Smart people and family planning
Many things in Karen Heller's column "What? Birth control? Again?" (Sunday) are false and offensive, but the claim that the Catholic Church endorses "the rhythm method, which is contraception for stupid people," takes the prize.
What the church actually endorses, is natural family planning (NFP). Catholic doctors like Thomas Hilgers and his team at Creighton University are careful, intelligent scientists who publish on these subjects in peer-reviewed journals. They have created several different systems for understanding women's fertility. These methods can be used not only to space and plan births, but also to treat infertility and other women's health issues without pharmaceuticals. NFP requires believing that occasionally deferring desire can be the right thing to do. The restraint is where spirituality comes in.