church says that sex is not just for procreation and does allow the natural form of contraception. Personally, I think it is better to go for contraception that works, which is quite different from abortion.

In this letter writing campaign, I’d like to find out if this is the correct quote, as the syntax here isn’t exactly the well-worded style of an experienced barrister.

That aside, it’s clear that legal education and worldly knowledge don’t exactly equal understanding and certainly not wisdom. Would you help me in blogging about this, and in particular by contacting Mrs. Blair to correct and clarify the statement that NFP doesn’t work?

My fellow Catholics may wonder why I’m not calling for a firm correction of her misunderstanding of Christian teaching on marriage, sexuality, family and family planning. I’m glad you asked. Personally, I will send her a Theology of the Body text, either Theology of the Body for Beginners (West) or Called to Love (Anderson), and will invite her to a further broadening of her and mind and formation. However, I don’t make as big a deal of it as I’d like to here because, frankly, she seems like a prideful person who’s more open to science than faith. And I’d really like her to see that even in a secular, medical sense–she’s wrong.

It is interesting that Mrs. Blair is clearly accomplished in a worldly sense, and is passionate about women’s issues, yet continues to promote health “services,” particularly contraception, that have NOT liberated women as originally thought. In this review of a number of sociological, economical and anthropological studies one thing is clear: free love wasn’t free, and contraception, the fuel for the sexual revolution, was less of a liberator and more of an arsonist for society. Ironically, women, minorities and children have suffered the most. “We must make it crystal clear that the church’s commitment to the poor requires nothing less than a vigorous proclamation of the church’s true and beautiful teaching about sex and marriage. In other words, we must make it clear that the preferential option for the poor begins in the home.” If Mrs. Blair is concerned about social justice for the women, children and the poor, then she needs to THINK AGAIN about her stance on contraception.

Contact information for Mrs. Blair:

Email: mediarequest@cherieblairoffice.org
Cherie Blair Foundation

Physical Address (c/o the Tony Blair Office):

The Office of Tony Blair
P.O. Box 60519
London
W2 7JU
United Kingdom

Guideline text:

[Salutation of your choice]

You have a wide reputation as an intelligent woman, and a proponent of women’s liberation and rights. I’m writing to say that I am as well, and I thank you for many of your efforts to promote social justice.

[Something brief about yourself.]

I’m also passionate about social justice, and have found personally that natural methods of family planning (or NFP) have been extremely liberating not only in my life, but in the life of women and families around the world. I found it interesting to note, however, in a recent interview that you were quoted as dismissing natural methods of family planning, saying “Personally, I think it’s better to go for contraception that works.” You are an educated and intelligent woman. Did you actually say this?

If so, not only does NFP “work” to postpone pregnancy, but this journal article from the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine even recommends that it’s something all OB/GYN’s and family practice physicians could benefit from learning and even teaching.

http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/content/full/22/2/147

You may also be interested in this study by UK researchers, in which lead researcher Dr Petra Frank-Herrmann said: “We maintain that the effectiveness of the Sympto-thermal method is comparable to the effectiveness of modern contraceptive methods such as oral contraceptives, and is an effective and acceptable method of family planning.” (Human Reproduction 2007 22(5):1310-1319; doi:10.1093/humrep/dem003)

For a clinical web site with information on one of several modern NFP methods with a medical imprimatur, see www.fertilitycare.org.

[optional:] I know that your unfavorable and under-informed opinion of NFP perhaps comes from a prejudice against the Catholic Church’s constant teaching on marriage and family which you see as oppressive, but be assured of two things: first, many, many users of NFP (or Fertility Awareness Method) are not Catholic, or even particularly religious. Second, the Church’s teaching are hugely misunderstood, but are being rediscovered anew in recent decades. They are joyfully embraced by youth and older adults alike, both by lifetime Catholics and those (like me) who lived the contraceptive life and found it wanting. I would like, for this reason to share a cause of my joy, and gift to you [item you're enclosing].

Thank you for your consideration.

Very Sincerely,

[an NFP fan]