To the Editor:

Re: “Alternatives to Condoms: The Catholic Church and Contraceptives,”

Opinion, April 1.

Despite the positive spin the Catholic Church may want to put on Natural Family Planning, it is a much less reliable method of contraception than condoms. While the perfect use (no human error, and used every time) rate of pregnancy for condoms is 2 percent, the low-end of the similar rate for NFP is three times higher. Additionally, while condoms are easy to use, NFP requires either meticulous record keeping or tracking biological signs of fertility like cervical mucous. Furthermore, NFP is only reliable in women who have regular cycles.

Based on a federal court ruling last month, the age to obtain Plan B without a prescription will soon be lowered from 18 to 17 years old. The verdict was reached as the result of a lawsuit against the F.D.A., which stated that the previous policy was formed based on inappropriate concessions to conservative lobbyists in the Bush administration.

My father always says that when it came time for him and my mother to have kids, it was like bam, bam, bam. Pregnancy. Delivery. Three kids. Three years. And that was all there was to it.

It doesn’t seem like so long ago that pregnancy was that simple. Men and women were copulating. Embryos were being inseminated. And, nine months later, wailing children were born unto this world. Bam. Bam. Bam.