young conservative Catholic women try to promote natural family planning over artificial B. Control

[Liberal_in_LA]

Ashley McGuire fell in love with the Catholic Church five years ago, after reading its teaching against artificial birth control.

McGuire, then a skeptical Protestant college student, initially saw the ban as a mandatory march to “domestic slavery.” But the more she read, the more she was blown away by the idea that sex — and women’s bodies — must be about more than physical pleasure.

Yet the images the church uses to promote its own method of birth control freaked her out. Pamphlets for what the church calls natural family planning feature photos of babies galore. A church-sponsored class on the method uses a book with a woman on the cover, smiling as she balances a grocery bag on one hip, a baby on the other.

---------------

McGuire, 26, of Alexandria is part of a movement of younger, religiously conservative Catholic women who are trying to rebrand an often-ignored church teaching: its ban on birth control methods such as the Pill. Arguing that church theology has been poorly explained and encouraged, they want to shift the image of a traditional Catholic woman from one at home with children to one with a great, communicative sex life, a chemical-free body and babies only when the parents think the time is right.

-------------------

The new movement’s goal is to make over the image of natural family planning, now used by a small minority of Catholic women. But natural family planning, which requires women to track their fertile periods through such natural signs such as temperature and cervical mucus, is seen by many fertility experts as unreliable and is viewed by most Catholics as out of step with contemporary women.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/2012/04/15/gIQA9n1mJT_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop

[bullwinkle428]

1. What do you call women that use the "rhythm method" for birth control?

Mothers!

Seriously, "chemical-free bodies"? Does that mean that one would never consider the use of ibuprofen for a splitting headache or muscle strain?

[LiberalLoner]

2. lets see how keen she is on this when

She is married, forty, with 8 to 10 children and another on the way with an abusive husband, both living in poverty.

[southernyankeebelle]

3. Beware ladies. They speak not what they know. The rhythm method doesn't work. I know

because my momma had 6 six using that method that didn't work and she had 3 miscarriages. The church wants you to have many children to bring to their flock. Lies lies lies.

[Mimosa]

9. Exactly. Who actually converts to Catholicism?

I'm not knocking Catholics. I am grateful for the excellent education I received from Catholic schools during the late 1950s, through 1960s. Many of the nuns and priests were 'liberals' and were active in the anti-war and civil rights movements.

But if those kinds of people were still in habits and still in the Church they would be fighting the antiquated misogynist doctrine against contraception. They would support priests being able to be married if that is their choice. (More normal men might become priests and there would be less or no pedophilia.) I don't think they would have to change every doctrine, but they are ridiculously behind the times. If they changed a couple of policies I'm sure people might consider joining the Catholic Church.

The Catholic hierarchy fights for illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America because those people are more submissive to Church doctrines and they have lots of children.

[southernyankeebelle]

10. Well you come from the same catholic upbring I did. I use to be proud to be a catholic. I

still believe in god but don't go to church anymore.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

21. Who converts to Catholicism

simply for their teachings on birth control?

[Mimosa]

22. Newt Gingrich coverted to Catholicism...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1916297,00.html

I didn't say anybody would convert to Catholicism because of their doctrine re: birth control, did I?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

23. No

But seemed to be the gist of the OP's article.

[Blue_Tires]

26. two reasons i can think of

1. She was obsessed with a past/current guy who's far right catholic and this was the price...I've actually known a few men and even more women who have totally sold out their beliefs to get that perfect husband/wife or marry into the "right" family, and I imagine it happens more often in D.C. since so many have political ambitions...

2. More likely, she just has full-blown baby rabies so all potential boyfriends know up front she wants the ring, the white dress and a breeding marathon on the wedding night...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

27. I'd vote for #2 myself

Which is all fine and good and stuff and she's, of course, free to make her own decisions, but I personally couldn't imagine willingly submitting myself to such (IMHO) archaic and anachronistic beliefs.

[laundry_queen]

12. There is a way to do it, and it's not using the rhythm method

I don't have time to get into it, but the book 'Taking charge of your Fertility' really worked for me in the years when I was avoiding pregnancy. I could pinpoint the day I was ovulating with astounding accuracy, which is near impossible for women like me with PCOS. And knowing the 'tools' also helped me conceive my kids when I wanted them. It can work fairly well if you are dedicated to it. And it is a lot of work, it had nothing to do with counting days.

Most people are too uneducated about their bodies and biology to know how to use this method properly. Like you my grandmother declared the rhythm method didn't work - however, I heard stories about my grandfather and grandmother and I suppose I would have told her back then that the abstaining part is important, lol. She ended up with 8 kids which IS less than my great-aunts all of which had 15-19 kids.

[southernyankeebelle]

17. Why bother when you have the birth control pills and other things you can use. I only

had one child at the age of 32. I had a very difficult time only gaining 3 pds. I didn't want anymore. The moral doctor wouldn't help me. My own doctor didn't want me having any more children because I did have a lot of medical issues. You know you are have troubles when every month I kept losing weight til the last month when I gained 3 pds. Finally when we went to the doctor and he said no because my husband wanted a vagotomy. He told my husband maybe he might want more children. forget me and my problems. My husband said no and he didn't want me to go through what we had gone through. Since he wouldn't do it at least he recommended a family practice doctor who would and we went to me. We never regretted doing that. We are still married after 32 yrs. My son is 31 and lucky for us we have a 6 yr old grand daughter. So we are happy. I just don't think the church has any business in my personal business.

[laundry_queen]

24. You are right the church has no business in people's personal business

And they absolutely should not even be entertained as having a voice in this. Women should be able to chose whatever form of birth control they want. Period.

As for why bother - some of us have serious problems with birth control pills (I have hormone induced migraines so the pill was not an option until recently when they came out with a low-dose continuous pill). And we used condoms during 'danger' times. But it does take commitment and a lot of knowledge. I just wanted to 'put out there' that I knew a lot of women (all non-religious liberals, BTW) who used the method in the book I mentioned and it worked for them as well - usually when they were breastfeeding their babies and didn't want to use a pill while breastfeeding. And some women just rather would not put artificial hormones in their body as is their choice. I don't think that's necessarily a religious/non-religious, right/left thing.

[AllyCat]

4. Good luck with that. It's worked OH so well for the last 6 millenia, no?

Chemical-free? Um...okay. Is ANY of us chemical-free??

[Warren Stupidity]

5. The only reason the pope permits "natural family planning" is

because it doesn't work.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Will their ensuing offspring have rhythm?

[HangOnKids]

16. She Will Have An Entire Troop Of Dancin' MoFo's! n/t

[gratuitous]

7. Good for them

I fully support anyone advocating for what they think is right, and if they persuade someone to think like they do, more power to them. THE PROBLEM arises when Ms. McGuire and her fellow rhythmics decide that's how everyone should conduct their lives, and attempt to impose their opinion by government fiat through the law.

See the difference?

[RB TexLa]

18. Excatly

[shraby]

8. How many children do you suppose she is going to have before she realizes

the rhythm method doesn't work.

[msu2ba]

11. H.L. Mencken

"It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry." ~H.L. Mencken, Notebooks, 1956

[joeybee12]

13. What an idiot...seriously...if you want to try the rhythm method, then fine...

Just don't think it's at all reliable or that you won't get pregnant when you don't think the time is right.

[Cleita]

14. I should introduce her to a Catholic relative of mine, who had two

unexpected pregnancies that she called her "rhythm babies" because that was the method, tracking fertile periods that she used. She eventually switched to the pill.

[4th law of robotics]

15. "babies only when the parents think the time is right"

Wouldn't the catholics have condemned that exact line of reasoning not so long ago as going against the church?

I thought the official doctrine was that god decided when the time was right.

[Yavin4]

19. What About the People Who Have No Rhythm? nt

[MoonRiver]

20. My daughter got pregnant twice using the rhythm method.

(She's not Catholic.)

[Blue_Tires]

25. So with this rhythm method in place, does the church frown on the good ol' "pullout"?

[hedgehog]

28. There are 65 million Catholics in the US -

http://cara.georgetown.edu/CARAServices/requestedchurchstats.html


so anecdotal stories about selling 130 tickets to a seminar on NFP are meaningless!

[Serenades]

29. It doesn't work

It doesn't work. My wife got pregnant literally a few weeks after we got married. It is BS!!!! I'm being serious!