Q: Why is it a constant issue, the idea of contraception? Isn’t it the woman’s choice to exercise agency over her body?
A: A woman’s body is beautiful the way it was created by God. Women were made to love and for love, as were men. A woman’s fertility is a precious gift given to her by God. The Billings Ovulation Method® was developed to help women observe for changes in her reproductive health. A woman can identify her unique patterns of fertility and infertility using this Method. If a woman knew all four phases of her cycle, she would be able to detect abnormalities faster and see a doctor in time, before any illness of the reproductive system goes really badly for her. Additionally couples can plan when they would like to conceive or postpone having a child. Now if that is not “the woman’s choice to exercise agency over her body” then I don’t know what is. In the Natural Law, the purposes of sex are both for bonding, but at the same time it is also for procreation. Women have the “choice to exercise agency over her body” and that choice really should be to either engage in sexual intercourse and possibly end up pregnant or not. Why? Because sex by its very nature is procreative.
Q: Isn’t Billings natural contraception?
A: To contra-cept is to go against (contra) the creation of new life (conception). Contraception is putting a barrier between the bonding aspect and the baby-making aspect of sex, in an attempt to exclude the baby-making aspect during the act of sexual intercourse. God never intended this for us. So many years of experience with contracepting have left women to feel used by men (men objectifying women), have led to infidelity, divorces, not to mention the host of side-effects some women have to put up with if they insist their fertility is like a disease that needs to be gotten rid of. Instead of all this, with the Billings Ovulation Method®, couples can respect God’s order for sex and fertility. If the couple should not have children, due to some serious reason like health problems (mental or physical) or other serious reasons, or if the couple has just reasons, such as spacing their children by 2 years or more so that they can cope with raising a family well, then the Billings Ovulation Method® of Natural Fertility Regulation can come to the rescue. Couples simply allow the fertile time to pass before resuming sexual intercourse – this is not contracepting. This is using the God-given information about fertile and infertile times (provided by the woman’s body) and using this to go along with God’s plan for that family. We encourage couples who use this Method to ask for God’s guidance in their family planning decisions. God wants us to be generous, yet He wants us to be responsible with the ability to procreate.