HERE is an excellent 2001 piece by Charlotte Hayes about the history, science and effectiveness of Natural Family Planning (NFP), with a long bibliography for further reading.

Hayes reports that, according to a 1994 study, the rate of “accidental pregnancies” in couples using NFP was around two to three percent in the first year. Divorce rates are extremely low among NFP couples.

Synthetic hormones are linked to increase rates of heart attacks and breast cancer. Also, there is some evidence that sperm reduces depression in women, providing an argument against condom use.

Why is NFP not actively recommended by the Obama administration, given its extreme concern for the affordability of contraception? NFP costs virtually nothing. And, in a world where organic chickens are considered morally superior to chickens raised on chemical feed, why is the Organic Woman so rare?

 — Comments—

Mary writes:

It is one of the great hypocricies of our age: the left promotes wholesale worship of the natural world and, at the same time, total dependence on technology for all aspects of human sexuality and procreation. Apparently convenience and pleasure ultimately trump natural living. Yes, God created a beautiful world for us and we should be good stewards of the earth. But stewardship has become an obsession, a religion in itself; it has replaced genuine worship. Our government has conspired to do this little by little starting in our public schools, by taking out prayer and replacing it with recycling. Our gaze has been shifted downward and we are now spiritually earthbound.

Jesse Powell writes:

I have rarely heard the argument against artificial contraception spoken at all and Hayes’ piece puts forth the arguments particularly well.

I’m thinking the reason why artificial birth control is so popular is simply because it is easy and doesn’t require self-restraint; as if self-restraint itself is a horrible burden nobody should have to suffer with for even a moment. Apparently techniques of Natural Family Planning have been so well developed that they now rival more conventional artificial forms of birth control in effectiveness.

A particularly interesting part of the article is how it details the universal condemnation of birth control in the past by both Catholics and Protestants and how the condemnation of birth control by religious authorities persisted even after the first advancements in birth control technology were made.

Interestingly, the major innovations in birth control came about 100 years before “The Pill” with the vulcanization of rubber. Somehow society managed to maintain its moral standards even after such great tools of liberation as the condom and the diaphragm were invented.

A reader writes:

If such low divorce rates were associated not with NFP but with abortion, it would be top news for the liberal media, and that wouldn’t be because they want to promote marriage, but as a means to promote evil.

John G. writes:

I see you stumbled across some statistics put out by the NFP industry. You should be aware that all the numbers you’ll see in those contexts will fall into one of 3 categories: “Lies, damn lies, and statistics.” I don’t believe there is any scientific validity to any of them. And wouldn’t it be horrible if there were? The only thing more dreadful to contemplate than artificial birth control would be a system of charts and graphs of mucous and temperatures that had a 98% “effectiveness” rate. What could be less “natural”?

A much more realistic portrait of the effectiveness of NFP is presented in this wonderfully humorous and yet accurate piece:

As a slogan, “Use NFP: It Doesn’t Work!” has many strong arguments in its favor. First, it is true. NFP proponents tout its 99 percent effectiveness rate, but they neglect to mention that this is true only if the husband is in the Navy and assigned to extended, uninterrupted sea duty of three-year tours or longer. Otherwise, for most Catholics I know, NFP means a baby every two years or so, though the rate can slow with age, as the couples learn a proper respect – that is, fear – for each other and are too tired in any event for what Catholics call “the conjugal act.”

You might notice, by the way, how closely Harry Crocker is aligned with the true Catholic spirit exemplified by the wonderful letter of Pope Pius XII which you recently published on your site, unlike the proponents of the NFP industry who tout their bogus statistics.

[The discussion continues here.]

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