Correspondence
SEXTON, JOAN & EGAN, JAMES A. & BILLINGS, DR. EVELYN L. & Editors, The
CORRESPONDENCE Marching for choice Brooklyn, N.Y. To the Editors: It is very sobering, as you say ["The Longer March," May 5] to consider that more than 300,000 people would go to Washington to...
...THE EDITORS East Melbourne Victoria, Australia To the Editors: Last year Commonweal commemorated the twentieth anniversary of Humanae vitae with an editorial ("Anniversary Waltz") and an article ("Sex: How Odd of God") that questioned both the effect and the wisdom of that encyclical...
...In any case, point 1 presents a number of "facts," many of which are question-able...
...The greatest pill users are young women entering childbearing years...
...In the presence of extreme anxiety to achieve a pregnancy, the act sometimes loses its tenderness and love and becomes a procedure...
...When close scrutiny of the facts is made, common sense alone should prevail...
...Our limited space and the press of other work prevented the editors from publish-ing and replying to Dr...
...There is one sentence in Dr...
...This is the his-tory, still being enacted and now most tragically in the AIDS epidemic that is killing adults of reproductive age...
...The desire to eliminate the reproduc-tive outcome of the act of intercourse is to separate oneself from the Creator's plan...
...In February 1989, we received a letter from Dr...
...I went because until we have the space and quiet to hear each other, which to me means when abortion is available as a medical procedure, legal and safe, we cannot begin to reach a moral consensus with ethical distinctions...
...People have for too long been listening to those who have challenged her credibil-ity, blaming her for not accepting the pill as the editorial does...
...By fallible man's false sense of compassion to solve human prob-lems with the very best intentions or simply to yield to the cry for sexual free-dom...
...Com-mon sense must surely see that Humanae vitae's directions for fidelity and love between men and women will not "fail the test of history" as the editors of Common-weal predict...
...Billings does-such as, "which have been prop-erly conducted" to the trials of one method without making sure that the same quali-fications apply to the figures being cited for other methods...
...Catholics believe that protection of our relationship with God lies in church teaching...
...For people of other faiths and even of none at all, common sense (the gift of divine providence) is a good teacher...
...JAMES A. EGAN, S.J...
...Billings re-ally want to suggest that such an under-standing of the church's mandate auto-matically condemns its many adherents to rejecting such doctrines as the incarna-tion, the resurrection, and the Eucharist...
...Even were it true that one form of contraception is better-more effective at preventing pregnancies, less harmful to the body, or through its "gentle discipline" more sup-portive of marital fidelity and women's has too often happened...
...Supporting the march does not cancel out any efforts I' ve made to fight for other human rights, as the editorial suggests...
...and another committed to teach-ing minority children-clearly not one-issue women, and not all comfortable with abortion-qn-demand, but in agree-ment on the threat to women's lives if abortion is made illegal again...
...Hoyt advocates change in codes of morality...
...To the Editors: Grounded...
...The act of love is a divine gift intended for the delight and continuing good of man-kind...
...To take up only one issue, the literature on outcomes of different methods of contraception is notorious for pitfalls...
...intercourse at times when they know that conception is possible...
...By what criterion...
...This should not be confused with the issue of the papal states which is not a matter of definitive teaching...
...In the urge to experience physical pleasure and the extreme anxiety at the same time to avoid conception, the act becomes self-centered...
...Real...
...It seems to me we were connected more than ever with issues of justice and poverty, and those issues don't always march hand in hand...
...The method-related pregnancy rate for intrauterine devices is between 5 and 7 percent...
...A magis-terium with the integrity of experience, the honesty of pain...
...Humanae vitae, by protecting the di-vine plan for human love and life, speaks definitively of faith and morals...
...Prevention or destruction of life results...
...The action of the pill is claimed by the drug companies who manufacture these products to be threefold-contraceptive, sterilizing, and abortifacient (See: literature in pill packages...
...John Queenan, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Georgetown University Medical School, was cited as saying that the latest studies of the ovulation method based on changes in cervical mucus at the time of fertility of conclusions in this area...
...Therein lies the essence of the mystery of the infallible church, which simply and clearly defines the principle in the divine plan...
...If the second is true, then the first, strictly speak-ing, is irrelevant or at most auxiliary...
...Anniversary Waltz" and "Sex: How Odd of God" express lack of faith and lack of common sense...
...Billings misunder-stands-and leaves unanswered-Robert Hoyt's point ("How Odd of God," July 15, 1988), which was not particularly to advocate changes in moral codes but to register the fact that such changes do occur and that even papal statements get around to sanctioning them...
...That is the large claim at the heart of her argument, and the one found unpersuasive by many thought-ful people, not just those deficient in common sense, desperate to solve prob-lems, or longing for sexual freedom...
...Two months later the editors returned to the subject in a reply to corre-spondence...
...Pope Paul VI was right indeed to worry about marital infidelity and general low-ering of moral standards, including the lowering of the status of women, follow-ing on the practice of artificial methods of birth control...
...Reading your editorial helped me to articulate just exactly why I went...
...I went because I feel one cannot make a truly moral decision unless there is a choice...
...But as a serious attempt to measure the consequences of different forms of contracep-tion, whether by barrier methods, the pill, intrauterine devices, or periodic absti-nence, Dr...
...The connection between these two convictions is not entirely clear...
...I went for the many women who could not go...
...If the church waited for full human understand-ing it would wait forever while fallible man argues...
...Others are undeniable...
...But what does any of this have to do with the essential moral question...
...Abortion is a form of violence to one's own body and its potential...
...There were women of all ages, and I felt that almost every woman there represented an individual position, the bottom line of which is that women should be free to make a safe and legal decision...
...Billings thinks is the current judgment on the pill...
...The pill that is worshiped is a god whose feet of clay are crumbling...
...THE EDITORS...
...2. The tragic physical consequences of technological means of birth control are now well-documented and are attributed to the radical violation of reproductive biology of the woman...
...In these two groups he would see the real joy that these people, assisted by natural family planning, have found in a mutual love which may have endured hardship, but which now pervades and governs all that they do for each other and for their children...
...Thanks for keeping the issue in public discussion...
...We need every opportunity for reasoned exchange...
...JOAN SEXTON The lay magisteriunt Minneapolis, Minn...
...Living at some distance, I did not become aware of the Commonweal discussion until some time later...
...Evelyn Billings who, along with her husband Dr...
...If morality can be defined as a mode of behavior which cooperates with the di-vine plan, it simply remains that common sense (if not love or honor) demands that we follow it...
...The rate for barrier methods varies between 5 and 20 percent...
...as ordinary as life, as extraordinary as God...
...The very concept of "method-related pregnancy rate" is pre-ferred by advocates of contraception through periodic abstinence because it eliminates pregnancies resulting when couples opt for (or risk...
...A powerful ministry of the Word that helps compensate for our deprivation of the lay and feminine voice from the pulpit...
...Those who hung in, not be-cause they liked the teaching, but out of duty, and those who left and later re-turned...
...There are complicated problems of self-selected or unequally motivated users, of different socio-economic groups, of drop-out rates, and of the quality of instruction...
...Another deep sigh of gratitude to Commonweal for the series and article by Sandra H. Johnson [April 7], "The Laity and the Life of Faith...
...My experience of the eighteen hours going and coming from Washington and being there with many more than the reported 300,000 was that there was no proselytizing, no ranting and raving to convince...
...It is not a self-evident claim...
...We also see the tragedy of cancer of the cervix, abortion, sexually transmitted disease, psychological and other attendant disorders in young women due to the change in sexual life-style which has been liberated by easily accessible birth control...
...3. The method-related pregnancy rate for the pill is quoted as in the vicinity of 2 percent, that is, when it is used in accordance with the instructions provided by the drug company...
...Experience over the last thirty-five years has revealed these facts: 1. The movement from the use of contraception to natural methods is from 50 to 70 percent in those communities where natural methods are offered...
...The editorial as well found that "the prohibition against artifi-cial contraception, especially the pill, seems more arbitrary and ungrounded today than it did in 1968...
...EVELYN L. BILLINGS The editors reply: Dr...
...Those who teach natural family planning, as I do, see the rehabili-tation and restoration effected by the gentle discipline of natural family plan-ning...
...The intrauterine device is abortifacient and is related to pelvic and tubal infection resulting in ectopic pregnancies, sterility, and septic abortions...
...I saw the threat of making abortion illegal and unsafe as a setback for the justice and freedom for families that the editorial calls for at the end...
...I would like to reply to it now, as a woman whose experience is shared by millions of users of the Billings Ovulation Method in 100 countries, many underdeveloped, with poor and illiterate people participating...
...These are categorized as "in-formed-choice" or "wanted" pregnancies...
...But at one point Dr...
...There are two he hasn't mentioned...
...5. The failure of expensive and brutal birth-control programs to substantially limit population growth, is experienced in several poor countries...
...That there is a body (the church) which proclaims and teaches it, is our own good fortune as Christians...
...Billings makes the curi-ous suggestion that she might well ques-tion "the church as infallible custodian of the divine plan" if Paul VI had not hap-pened to agree with what Dr...
...John Billings, is a proponent of the Billings Ovulation Method and of natural family planning...
...People have been encouraged when in trouble, to make personal decisions, without knowledge of all the facts or possible consequences...
...Nonetheless, does Dr...
...It needs to be strongly supported by Scripture or tradi-tion or moral philosophy...
...To the Editors: It is very sobering, as you say ["The Longer March," May 5] to consider that more than 300,000 people would go to Washington to keep abortion legal and medically safe, and even more sobering that I would be one of them (Catholic mother and grandmother that I am...
...Paul VI was right One year ago (July 15, 1988), Common-weal published an editorial noting the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Humanae vitae...
...We are frankly surprised that her letter, although obvi-ously heartfelt, shows little of the careful reasoning associated with scientific dis-cussion...
...Other-' wise it is not a decision but a victimiza-tion...
...You must know how healing it is to hear the truth and faith bestowed...
...In the various trials of the Billings Ovulation Method which have been properly conducted, the method-related pregnancy rate is less than 1 percent...
...None neces-sarily lead to the conclusions that Dr...
...My companions for the day and night in-cluded a woman rebuilding condemned housing in the Bronx for a cooperative of poor families...
...I can sympathize with him as he talks to all the groups that he mentions and agree that they all exist...
...Pope John Paul II and Pope Paul VI before him have both been gallant up-holders of women's rights...
...The abortion issue took precedence be-cause it is in immediate danger...
...Billings has written a long letter, filled with observations, some of them wise, some of them dubious, and most (of both kinds) unsubstantiated...
...The church has not lost its credibility...
...We received many letters and published several (September 23,1988...
...Billings's letter that gets to the point: "The desire to eliminate the reproductive outcome of the act of intercourse is to separate oneself from the Creator's plan...
...4. We see many young couples who have been rendered childless by using the contraceptive pill become embittered toward their doctors...
...Billings's observations are selective and biased...
...But as long as there are situations where a pregnancy could wreak greater violence on one or more persons, abortion can be seen as a lesser degree of violence and a defensible option...
...In his article, Robert Hoyt argues that Catholic moralists and hierarchs have a problem in being bound by codes formu-lated before a full understanding of the problem was reached...
...Last February, Dr...
...2. The prohibition of contraception, except by periodic abstinence, is infallible doctrine...
...It could not be said that Humanae vitae had failed the church if it had merely prohibited the use of the pill and so pre-vented untold physical harm for those who obeyed, but it was a much wiser document and much more positive than prohibitive...
...For some, as history unfolds there is much sorrow, regret, and loss...
...Likewise, Dr...
...Comparisons between trials of different methods can be radically altered by adding qualifications-as Dr...
...one who spends a good deal of time and anguish caring for AIDS victims...
...An image stays in my mind (from one of those nature programs): a trapped ani-mal, choosing to chew off its leg as the only escape from captivity and/or death...
...The editors' reply restated the opinion that "the terrible human costs of our culture's disarray in sexual matters is 'exhibit A' of those who currently defend the encyclical...
...In the editorial the prediction was made that Humanae vitae had failed the test of history and that it has "so far failed the church...
...How we as a church need this gift of the laity...
...Our apologies for the delay...
...Billings's letter until now-as it happens one year follow-ing the original editorial...
...If a church with such a mandate as it has, states that contraception is objectively sinful, faith demands that it should be heeded...
...Had Paul VI said "yes" to the pill, in our present state of greater knowl-edge we would be indeed justified in questioning the church as an infallible custodian of the divine plan...
...Expedient advice has often been given compassionately, but without proper consideration or knowledge...
...In the end these observations boil down to two convictions: 1. The pill and other forms of contraception are bad, especially in comparison to the Billings technique, and a host of evils can be laid at their doorstep...
...At the same time, it obviously opens the door to other dan-gers...
...Billings apparently has in mind...
...Billings offers no such support...
...It is strange that the editorial and article should ignore both church teaching and common sense...
...Those who ques-tion this mandate soon go further in ques-tioning the other treasured links between us and God-the choice of a Virgin to bring the Son of God to the world and the resurrection without which there is no redemption, and the Eucharist-our eve-ryday contact with Christ...
Vol. 116 • July 1989 • No. 13
