The AP (no surprise) really does a disservice to John Billings.
Founder of contraceptive method dies
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MELBOURNE, Australia — John Billings, the founder of a natural contraception method that won support among Catholics, has died, a colleague said Tuesday. He was 89.
Billings died late Sunday at a Melbourne retirement home, said Marian Corkill, director of the World Organization Ovulation Method Billings International, better known as WOOMB.
Billings and his wife Evelyn pioneered the Billings Ovulation Method in the 1950s – a technique that helps women identify their fertile and non-fertile states based on their menstrual cycle.
In the Billings method, a woman can determine when she is fertile based on an examination of her cervical mucus, as opposed to the rhythm method, which is based on past menstrual cycles.
Billings, a staunch Catholic and father of nine, always had the support of his church, which opposes contraceptive devises such as condoms and the pill that revolutionized birth control a decade later. Critics of the Billings method argue the church supported it because of its relatively high failure rate, which earned it the nickname "Vatican Roulette."
Well I guess you just can’t expect for the AP or pretty much any news source to be able to differentiate between abstinence during times of fertility and something that is actually and actively contraceptive.
Mukesh Haikerwal, president of the Australian Medical Association, said the method’s failure rate was three in 100, compared to one in 100 for condoms, one in 1,000 for the pill and one in 10,000 for implanted devices
1 and 100 as a failure rate for condoms is definitely not the normal statistic. Even Planned Parenthood’s Guttmacher Institute mentions failure rates between three and seven percent.
Another article says Rhythm method pioneer dies in Melbourne. Yes it is a good thing the MSM has editors so they don’t make blunders like this.
Of course not mentioned in the fact that the Billings Ovulation Method can be used to help couples who are having difficulties to conceive. But then that wouldn’t fit the NFP is contraception meme.
8 comments
at least we didn’t see “Father of Rhythm and Roulette dies.” I posted on this (I read it on CWN so I was spared the MSM twist.) and remembered the “aiding those with fertility problems to achieve pregnancy” part right before I posted it.
As a father of 6 I often forget the other side of NFP. But hopefully science can continue to help those without resorting to evil.
“abstinence during times of infertility”?
if you assume the converse, then this is a fantastic way to get pregnant. 🙂
I thought rhythm was “Vatican roulette,” not NFP.
Of course, NFP can be used with a contraceptive mentality; the AP probably just made that assumption.
practicing abstinence during times of infertility is contraception. You can’t conceive when you’re abstaining, right?
No, practicing abstinence is non-conception, not contra-ception.
They say “Vatican Roulette” like its a bad thing! I personally love this game. I only wish I had more “wins.”
Did Jesus eat even with the journalists?
Louise,
Right! Contraceptive failure is bizarrely the WORST secular sin, today. The first response heard by a women with an unplanned pregnancy, even by Catholics, is “Didn’t you USE anything?”
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