Opinion: NFP: Not For Planning, by Kate Moreland

By Kate Moreland, Crisis Magazine, July 27, 2023

Kate Moreland is a graduate of Franciscan University who spends her time homeschooling her five sons. When not teaching, she enjoys grocery trips alone and frequently interrupted discussions about family, parenting, and faith.

NFP is a valuable tool, especially for those seeking medical help, but not one for general use in orchestrating family size and structure.

Once again, National NFP Awareness Week is here, and our feeds will all be bombarded by the joys, hardships, medical benefits, and new technologies available to aid our journeys with Natural Family Planning (NFP). At the risk of stepping on a few internet toes, I would like to posit that NFP is a valuable tool, especially for those seeking medical help, but not one for general use in orchestrating family size and structure. NFP is Not For Planning.

The world, both Catholic and other, commonly will ask if I want another child. This is the wrong question. Whether or not I want another child is irrelevant. I am a Catholic, married woman and therefore called to be open to life. That means that unless I have a good enough reason to avoid pregnancy, one that I can defend to the Lord when I show up on His doorstep, I should allow my fertility to be in divine hands rather than my own. …

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