From The New York Times (gift article):
Samantha Kopy logged onto a video call at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday to teach the secret language of the menstrual cycle.
“We don’t have a crystal ball. We can’t know exactly when we are going to ovulate,” Mrs. Kopy said to the young, Christian couples on her computer screen. “So we go off the signs and symptoms of our body.”
Six people stared back at Mrs. Kopy from living rooms across America — ready to learn how to prevent pregnancy without using birth control.
The women in the group had a few different options, Mrs. Kopy explained. They could test their urine for a particular hormone, or take their temperature each morning as soon as they woke up. The most diligent among them might consider their cervical mucus, Mrs. Kopy added, advising them to “lift it up between your pointer and your thumb.” If it’s clear and slippery, she said, that’s a sign of fertility.
Probably a night to abstain.
Since the birth control pill gained widespread acceptance in the 1960s and 1970s, mainstream political voices have rarely expressed opposition to the medication celebrated for giving women more control over their reproductive lives. For decades, only certain traditional Catholic and Christian circles publicly rejected the pill and other forms of contraception, believing that some methods came too close to abortion, or that the act of intercourse should always have the potential to bring about new life.
But a practice known as “fertility awareness” or “natural family planning” — originally devised over 50 years ago by doctors with ties to the Catholic church — is now gaining support among a broader group of social conservatives and adherents of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement. The rising interest comes as many prominent conservatives are encouraging women to abandon birth control pills and other forms of hormonal contraceptives.
Officials in the Trump administration have also been exploring ways for the federal government to direct funding toward teaching more women of reproductive age to accurately identify their fertile windows, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. And though much of the work is framed as part of the administration’s broader effort to combat infertility, many conservatives hope the new emphasis on fertility awareness will also inspire women seeking to prevent pregnancy to stop taking birth control.
