Billings, John James

▪ 2008

      Australian physician

born March 5, 1918, Melbourne, Australia

died April 1, 2007 , Richmond, Vic., Australia

devised, with his pediatrician wife, Evelyn, the Billings Ovulation Method, a natural family-planning technique in which a woman could monitor her own fertility by observing specific changes in her cervical mucus. The couple's method, which Billings first began contemplating in the early 1950s, was believed to be more accurate than the traditional rhythm method and was sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, which granted Billings a papal knighthood in 1969. He and his wife later established the World Organisation of the Ovulation Method Billings (WOOMB) to teach the technique. John and Evelyn Billings were both made Members of the Order of Australia in 1991.

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