This is where she wanders off. If she wants to be a New York Times editorial writer she must adhere to the rules of her office. She is free, of course, to pursue something else.
I really don't think she is qualified to say what the doctrine of the Catholic Church should be. I don't think someone should just go into a denomination and say "I am Catholic, but I don't believe this this this and this..." and expect an entire Church to say "Okay, let's change our entire belief system to accomodate you." There is a religion to fit everyone in this Country. If there isn't, make one up yourself. It's done all the time. But this idea of verbal intimidation and coercion to force an assembled group of people to accomodate every contrary belief Maureen Dowd thinks they should is crazy. She makes herself into an Opinion Nazi when she does that. If she doesn't like it "No views for you!!!!"
Dowd, like others, don't understand the Church teachings. Artificial birth control has a lower percentage success rate than faithfully practiced natural family planning. However, many people think that human beings are animals when it comes to sex and can't refrain during the few days of the month that a woman can conceive. They have the secular "me-first" attitude. Why should we conform to please God? Why should we deny ourselves when we don't get immediate rewards? Why can't we have sex whenever we want with whoever we want? We have this wonderful thing called birth control, no consequences. Whoops, got pregnant! Condom broke! I can get an abortion.
The church has a moral position and some people don't like it. Fine, they don't have to. But don't expect the church to change because some people in this society think that the rules are unfair or too strict.