Marriage Care sparks row with NFP claims
By Simon Caldwell

14 August 2009

Marriage Care has come under renewed criticism after it emerged that its sex education manual for Catholic schools and colleges contains "seriously inaccurate" information about natural family planning.

The Catholic charity was accused by NFP teachers of "misleading" young people into thinking that methods of regulating fertility approved by the Church were hazardous and ineffective.

The manual, called Foundations for a Good Life, is designed to help to teach pupils at Key Stage 3 and 4 - the last two years of secondary school - and college students about relationships, marriage, the family and sexuality.

The final two modules are aimed at young people over the age of 16 and deals with methods of contraception.

There is no discussion of the morality of the methods with the focus on function and effectiveness. The manual hails condoms as 98 per cent effective in avoiding pregnancy, and the Pill, the coil and hormonal injections as 99 per cent effective, but says that NFP methods are far less reliable.

"If you have a regular menstrual cycle, it [NFP] is 80 to 98 per cent effective, but can be lower if your cycle is irregular," the manual says. "NFP is not often suggested for teenagers who might not be considering committed relationships as yet." The manual was criticised by NFP teachers who insisted that their methods were nearly 100 per cent effective.

Veronica Pierson of the Billings Ovulation Method Trust said: "You don't have to have a regular cycle, for a start, and if it [the method] is properly learned from an accredited teacher you can expect more than 99 per cent effectiveness." She said the figures were supported by a six-year trial in China involving 48,000 couples and by a five-year study in Australia, involving 450 couples, which had similar results.

She also said that when young people were taught about their fertility rather than about "sterile sex" the result was a reduction in premature sexual activity and associated problems such as disease and unwanted pregnancies.

Dr Helen Davies of the Billings Method Centre in Crawley, Sussex, also said that manual was "misleading".

She said: "The method is not contraception. It is a method of learning about your fertility and it is about planning to have a baby as well as to avoid pregnancy. It is effective as any other method of family planning around at the moment apart from complete abstinence. So few people realise what it is and how it can help them but it is no surprise if they are being fed information that it is a form of contraceptive that isn't very effective."

Professor Jack Scarisbrick, the chairman of Life, a pro-life counselling charity, said the manual was "seriously inaccurate" and questioned the claim that condoms were 98 per cent reliable.

"If it is so effective why is it that in our care centres again and again we are hearing from girls who are saying they are pregnant from condom failure?" he said.

Victoria Gillick, a Life counsellor, said: "Women wanting abortions are more likely to have been using contraception at the time they fall pregnant which is why they are so distressed. More contraception leads to more abortion."

A footnote in the manual states that "in providing this information it should not be assumed that Marriage Care is recommending the use of contraception".

Joe Mannion, the charity's director of relationship support, said he unaware that the information was inaccurate. He said that Marriage Care would be prepared to change the text of the manual if "it's shown to be different" by new evidence. Terry Prendergast, the chief executive of Marriage Care, recently caused an outcry when he said marriage is no better for children than other family set-ups.

The charity has an annual income in the region of £900,000, about 10 per cent of which comes from diocesan grants. Its president is Archbishop Vincent Nichols.