EP News Backs Vatican Roulette

On the front page this week, The Eden Prairie News blares Many opt for natural family planning.  The article promotes an upcoming program at St. Mark Catholic Church, in Shakopee.

A large photograph of Chanhassians Juli and Bill Currie--and their seven children--accompanies the article.  The Curries 'practice natural family planning to achieve and postpone pregnancies,' we are helpfully informed.  'When you follow the guidelines, it's very effective,' says Juli Currie.  But to 'actually do it day in and day out, I have my moments,' she confides.  That said, natural family planning [NFP] still 'beats them all.  There's no comparison,' beams Currie.

The lengthy article advances a number of highly dubious claims:

By requiring couples to communicate with each other, NFP is good for strengthening marriages;

The Billings Ovulation Method is 98%+ effective 'when used to postpone a pregnancy';

NFP is better for the environment; the use of artificial birth control results in the estrogen-poisoning of fish.  (We will abstain here from exploring the psychoanalytic possibilities of this redolent association.)

As if an afterthought, the article mentions that many couples try NFP because 'the Catholic Church is opposed to birth control.'  Well-behaved readers are assumed to understand this to mean 'the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is opposed to "artificial" birth control.' 

One might reflect upon a similar statement, i.e. 'Americans oppose speeding', to reveal the servile mindset so frequently embedded in 'unbiased' media statements pertaining to the Catholic Church. 

It makes sense to view the American Catholic Church as a large group of people with highly varied viewpoints who overwhelmingly accept artificial birth control.  It's odd how rarely we see articles portraying representative Catholic couples--who believe it's fine to use the Pill, condoms, IUD's or whatever works best--regardless what the red hats think.  Even non-Catholic reporters love to find oddball couples such as the Curries. 

In the second half of the article, we meet Allina's Dr. Diana Gillman.  Gillman brushes aside the groundless nonsense advanced prior to her arrival:  Hormonal birth control is effective and convenient--and it doesn't cause infertility.  There is no known link between the Pill and breast cancer--and a Pill-using woman's risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer is reduced, Gillman says.  IUD's are extremely effective and convenient--but American women reject them mainly for non-empirical reasons.

After our rationality interlude with Dr. Gillman, the article returns to the superstition-based, exurban religious extremism, as if such thinking represented a stolid, middle-ground philosophical option.

We look forward to the paper's upcoming hard-news pieces promoting homeopathic remedies for pancreatic cancer and the many health benefits accruing to those who fast during Ramadan.