There is an excellent article posted on the WIT Blog (Women In Theology) titled, “Women Speak about Natural Family Planning.” Whether you practice NFP or not, whether you agree with the Church’s position on artificial contraception or not (and there is, as regular polling suggests, a huge population in the United States that does not agree), I would be interested to hear what you think about this excellent reflection on the subject. I’m sure the women over at WIT would also be interested in a respectful conversation on the subject. Here’s how the piece begins:
If we listen to the stories of all women, not just those for whom natural family planning works in the way that the magisterium says that it does, we will see that natural family planning is not always good. In fact, in some cases, it is natural family planning, rather than artificial birth control, that is harmful to marriage and families.
In her article, “Papal Ideals, Marital Realities: One View From the Ground,” Northwestern professor Cristina Traina critiques magisterial teaching on sex and marriage, especially as it relates to artificial contraception and sexual complementarity, from the standpoint of her experience as a married, Catholic woman. Her argument is not so much theological as it is practical— she offers her experience as evidence that church teaching on marriage and sex does not always “work,” and in some cases can actually harm, rather than protect, particular marriages. This approach is particularly effective since the magisterium often argues that contraception and betrayal of gender roles do great harm to marriage and family.
For the full text, visit: “Women Speak about Natural Family Planning.”
