Publication by Professor Laury Oaks in SIGNS, Vol 49 No 4
ABSTRACT
In the United States, access to contraception and abortion care is limited by policy makers aligned with conservative religious positions, which are often specifically Catholic or Evangelical Christian. In this post-Roe political climate, activists, policy makers, voters, and everyday individuals are responding to the loss of legal authority over one’s body. This article analyzes fertility awareness methods, contraceptive practices also known as “natural family planning.” I explore the feminist health history of fertility awareness methods to enhance body knowledge and how these methods differ from the Catholic Church’s antiabortion position promoting natural family planning. This study is based on materials collected from the 1960s to the present on fertility awareness methods and natural family planning from feminist, Catholic, and global public health perspectives. I selected the 1960s due to the confluence of social changes: the organizing of a feminist health movement, the marketing of the contraceptive pill, and shifts in Catholic teachings. By charting the multiple meanings of fertility awareness methods, I highlight their potential as a full-body health strategy that can withstand multiple challenges to sexual and reproductive care. In line with reproductive justice goals, fertility awareness methods assist both those who are trying not to conceive and those who are trying to conceive, and unlike mainstream contraceptive technologies, they build networks of people practicing fertility awareness. Although fertility awareness methods are controversial because some feminist health advocates interpret them as undermining support for all contraceptives and aligning with an antiabortion agenda, I advocate for a visible, dynamic, inclusive feminist framing of these methods.
