Natural Family Planning

This topic was mentioned way back as something it could be interesting to discuss. So I begin the discussion! The following is the introduction from this website titled What A Woman Should Know About Birth Control:

All methods of birth control are efforts to separate sexual intercourse from procreation. This separation supports sexual relationships that are much weaker than traditional marriage—hooking up, cohabitation, adultery, and serial monogamy. These relationships erode society by leading to divorce, unexpected pregnancy, abortion, single parent households, abuse, and poverty. The consequences of birth control clearly demonstrate an unhealthy, anti-culture and anti-life, impact that raises major ethical concerns. Use of birth control is like intentionally eating unhealthy, nutrition-less, food just for the pleasure of eating. A steady diet will kill you. In much the same way, a steady diet of birth control kills relationships.

While I definitely know it is a personal choice and no one should be "guilt-ed" into not using contraception since it is one of those biblical "grey areas," the arguments of the Catholic church that contraception is largely responsible for the moral decay of society are extremely compelling (as hinted at in the above quote). I'd love to loan a CD to anyone interested that goes into the arguments in depth. Or I can post summaries here.

Will preborn lives be endangered by healthcare reform?

The following letter is from Focus on the Family:

Dear Friends,

Have you seen the recent media coverage of the healthcare reform legislation Congress is currently considering? You may have many concerns about such a sweeping reform plan from our government, but you may not have heard about the most dangerous part of the plan in terms of the sanctity of life.

The plan currently before Congress will mandate taxpayer-funded abortion coverage. Our analysts here at Focus on the Family^® are convinced that the healthcare reform plan--as currently written--would result in the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.

This healthcare reform plan would dramatically increase the number of taxpayer-funded abortions and even mandate abortion coverage by private insurance plans. Even though two recent polls have found that between 63 and 71 percent of Americans support laws that protect tax dollars from being used to fund abortion, so far, Congress has defeated all efforts to ensure abortion coverage is not included in the reform plan. Sadly, we know that increased availability and funding will lead to an increase in the number of abortions.

In addition, the plan does not protect the rights of conscience for medical professionals who would choose not to participate in or perform abortions.

We have prepared a special online video that explains how this legislation effectively reverses more than 30 years of pro-life efforts at the federal and state levels. Will you join us in prayer that legislators will specifically exclude abortion coverage from the plan, as well as include protection for healthcare workers' rights of conscience? Thank you for your prayers in support of preborn babies.

In defense of life,

Tom Minnery
Senior Vice President, Government & Public Policy