THE AUGUST 1994 commentary by Jim Rice, "Too Many People?" accuses the Roman Catholic Church of opposing all forms of family planning. Nothing could be further from the truth. The church has led efforts to establish natural methods of family planning (NFP) for years, and vigorously promoted the teaching of the modern methods. I was disappointed to see a magazine as devoted to the human person as Sojourners presenting such a one-sided picture.
In the same issue, Susan Power Bratton’s "The Worth of Every Child" undergirds the polarization that she perceives to be between pro-life activities and objection to artificial contraception, sterilization, and abortion. Modern NFP bridges this gap. Twenty years of legalized abortion in the United States with freely available contraceptives have not decreased the number of abortions—far from it. Isn’t it time we began to ask why people don’t like artificial contraception rather than to push it at them?
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