My mom was an ”accident”, born of an old natural contraceptive method. It was just before the pill arrived in Europe in the 1960s and sparked a revolution in sexual and reproductive freedom. Today, natural contraception – tracking fertility cycles, body temperature, and cervical secretions – is popular again. This so-called ”fertility awareness” is gaining traction thanks to apps like Natural Cycles, a fertility tracking app certified in the EU as a hormone-free contraceptive.

French outlet Reporterre investigated why more people, especially young women, are turning to these methods despite their higher risk of failure. Beyond disabling hormone side effects and ecological concerns – like drug residues from the pill polluting water or the waste from non-biodegradable condoms – there's also a desire to better understand how the body works and ease the medical burden, which is already very heavy for women's bodies.

But the article also shows this feminist shift is also exploited by certain Catholic groups and conservative influencers, long opposed to the pill. They are now riding this wave to promote their own agendas, discouraging medical contraception and pushing another form of control over bodies and fertility.