Calling it FAM instead of NFP

[mizznicole]

I think that we should drop NFP for FAM. (Fertility Awareness Method)

Because in essence, NFP is really FAM. It’s information naturally available and naturally observable. If you’re against NFP, you’re saying that we should be intentionally ignorant about our bodies. That somehow if you know you’re fertile and abstain, that’s a sin - but if you don’t know you’re fertile and you abstain, it’s not a sin.

Just a thought.

 

[Em_in_FL]

Those that think using NFP *correctly * (which means prayerfully discerning the choice without selfish motive) is a sin are not going to change their mind based on the name of the method…

 

[1ke]

FAM is a method. It’s a method that utilizes fertility observation combined with barrier methods of contraception during the fertile time.

NFP is distinctly different from FAM.

And, I don’t know where you got the idea you express in your last sentence. That is not Church teaching.

 

[theAuthor]

I’m confused:

If you’re against NFP, you’re saying that we should be intentionally ignorant about our bodies. That somehow if you know you’re fertile and abstain, that’s a sin

Nope. I don’t think it means that at all.

I do take your point about the** name **NFP though. It makes it sound like the natural, chemical-free, mungbean and peace-signs way of contraception. I don’t like the name either, but mainly because “Family Planning” clinics I think are pretty much about allowing people to abort “inconvenient” foetuses so they can plan their family to fit in with their careers or whatever. That’s pretty sickening.

If FAM already means something else, then that name is taken, but fertility awareness is the name of the game for NFP…although I think you’ll find in the course of human history that babies have been conceived on every single day of the menstrual cycle, including during menstruation. Not likely but it has happened. It’s still a probabilty game which means being open to having a baby if that happens.

 

[Brenda_V]

That somehow if you know you’re fertile and abstain, that’s a sin - but if you don’t know you’re fertile and you abstain, it’s not a sin.

And, I don’t know where you got the idea you express in your last sentence. That is not Church teaching.

1ke I don’t think mizznicole is saying that what she said was Church teaching just that some are saying it is. She was hoping that by changing the name it would be better understood for what it is, understanding our fertility.

Brenda V.

 

[Rach620]

FAM is a method. It’s a method that utilizes fertility observation combined with barrier methods of contraception during the fertile time.

NFP is distinctly different from FAM.

Exactly. FAM is already a term being used by those who have read Toni Wechsler’s book, and its defining difference from NFP is use of barrier methods or withdrawal during the fertile period. If you say that you’re using FAM, people think you are using condoms when you want to avoid pregnancy. If you say that you are using NFP, they understand that you’re abstaining when you want to avoid pregnancy.

I don’t think NFP commonly has hippy-dippy connotations, but is pretty readily associated with Catholic moral teaching and marriage.

A name change isn’t going to persuade anyone to choose NFP who otherwise would not have–though I think some positive press about how the fertility awareness aspect of NFP is healthy for all women could certainly help.

 

[Tosk]

FAM and NFP are synonyms but I agree that Fertility Awareness is more descriptive of how the method works. Either way, I don’t think that the method is failing as a birth control product because of the name.