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A family physician and a Planned Parenthood employee debated the health effects and morality of using contraceptives Monday at Memorial Union.

Planned Parenthood Development and Communications Associate Amanda Harrington said while she is not a physician, she believes personally and after much research that contraceptives are an integral tool in planning a family.

“Family planning is not a fringe issue,” Harrington said. “It is not an odd activity. It shouldn’t be treated as such by medical professionals. Family planning, on the other hand, is a healthy activity. The community as a whole benefits.”

Cynthia Jones-Nosacek, a family practice physician from Milwaukee, began her rebuttal with the idea that “sex is good,” but said that does not validate the use of contraceptives.

Jones-Nosacek instead pushed the idea of natural methods of family planning such as abstinence and awareness of periods of fertility.

“In marriages where couples wait to be sexually active until after they’re married, they have happier marriages … and more satisfying sex lives,” Jones-Nosacek said. “They communicate better, and they learned to do that while they were dating. They had to learn to show their affection [in ways] other than sex.”

Harrington responded to Jones-Nosacek with the idea that contraceptives have been around for as long as humans have recorded history, but the advances in contraceptive technology with the invention of the condom and oral contraceptives should be considered just that — advances.

She went on to say that contraceptives are simply a part of a realistic view of sex, and the statistic that nearly 70 percent of Catholics use a method of family planning banned by the Roman Catholic Church alludes to this.

Jones-Nosacek later reiterated that health-wise, abstinence is the only method to safely prevent a pregnancy.

“Sex has its place. Some would say we leave it until we get married, and I would say that is the best because no matter what form of contraception you use, they have what you would call failure rates … and if you’re not ready to accept that responsibility, you’re not ready to accept the responsibility of sexual intercourse,” she said.

The crowd was made up overwhelmingly of members of St. Paul’s, a Catholic church on campus.

While the Catholic Church is anti-contraceptives, Edgewood College freshman Suzi Warden said that she did not believe the audience was at all close-minded about the topic of the debate.

Warden said she believed Jones-Nosacek won the debate.

“[Harrington] often contradicted herself, so I believe that her argument wasn’t as strong,” Warden said. “It wasn’t as convincing to me. I know that the wrong thing can often look much easier and prettier than the right thing.”

Nicole Safar, a legal and policy analyst with Planned Parenthood, said she believed Harrington won the debate.

“She was very well-sourced,” Safar said. “I know that Amanda put a lot of effort into making sure she could back herself up with sources, and Dr. Nosacek didn’t do that.”

The event was apart of a weekly series put on by the Roman Catholic Foundation called Sunday Night Sexuality.