NFP: Why It Matters

1. NFP: Why It Matters By Dr. Rebecca Peck, M.D.

2. NFP: Why It Matters Dr. Rebecca Peck, MD

3. St Thomas Acquinas: The Angelic Doctor • Master Thomas, what can you teach us? • “To trust in the truth of Catholic religious thought” • Truth is the gift of faith, shining forth and becoming accessible to us for reflection. • St Thomas wrote Summa Theologica 800 years ago, which reflects his serene confidence in the harmony of faith and reason, enlightened by faith, to come to an understanding of God and his saving plan.

4. Philosophies Underpinning Our Secular Society Today • The Enlightenment and Human Reason • Moral Relativism • Utilitarianism • Individuality • Feminism

5. Antidotes • The Enlightenment: Natural Law • Moral Relativism: Absolute Truth • Utilitarianism: The Cross • Individuality: The Mystical Body of Christ • Feminism: “My Soul Magnifies the Lord!”

6. Sources: Scripture, Tradition and Magisterial Teachings • Humanae Vitae, Evangelium Vitae, The Role of The Christian Family in the Modern World, Theology of the Body talks by JPII • Charles Rice:50 Questions on the Natural Law • Confronting the Language Empowering the Culture of Death by William Brennan • Because God Is Real by Peter Kreeft • Catholics and Contraception by Leslie Woodcock Tentler • The Architects of the Culture of Death

7. My Conversion Story

8. History of Contraception • For 1930 years, Catholics and Christians were united in their belief that contraception was against God’s plan for married couples. • By the late 1800s/early 1900s, Protestant Pastor’s families were starting to become smaller (avg size dropped from 8 children to 3 children) • Parish Priests rarely talked about contraception from the Pulpit in early 1900s but relied on “Mission Priests” to do so

9. History of Contraception • 1930 Anglican’s Lambath Conference • Universalists, Unitarians, Methodist Episcopal and American Rabbis reversed • Casti Connubii declared end of 1930 • Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement • Rhythm Clinics • Dr. John Rock and “The Pill”

10. Humanae Vitae: Pope Paul 1. The Unitive and the Procreative Aspects of Intercourse 2. Predictions about what would happen to Society 3. A Call to Physicians

11. Theology of the Body by JPII JPII began his Pontificate with TOB from 1979 to 1984. George Weigel: TOB is a “theological time bomb” Brought deeper meaning to human life, sexuality, marriage, chastity and the celibate life

12. FamiliarisConsortio, 1981Evangelium Vitae, 1995 • The Role of the Family in the Modern World: Christian Marriage should sanctify people, to build up the Body of Christ, and finally, to give worship to God” • “That the couple be ready with stout hearts to cooperate with the love of the Creator and the Savior, who through them will enlarge and enrich His own family day by day” • The Gospel of Life speaks about a Culture of Death versus a Culture of Life • The trivialiazation of sexuality is among the principal factors which have led to contempt of New Life

13. Evangelium Vitae (cont’d) • Responsible procreation requires couples to be obedient to the Lord’s call and to act as faithful interpreters of his plan. This happens when the family is generously open to new lives…and the family makes use of natural methods of regulating fertility.

14. Why Is Sex So Important? • Sex is an image of God, the Trinity of Love. That’s why sex is holy. • Sex involves man, woman, and God in a Trinitarian relationship creating new sacred human beings with immortal souls who live forever. • Sex has unitive (bonding) and procreative (baby-creating) capacities that must not be separated • If the sexual act has been so attacked and degraded by the Evil One, we know by reverse logic that the sexual act has great importance attached to it.

15. How Contraception Works • 1. Brief history of how “the Pill” was tested • 2. How it shuts down the woman’s endogenous hormonal cascades • 3. Prevents ovulation (sometimes) • 4. Affects quality of cervical mucus • 5. Impairs Implantation (an abortifacient quality)

16. When Does Life Begin? • The most momentous event of all events of a human being’s life is fertilization, a cascade of events from the fusion of the nuclei of sperm and egg resulting in a totally new person with a totally new set of human chromosomes on a self-perpetuating, self-integrated path, with which there will be no stopping. (paraphrase of Professor George, Princeton Univ.) • Ps 139: “Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made…”

17. When Does Life Begin (cont’d) • Keith Moore’s Before We Are Born: “human development is a continous process that begins at fertilization” • Dr. Jerome Lejeune, professor of genetics at University of Rene Descartes in Paris and discoverer of Downs Syndrome: “to accept the fact that, after fertilization has taken place, a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion…it is plain experimental evidence”

18. When Does Life Begin (cont’d) • “When social life ventures onto the shifting sands of complete relativsim, JPII asserted, any reference to common values and to a truth absolutely binding on everyone is lost and at that point, everything is negotiable, everything is open to bargaining: even the first of the fundamental rights, the right to life”. (Confronting the Language Empowering the Culture of Death)

19. An Aside: Sarah Marie Switzer • As a doctor asked me what speed of film I was using, out of the corner of my eye I saw the uterus shake, but no one's hands were near it. It was shaking from within. Suddenly, an entire arm thrust out of the opening, then pulled back until just a little hand was showing. The doctor reached over and lifted the hand, which reacted and squeezed the doctor's finger. As if testing for strength, the doctor shook the tiny fist. Samuel held firm. I took the picture! Wow! It happened so fast that the nurse standing next to me asked, "What happened?" "The child reached out," I said. "Oh. They do that all the time," she responded.

20. Bad Effects of the Pill • Migraines, weight gain, moodiness, depression • Hypertension (high blood pressure) • DVT ((blood clot in leg) • Stroke (blood clot in brain) • Pulmonary Embolus (blood clot in lung) • Increase in STDs • Increase in Cervical Cancer • Increase in Breast Cancer

21. Breast Cancer Prevention Institute • Welcome to  the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute • Our website is dedicated to providing the most up-to-date and accurate information to medical professionals and the general public on how to prevent breast cancer. Our on-line publications, as well as our list of other resources, are all designed to provide you with knowledge of practical, risk-reduction strategies. Newly added:Responses to the recent study:Mortality among contraceptive pill users: cohort evidence from Royal College of General Practitioners’ Oral Contraception Study. Click here to read • BCPI's newest offering - BCPI tee shirts! • See below for details! • Breast Cancer Risks and Prevention, Fourth Edition • by Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., F.A.C.S. and Joel Brind, Ph.D.Breast Cancer Prevention Institute

22. PolyCarp Research Institute • HomeOverview of TPRI • What is TPRI’s mission? • To promote and perform research that seeks to improve the physical, psychological and spiritual condition of mankind. • What is The Polycarp Research Institute (TPRI)? • The Polycarp Research Institute is a non-profit organization (501 C3) dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of high-quality research designed to enhance the physical, psychological and spiritual condition of mankind. TPRI will help researchers with projects that are designed to reveal the truths contained within Nature’s laws. TPRI will support research efforts that improve the spiritual condition of men and women, and will not promote methods or intentions that are inconsistent with the ethical and moral guidelines of the Catholic Church; however, not all of the research that TPRI supports will necessarily contain a moral dimension (eg, research to find the cure to cancer, to treat ectopic pregnancy etc). It is anticipated that TPRI will serve as a resource center and not solely as a facility that performs research.

23. Apostles of Life J

24. What is NFP? • Fertility Awareness or Natural Family Planning is the way married couples space their children to order the needs of the family in such a way where openness to new life is preserved, with regular communication with each other and with God.

25. NFP • Calendar Methods (Georgetown Standard Days, Cycle Beads, Rhythm) • Mucus Based (Billings Ovulation Method, Creighton) • Combination of Fertility Signs (Symptothermal, Couple to Couple League, Marquette, Creighton Model FertilityCare)

26. NFP Methods (cont’d) • Couple to Couple League www.ccli.org • Billings Ovulation www.boma-usa.org • Family of the Americas Association (Symptothermal): www.familyplanning.net • Northwest Family Services www.nwfs.org • Pope Paul VI Center: www.popepaulvi.com • Our local Catholic Medical Association Guild: www.momorlandoguild.org • My email: rbamer2@yahoo.com

27. Pope Benedict XVI • “Whereas in the simple societies of the past up to the nineteenth century, the blessing of children was regarded as THE blessing, today children are conceived of almost as a threat.”(The Essential Pope Benedict) • Cover of Newsweek: “Pricetag of a child: $1 million”