EDITORIAL                                                     
p.4

Family Planning

MUCH OF AMERICAN SOCIETY, including many pro-lifers, has accepted 
Planned Parenthood's working definition of "family planning": planning 
not to have a family. Even natural family planning is often thought of 
primarily as a means to avoid having children, its "success rate" a 
measure of how well it prevents conception.

The growing body of knowledge concerning the dangers, side effects and 
failure rates of various methods of artificial contraception - many of 
which also cause early abortion by making the womb inhospitable to a 
newly conceived human being - has prompted many people to look for 
natural means of planning families.

Natural family planning, however, is much more than a natural means of 
avoiding pregnancy. By giving a couple awareness of the woman's natural 
cycle of fertility and infertility, it enables a husband and wife to 
achieve conception and to space the births of their children - to work 
in cooperation with the Creator to plan their family, always remaining 
open to His gift of children, because the periodic times of abstinence 
involved when a couple are avoiding conception never extend to 
artificially preventing it.

However, the emphasis on natural family planning as a means of avoiding 
conception is, I believe, misplaced. It has led to debates as to how 
long a couple may practice natural family planning without being closed 
to God's gift of children. It has led to arguments over whether natural 
family planning is right at all - shouldn't we just let God decide 
whether and when we will have children, and how many?
My wife and I have five children - not all "planned" in the sense that 
we decided every time to attempt conception; we didn't. We have five 
children because we remained open to receive God's gift of new life.

I believe that natural family planning is something for a married 
couple to practice for a lifetime. I don't mean the world's idea of 
family planning - planning not to have a family, and using natural 
family planning to avoid having children. I mean using natural family 
planning to have children, and to space their births according to our 
ability to care for them. This is where I think we must be careful. How 
many children can we provide for? We probably tend to underestimate 
what we can do with God's help. Yet, on the other hand, I do not 
believe that we are obligated to have as many children as is physically 
possible. How many, then? I have heard one answer that is, I think, the 
right one: we should be generous. This, by the way, is what most 
couples who practice natural family planning seem to be doing. They 
tend to have large families. They use natural means, such as fertility 
awareness and breastfeeding, within God's plan to space the births of 
their children. And they joyfully pass on the gift of life that God has 
given to them. When God is a partner in your marriage, that's only 
natural.

 - Steve Dunham

For information on natural family planning, contact Couple to Couple 
League, P.O. Box 111184, Cincinnati, OH 45211; (513) 661-7612.



Corrections (not including relatively harmless typos)
Rev. Paul Stallsworth, a pro-life United Methodist leader (see "A New 
Protestant Reformation?" Celebrate Life, May-June 1994) has a new 
address: Rose Hill United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 177, Rose Hill, NC 
28458.

"Picketing in Peace at Abortion Clinics" by ChristyAnne Collins (ALL 
About Issues, September-October 1993) originally appeared in NOEL News, 
published by the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life, 10523 
Main St., Fairfax, VA 22030.

Copyright 1994 American Life League
 
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