As the pill marks its 50th anniversary this year, the Catholic Church is making renewed efforts to persuade the faithful to practice natural family planning, arguing that artificial birth control not only violates church doctrine, it harms women's bodies and the environment.But the church has an uphill battle, Catholic leaders say.
Polls show that Catholics overwhelmingly reject the Vatican's views on birth control. And about half of American Catholics who leave their faith cite their unhappiness with the church's teachings on birth control as a reason they left, according to a survey last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Still, natural family planning -- which advocates abstinence during a woman's fertile period -- has won over some skeptics.
When Jenelle Ponkowski, a 25-year-old Catholic from West Bloomfield, first heard about natural family planning, she said she thought "like, no way, that doesn't work," she recalled. "I'm not doing that."
But after taking a required pre-marriage class through the church with her future husband and researching it herself, she changed her mind. It made medical sense to her -- and it jibed with her Catholic beliefs.
On Tuesday, a public conference promoting natural family planning is to be held at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
Push is to fight contraception
It's a warm Saturday morning inside a Catholic center in Dearborn as a married couple tries to convince a group that abstaining from using artificial birth control is the right thing to do.
"Why does the church do this?" Ponkowski says to about 10 young couples taking a required pre-marriage class. "It wants us to have the best life possible."
The pitch is part of a stepped-up effort by the Archdiocese of Detroit to tout the benefits of natural family planning, which is based on avoiding sexual intercourse during a woman's fertile period.
In the past, Catholic teachings on family planning might have brought to mind images of stern priests and dowdy nuns hectoring youngsters on the evils of the modern world. But today, the church has revamped its strategy by putting forth scientific and environmental reasons -- along with religious and moral ones -- for natural family planning. It says the new techniques are based on sound science, unlike the rhythm method decades ago that had a high failure rate.
Using images of attractive couples talking frankly about family planning, the church produces Web videos and DVDs to get the word out. And there are now 16 couples, up from six last year, who volunteer to teach natural family planning in the six-county Archdiocese of Detroit, which encompasses 1.3 million Catholics. On Tuesday, the Archdiocese is to host a public conference on natural family planning aimed at encouraging couples to practice it.
The sanctity of marriage
The church faces a challenge given that surveys say most Catholics oppose the church's stance on birth control.
According to a survey last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, that stance was the second most-cited reason by ex-Catholics for leaving the faith, after the church's condemnation of abortion and homosexuality. Allegations of child sexual abuse by priests haven't helped, say local Catholic leaders.
"We've lost some of our moral credibility talking about sexuality because of the scandals," said the Rev. Jeff Day, a Catholic priest who has been the point man in the Archdiocese to promote natural family planning for the past six years. "But we should not let that stop us from encouraging something which is true and good. There are some priests who are tempted not to bring up anything to do with sexuality. But they should not be afraid to share this good news."
The church's endorsement of natural family planning is rooted in beliefs about the sanctity of marriage. God is considered an integral part of marriage and so "each act of intercourse must be open to procreation, because the whole meaning of marriage is expressed in each marital act," the U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops said in a 59-page document on marriage released in November.
The church believes that sex removed from procreation leads to immorality. Acts of homosexuality and masturbation -- and the use of contraceptives -- are not allowed under Catholic doctrine.
People who use natural family planning for religious reasons "respect the baby-making power of sex by not treating fertility as some bodily defect that must be corrected," said Janet Smith, a professor who is chair of life ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
Smith and other Catholic leaders say they think the wide use of the pill has led to a general decline in societal morality, as seen in higher rates of divorce, abortion, pornography use and out-of-wedlock births.
Pill seen as harmful
The church also is pushing the idea that ingesting the chemicals in the pill is harmful to women and the environment.
Dr. Daniel Greene, an ob-gyn from Rochester Hills, stopped giving patients birth control pills five years ago after he became convinced the drugs could lead to everything from headaches to cancer. His Catholic faith also played a role.
"I feel closer to God since I made this decision," said Greene, who is to speak at Tuesday's conference. "And I feel I'm providing a better service for my patients."
'I don't think it's for us'
At the heart of natural family planning is the idea that God should be in control, not people.
"God has a plan for each of you," Dorothy Stapel, coordinator for natural family planning in the Archdiocese, told the class last week.
"God does miracles," her husband, Ben Stapel, chimed in. "He's not bounded by finances."
Some are reluctant to accept such views.
Jason Day, 31, of Wolverine Lake said after class that he doesn't agree with leaving up to God the number of children a couple have.
"You have to live within your means," said Day, who is the brother of the priest, Jeff Day. "The concepts they're using, they're stuck in the '50s and '60s. This is 2010."
His fiancée, Emily Kraft, 25, of Wolverine Lake uses birth control pills, in part for health reasons, but attended the Saturday class with Day because they're getting married.
"I don't think it's for us personally," Kraft said of natural family planning. Kraft, who is Jewish, said she believes more in science rather than religion to guide her actions.
At the same time, Jason Day said his views are "not set in stone" and he's open to maybe later using natural family planning. "I learned that it's not just a Catholic thing. This is something for any religion."
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