THE manager of women's health, Goulburn North East, Susie Reid, is concerned that women and teenagers are unable to obtain the pill from Simon Horsfall's Thurgoona Pharmacy.

Maybe she needs to take a good look at the leaflet inside the pill packet or at the MIMS.

The pill increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and a variety of cancers and often compromises women's fertility.

Billings Ovulation Method teachers all over the world could tell her that women also complain of depression, weight gain and loss of libido when taking oral contraceptives.

Yes that's right  loss of libido. Women take the pill so they can have sex whenever they please but it reduces their desire.

The pill is not as wonderful as some people would have us believe.

Pharmacists who refuse to sell it are doing women a favour.

-  JANE MUNRO,

Beechworth

SIMON Horsfall's spiritual beliefs are not my own.

And I don't think I would take the business stand he has on contraception (The Border Mail, June 24).

Yet I find myself reflecting that four years ago, there was no pharmacy in Thurgoona at all; that as a pharmacist, his requests of customers are discreet and clear.

While alternative pharmacists are not in Thurgoona, they are in nearby Lavington where people used to go four years ago, or a patient could simply not reveal the use of their hormonal supplement and continue to ask Mr Horsfall to fill the prescription.

There are other questions from this issue: if a girl was raped and prescribed the morning-after pill, would the pharmacy dispense it?

How many other pharmacies in Australia won't dispense some kind of medication such as methadone and contraception?

What about pharmacies that refuse to stock "alternative medications" derived from herbs or mineral supplements?

Why is a Wangaratta-based agency pushing this Albury health matter into the public eye? (Presumably non-supply of contraception has always been a business practice for this pharmacist).

What are the views of the Albury Wodonga Women's Centre on this?

We live in times of sometimes questionable business ethics and this family presents its ethical dilemma to us.

Their solution to that dilemma ruffles some feathers.

It is more than a business decision and was obviously not lightly implemented.

If we are the well-integrated and supportive community we think we are, shouldn't we applaud the courage it has taken to make this decision?

-  JOANNE GOULD,

Howlong

CONGRATULATIONS to The Border Mail for an excellent front page "Family Matters" (Friday, June 24).

In God's providence, it was no mere coincidence that Mr Simon Horsfall's courageous example and witness was the leading story on the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, who as an unborn babe leaped for joy in his mother's womb (Luke 1: 41).

From a health perspective, common sense tells us that it would be foolish to artificially interfere with a perfectly healthy part of our body; namely our fertility.

Soon it will come to light, just as it has in recent years with cigarettes, that large multi-national pharmaceutical companies were well aware of the harmful consequences of prolonged contraceptive use of the pill and yet they continued to put profits before people.

The contraceptive mentality and what it opens up, the way to abortion, is the principal cause of the aging population dilemma.

Unless our plummeting fertility rate of 1.75 children per couple is reversed, the next stage of "the culture of death" will emerge with euthanasia becoming legal and indiscriminate.

What is even more concerning is that the spiritual ramifications of contraception are enormous; in Genesis 38: 8-10, we read of a case of onanism.

The best method of contraception is the little word "no".

Saying "no" to sex outside faithful marriage means never having to face the heartache of an abortion and never contracting a possibly fatal or fertility-destroying sexually transmitted disease, which is often contracted through having multiple sexual partners (last year in Australia alone, there were 36,000 new cases of chlamydia, up 20 per cent).

Families do matter; the most beautiful gift you can give a child, aside from the faith, isn't the latest gadget on the market, but another child.

Here within the God-given family, children learn to care for one another and thus they discover the true meaning of life, even and particularly when one of their siblings has what the world would call a disability.

The church has always viewed these children as a gift and as special.

When the pressures of the world are too great there is a God-given alternative; "natural family planning".

Two wonderful Australians, Drs John and Evelyn Billings, have in recent years made world renowned progress in this method; it is 98.5 per cent effective (WHO).

What is even more exciting is that it is free, it has God's blessing and it enhances marital intimacy and true love.

For more information please contact: Billings Ovulation Method: toll free 1800 335 860 or visit www.woomb.org

- Fr. A. GRACE,

Lavington

I WRITE in response to the letter "True values still matter" from Fr A. Grace (The Border Mail, July 7).

As a woman, as a member of today's society and a Thurgoona resident, I share the belief with many others that intercourse, contraception and pregnancy concern members of our society as individuals.

I would like to point out that the issue does not only lie with the contraceptive pill, but also other forms of contraception  those of which Mr Simon Horsfall refuses to supply the public with also.

These other forms of contraception have the advantage of protecting us from sexually transmitted infections, those about which Fr Grace raised such concern  in his letter.

I think it is ignorant for Mr Horsfall and others to believe he is protecting society from an "evil" by letting his personal beliefs interfere with his work ethic.

There are laws in place that determine the legal age for teenagers to have sex and these laws do not coincide with our marriage laws that say you must be of 18 years to make such a commitment.

I am writing from a realistic and optimistic perspective to bring attention to others about this matter, and exclusively it is my right to do so, just as it is my right to make decisions concerning my health and body.

If people wish to have sex for purposes that differ from Mr Horsfall's beliefs he does not hold the right to stop them as it is his right and place, in my belief, to make it as safe as possible for us to prevent the spread of STDs and unwanted pregnancies.

I am not discouraging his religious beliefs or practices, I am simply suggesting that he recognises these beliefs are not for everyone.

 - SARAH DAFFY,

Thurgoona

I WOULD like to congratulate Mr Simon Horsfall for having his work ethic influenced by his personal beliefs.

That is despite what Sarah Daffy (The Border Mail, July 19) thinks, as she believes he should ignore his beliefs for the sake of his work.

If more Christians put their beliefs into their work we would have a much better society.

And as far as I am aware Mr Horsfall, as a business man, has the right to decide what to stock.

He cares more for others' wellbeing by not stocking certain items.

 - MARK MORIARTY,

Lavington

WITHOUT making a moral judgment on the issue, aren't the persons who allege that Simon Horsfall is foisting his views and opinions on the public guilty of the same behaviour themselves?

 - B.J. BELL,

Albury