FirstMed Consulting Blog

MELBOURNE, Australia - John Billings, the founder of a natural contraception method that won support among Catholics, has died, a colleague said Tuesday. He was 89.

Billings and his wife Evelyn pioneered the Billings Ovulation Method in the 1950s — a technique that helps women identify their fertile and non-fertile states based on their menstrual cycle.

Billings, a staunch Catholic and father of nine, always had the support of his church, which opposes contraceptive devises such as condoms and the pill that revolutionized birth control a decade later. Critics of the Billings method argue the church supported it because of its relatively high failure rate, which earned it the nickname ” Vatican Roulette.”

“It made a contribution to reducing some pregnancies, but obviously in terms of the wider availability of contraception today, it‘s not as successful,” Haikerwal told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

“His work in China was a highlight of his career in that the Billings Method is now available in all the provinces in China and has been taken up by the Chinese government as the method of choice as part of their family planning,” Corkill said.
Source: The Kindred Times