Cherie defends use of contraception

Cherie Blair has appeared to challenge Catholic teaching on artificial birth control as she spoke about the impact of contraception on women's lives.

Mrs Blair, who described herself as a "good Catholic girl", said the ability to control their fertility had "changed" women's lives, in an interview on GMTV with Lorraine Kelly.

Her remarks came after Ms Kelly told Mrs Blair that emails from viewers were mentioning her contraceptive arrangements following her admission in her new book that she had not packed her "contraceptive equipment" for a visit to Balmoral, which resulted in her pregnancy with her youngest son Leo.

"People seem to be quite shocked that perhaps a Catholic girl even uses contraception but it is really an important thing for women because one of the things about the book is about how women's lives have changed," Mrs Blair told Ms Kelly.

"One of the reasons women's lives have changed is that they have been able to control their fertility, it is an important issue."

Mrs Blair's remarks came after she spoke of the 10 "fantastic" years she had enjoyed in Downing Street, a time when she had met the Queen and two Popes.

She said meeting two Popes was a "huge thing" for a "good Catholic girl."

Mrs Blair's remarks on contraception come after Pope Benedict XVI earlier this month strongly defended the 1968 Papal encyclical Humanae Vitae, the controversial Papal document against artificial birth control.

Tony Blair was received into the Catholic Church shortly before Christmas and gave a public lecture earlier this year at Westminster Cathedral. The Blairs have brought up all four of their children as Catholics.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church in England and Wales declined to comment.

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