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Erik De Castro / Reuters
Mothers with their babies at a ward of Jose Fabella maternity hospital in Manila Sept. 12.
MANILA, Philippines -- Philippine President Benigno Aquino is squaring off against his country's powerful Catholic church in a bid to give people free access to the means to limit the size of their families.
The predominately Catholic country has one of Asia's fastest-growing populations together with significant levels of chronic poverty. While neighbors have accelerated towards prosperity, the Philippines has lagged.
Economists say high population growth is a primary factor for that, but the church disagrees. It says population growth is not a cause of poverty and that people need jobs, not contraception.
Aquino, a Catholic like 80 percent of the population, has thrown his support behind a reproductive health bill that will, if passed by the two houses of Congress, guarantee access to free birth control and promote sex education.
That's something that Liza Cabiya-an might have benefited from, if she'd had the opportunity.
Cabiya-an, 39, has 14 children. The oldest is 22, the youngest just 11 months. Their home is a hut in a Manila slum.
"It's tough when you have so many children," said Cabiya-an, a shy smile revealing poor teeth. "I have to count them before I go to sleep to make sure no one's missing."
Erik De Castro / Reuters
Health workers show the proper use of a condom during a family planning session held in the Likhaan centre, an NGO clinic in Tondo, Manila Aug. 6.
At one time Cabiya-an had access to contraception but Manila mayor Jose Atienza, a devout Catholic, swept contraceptives from the shelves of city-run clinics in 2000.
More photos: Philippines defies church to push family planning
After that, Cabiya-an's efforts to limit the size of her family were patchy, restricted by her meager resources. She went on and off the pill and resorted to an illegal abortion more than once.
5 of 14 kids sent to school
With income of about 7,600 pesos ($180) a month from doing laundry and her husband's pay as a laborer, Cabiya-an has only been able to send five of her children to school. The others would appear doomed to join the quarter of the country's 95 million people stuck below the poverty line.
Contraceptives are generally available in the Philippines although they are not used as much as elsewhere.
In the Philippines, 45-50 percent of women of reproductive age, or their partners, are using a contraceptive method at any given time. Indonesia's rate is 56 percent and Thailand's 80 percent.
PhotoBlog: Mothers give birth in an already overpopulated Manila
Population growth mirrors that. The Philippines population is increasing by 1.9 percent a year, while Indonesia's is 1.2 percent and Thailand's is 0.9 percent. China's population is growing at an annual rate of 0.6 percent.
"If you increase access to contraceptives for women ... you will have births averted," said Josefina Natividad, director of the University of the Philippines' Population Institute.
Though available in most places, the cost of contraceptives is prohibitive for many people. But that should change if the reproductive health bill is passed.
Aquino's government has promised what it calls inclusive growth and it sees slowing population growth as key to that.
"The president has already, at the risk of alienating the church, declared that the bill is a priority," Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said. "That message is very clear."
Church: Contraception immoral
But it's a message the church doesn't like. It says artificial contraception is immoral, and the bill will pave the way to legalizing abortion. The bill does not legalize abortion though it seeks to improve care for women suffering from complications after an illegal abortion.
The church says people should use natural family planning.
It says poverty is a cause, not effect, of a high birth rate. Children are being born into homes without enough food to eat because of the government's failure to end corruption and provide jobs, the bishops say.
"It's our firm belief that contraceptives will never be the answer," said Father Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines' Episcopal Commission on Family and Life.
Read more stories about the Philippines here
"They are poor not because they have no access to contraceptives but because they have no work. Give them work and it will be the most effective birth spacing means for them."
Economists say the church's persistent opposition has been the most important factor influencing population policy.
"The state ... has been immobilized from effectively addressing the issue by the Catholic hierarchy's hardline position," a group of 30 economists from the University of the Philippines said in a recent paper.
70 percent support family planning bill
But despite the arguments of the church and political opponents who decry using state funds to finance contraception, a poll last year showed about 70 percent of people support the bill. Its backers want it passed during the term of this congress, which ends in June.
Economists say if the Philippines is ever to take advantage of a "demographic dividend," when a large, young workforce is generating the savings and investment to give the economy a sustained boost, it will have to bring down the fertility rate.
The median age in the Philippines is only 22.2 compared with 25 in Malaysia, India's 25.1 and Indonesia's 27.8.
Unlike aging countries such as Japan, where the elderly put a burden on the working population, in the Philippines it's the children who command the resources that could otherwise be diverted to savings and investment.
There are 58 dependents for every 100 working-age people in the Philippines, according to World Bank data, compared with 40 in Indonesia and 29 in Thailand.
"The demographic window will only open if fertility rates are going to go down in such a way that the young-age population will grow at a slower rate than the working-age population," said Arsenio Balisacan, socio-economic planning secretary.
Aquino might seem an unlikely champion of free contraception. His late mother, Corazon Aquino, rose to power at the head of a people power revolution, fostered by the church, that swept away old dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
Marcos had made reining in population growth a priority beginning in the 1960s and enshrined family planning in a 1973 constitution. But Corazon Aquino, mindful of the church's help in the democracy movement, scrapped that clause when the charter was rewritten in 1987.
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A seething mass of poor, uneducated, superstitious Catholics... this is heaven as far as the church is concerned, why would they promote any other option?
They have gone to a great deal of trouble to create this reality in every country they have ever been allowed to operate in, do you really think they're gong to surrender their cash-cow without a fight?
It's no accident that the countries least capable of creating jobs, prosperity and fiscal responsibility are the most religious. A path towards ignorant servitude and control that the GOP would have us all follow blindly.
You are entirely deceived. Everything you say is untrue. You do not know what you are talking about. Educate yourself by reading in depth about what the Catholic church teaches and why. Don't allow yourself to be taught by superficial leftist media lies and slick twisting of truth. Why do you think America was so blessed in the first place?... Because it was a Christian nation of faith. Now it will no longer be blessed (in case you have not noticed) because it has stomped on the 10 commandments and told God that we don't need God anymore. God does not remain where not wanted. So brace yourself for woe.
Jesus was a liberal leftist
Why do you think America was so blessed in the first place?... Because it was a Christian nation of faith.
Now it will no longer be blessed (in case you have not noticed) because it has stomped on the 10 commandments and told God that we don't need God anymore
Blessed? By who there is no God.
And if there was, why would a bunch of people (catholics) want to take their family and child rearing advice from a bunch of confirmed bachelors who have no experience in raising families of their own?
That makes about as much sense as getting lessons in flying from a pig.
@Laureen - you say America is great because it is a "Christian" nation. You then mention the 10 commandments. You do realize the 10 commandments were given to the Jewish people, right? Also, the Catholic church is the only Christian faith that seeks to make birth control illegal. How then is legal birth control "un-Christian"? When did God tell married people they should only have sex if they are prepared to have a child as consequence? Taking "be fruitful and multiply" to mean birth control is evil is a bit of a stretch to me. You can go ahead and quote Paul, but I don't give the same weight to the words of a misogynist as I do to the words of God.
"Why do you think America was so blessed in the first place?... Because it was a Christian nation of faith"
oh, not this tired old fallacy again. i'm currently reading a new biography on james madison. the virginia state constitution preceded the us constitution (you know, the one he's called the 'father of'. anyway, one of his arguments that he won in virginia, was the religious one mandating a state religion. that was abolished. another argument he won? some tried to assert freedom of religion in virginia for christians only. yeah, that argument didn't fly then, and it doesn't now.
what truly amazes me is when someone says 'educate yourself' but clearly doesn't follow their own advice!
What is more immoral? Stopping sperm from meeting an egg or having a baby whom one can not afford to care for? The catholic church, as well as all other religions, has no right to force its views on others. Any religious person out there, I can understand the desire for there to be something after life, but you need to learn to think critically. There is no hand of god that will magically save anyone from anything. Religion says to abandon critical thought and have faith. That is wrong! Critical thought is the tool that says “don’t touch a hot stove, do work hard to understand people’s differences, etc”. Abandoning critical thought is surrendering to ignorance. Ignorance breeds suffering. Like drug dealers peddling poison, religion is the cause for so much suffering!
One day people will wake up and realize the Catholic Church was right all along. We are at war with our nature, our bodies. We fill ourselves with harmful carcinogenic chemicals in order to thwart the natural process of our bodies. Hopefully by the time we wake up, it will not be too late.
Lol. Yeah, they are right. Popping out a team of children you can't afford or take care of, wearing out mom's body and having dad work several jobs to make ends meet while mom takes care of all of them sounds heavenly and sooo natural. If you think the Catholic Church cares a whit about your body or anyone else's you are mistaken. More little Catholics equal more people in church and more in the collection plate. Life isn't the same as it was back when the family needed 12 kids to farm and end up with 3 or 4 to grow to adulthood. Kids usually survive and most aren't on farms any more, and there is no need to have as many as there was years ago. People didn't live as long and women died more often in childbirth...this isn't back then and humans have different life spans, employment, and resources than they did then.
But you are right. There is a good chance that by the time we wake up it will be too late, but not for the reasons you think.
If the Catholic Church was even remotely interested in wiping out hunger and poverty, it would sell off some of it's prized treasures, you know... the treasures they hold more dear than their flock.
The Catholic church has not been right about * anything*.
yeah, used 'harmful chemicals' for a while. after three kids, and complications, got a tubal. ah, life is good. thanks goodness god gave us the brains to find better ways of doing things.
and i'm pretty sure bc isn't nearly as harmful as repeated pregnancies. for centuries, childbirth was the number one cause of death for women. it still takes some every year.
and i'll take medical advice from a doctor over a priest ANY DAY.
Laureen, The beauty of living in America is that you can do what is right for you. Go ahead have 20-30 or 50 children. My only caveat is that you have the resources to take care of them without any of my tax dollars (which I would rather be used to build roads and take care of our soldiers). I feel strongly that if folks choose to have a ton of children then they should be responsible enough to take care of them (or have the church take care of them). You will go to heaven having done was the church told you to do. Don't worry so much about the rest of us who choose to have only 1-2 children.
Religion? Religion is made up of people and groups of people create power and power creates domination and domination results in slavery and slavery results in poverty and poverty results in illiteracy and illiteracy results in more religion and the cycle continues.
As for the cycle of poverty, there is something common between the Roman Catholic Church and Islam. That cycle also results in concentration of ' genes of poverty ' that express low IQs of people. Those two religions divide Mindanao, the southernmost island of the Philippines. They are fighting against their own mirror images.
We can no longer live in a world where the commandment "Go forth and multiply" is the do-or-die norm. There are over 7 Billion people and counting. We're running out of natural resources to support all those people.
One would think that perhaps, the dad, would be able to use a bit of restraint and hold off on sex, seeing as they have 14 and probably counting. Hopefully they know where babies come from. The article focused on the women - where's the guys???
Yes, men should take responsibility. But, they won't. That's why it is up to the women to force the issue.
it's far, far more realistic to just acknowledge that married couples (gasp) have sex. it's completely natural, and incredibly enjoyable.
so, why not face reality and provide a way to keep from making more mouths to feed.
deb - that is exactly the problem. Sex is natural and incredibly enjoyable. You are dealing with people who think suffering is natural, desirable and an unquestioned "gift" from God and any human inclinations are bad, dirty and punishable.
I was raised Catholic as were my parents (WII generation) and grandparents before me. But we could never understand the church's leadership. My father used to just shake his head at the anti-birth-control agenda and say "look at South America, they can't support these people." In an overpopulated world that is rife with weaponry and violence and fearcely contending for limited resources, I seriously question the motives of the guys who run the church in taking their "great stand" on the issue of birth control rather than violence. I just don't understand these people's logic. But I think one of the major problems stems from the fact that the church leadership has been studiously maintained over the centuries as an all-male organization that views women merely as pawns in their game.
BTW: just what are the grounds for concluding that the use of artificial birth control is "immoral"? People are toolmakers. This is what we do. And we don't hesitate to alter our natural environment if we need to, or else we never would have had engineering projects and we certainly never would have discovered the ability to fly.
It's always enlightening to watch island nations coping with the realities all nations must eventually face; fascism, global warming and the accelerating rise in sea level (see both in a very good flick called "Island President") and now....population control.
After all, islands are humanity in microcosm- small places with limited assets and limited area.
The tactic of out-breeding the opposition to gain cultural prevalence is only valid in a world without limits- and we have passed them.
The Catholic Church- and every other group which promotes population growth- must change their stance to retain credibility- because no God worth believing in would want the world to die in the misery of starvation and bloodshed which will inevitably result from continued population growth.
If the Christ was sent to end suffering and atone for sins committed in ignorance, advocating against birth control is a violation of his intentions.
It doesn't matter if your majority holds sway in a necropolis, and if we keep breeding people we can't feed, everyone dies.
Religion - it really does poison everything. It stands in the way of progress and peoples ultimate well being. Its a virus of the mind and I hope these people are beginning to see it for what it is.
Imagine, a bunch of elderly virgin men telling people how to run their sex lives and ultimately their family. Its sick. The Catholic church is sick.
Virgin Men!!! We wish,... lol BTW, the Bible is where they get there teaching on birth control.... right?. Oh snap, there is NOTHING in the bible about that, this is all made up crap, same as the nonsense about Priests not marrying..
As a Catholic, the last place I would look for family planning advice is an institution where the principals, by design, deny themselves sex and families.
The Church is not only wrong on this issue, but is willfully blind when it needs to be - the number of one-child families in our parish is quite high, the number of times any of them have been called out about it is none.
My guess would be that the priests are willing to look the other way and pretend that all the one child families are the result of "natural" family planning even though they all have advanced educations and know better. If they called out all those families there would be a precipitous drop in church income.
I have to disagree with the Catholic Church about birth control. Especially in over populated, poverty stricken areas. It makes no sense for them to Not be allowed access to it. But if they couldn't get it in the past, why didn't the guy just pull out? Rather than wind up with 14 kids you don't want and can't take care of. Sometimes you have to take things into your own hands.
Yeah, that's exactly what the guy is thinking about at that moment. It isn't a very reliable form of birth control.
Guys do it tho. It's sort of selfish when you have over 10 kids and still don't.
Yes, it is. That's why women need to be empowered to have control over their reproductive lives.
Why are they just showing the women how to use a Condom? I think that the men should also be taught about birth control, it shouldn't just be put on the women to prevent pregnancy.
Women pay a far higher price, and are more motivated. Yes, the men SHOULD be taught - but realistically the women need to be empowered.
How many Catholic churches will take an unlimited number of starving babies? Their responsibilities in this matter are obviously not fulfilled.
How many Muslims will? They are multiplying far more! This is happening in the Philipines and they Do need contraception for sure, but most Catholics in the West have been practicing some sort of birth control, even if it's pulling out or the rythym movement for years.
Please do not generalize the wrong point of view or wrongful misdeeds by a few catholic priests as applicable to the entire Catholic Church and all the catholics in the world.
When the muslims where outraged by some short video, people are too quick to condemm the religion as faith of violence and intolerance. Here you are again, doing the same thing to the entire catholic faith when the article is very straight forward, it is the position of Philippine catholic church, not the entire population of catholic faith.
When are people going to learn what tolerance is all about in the society we live in. Are we regressing into a pack of vicious animals ready to attack, critize and destroy populations, culture, beliefs, each other everytime there is a difference in opinion.
But, it is the official position of the entire Roman Catholic Church.
My sister-in-law has been Catholic all her life and my brother just converted although he has always allowed his children to be taught Catholic belifs (we were raised Church of Christ). They only have two children, most of their friends (all catholic) have two to three kids (there are a few who have 4, 5 and 6 but because they chose to do so). They all swear by keeping up with ovulation and the calendar.
I on the other hand took birth control. I have two children both wanted. I don't think any child is a mistake or accident. However that said, for lack of a better word, an oops once is understandable and oops twice or more is not since you know what caused the oops. And is not anyone's place but your own to prevent it. It is not the government's (actually taxpayers---since the government takes money from the working/employed and does not make money) place.
For the entire 28 years I took birth control, it was not covered by my insurance, and at times I did not have insurance but I managed to pay for them every month. They are not and were not cheap. It was my responsibility.
Deb, It is great that you were able to always get your birth control but for some poor women, it is a choice between eating and feeding their children and buying birth control. This is where the government comes in. It is cheaper by far to provide a box of pills or pay for a shot, then it will be to provide care for an unwanted child for at least 18 years. It is a fact that poor women tend have more children and at a younger age than those with financial means. This means that they are more likely to stay in poverty and have children who repeat the cycle. Anything we can do as a society to break that cycle will in the end will make things better for all of us. Our tax dollars would (I hope) be used things to make all our lives better (e.g. a new electrical grid, better roads, better and more affordable schools, taking care of our elderly, R&D, Cancer research) instead of an ever growing budget for Medicaid and food stamps.
Perhaps not. But, if there are societal benefits to widespread use of birth control, then I don't think it is inappropriate for the government to provide it (or subsidize it).
The church just wants to increase its numbers so anything that doesn't produce children is forbidden: contraception, abortion, homosexuality, masturbation, etc.
It's pathetic when the church always spouts "Use natural contraception!" It doesn't work and they know it.
also, their stance in africa, and elsewhere, on aids and condom use is absolutely unfathomable.
and it's not as tho their thoughts and beliefs can't/don't change. they don't still resist the scientific idea that the earth isn't the center of the universe. they no longer say preaching free will is blasphemy.
Unlike most christian denominations that see success as a sign of god's favor, the RCC sees suffering as a holy state and a sign of god's favor. People are not supposed to use any artificial means to protect themselves from disease. They are supposed to avoid exposure - in other words, no sex. When priests, bishops, nuns etc are allowed to marry the RCC's obsession with everyone else's sex lives will eventually diminish.
Even the Church cadinals when they speak the truth will admit the Catholic church is 400 years behind the times. I hope the Government of the Phillippines does not back down. This is one more example of why it si so important to have COMPLETE separation of church and state in OUR country.
Do you know what they call people who practice Natural Family Planning - PARENTS. Also, with the scientific advances in Natural Planning, how is that different for the the Scientific discoveries of MODERN birth control, using pharmaceuticals? I do not know about you or your faith, but if my God wants you to have a child, neither Natural Family Planning (rhythm method.) or any pill, implant, or injection will not stop a birth! Think about the birth of Jesus Christ. Let's separate church "doctrine" from the reality of our faith in the power of our GOD. Let us use the Churches power to help, not hinder those who are out there all alone!
This sounds like a story I would read in the 1950's, not 2012.
Like Filipinas don't know about contraceptives? I think they and the Thais have it all wrapped up (pun intended! :) But seriously, the gov't needs to say, "Screw the church" and do what the people want: provide free contraceptives.
yay im poor that means i should have 11 childrens!
I worked in Manila for about two months in late 2009. It's a really odd place. I had to walk through a huge shopping mall to get to my job site. On Sunday mornings, there was a service held right there in the mall. Also, there was an actual church on mall property where you could hear religious prayers and songs even as the "working girls" (who are abundant in a country with such high poverty) propositioned you to engage in the act of procreation (but with appropriate "safety" gear on).
The whole idea of "natural family planning" has NEVER worked at a societal level in recorded human history to my knowledge. Simply taking a chastity pledge doesn't really stand a chance against a sex drive that is hard-wired into our very DNA.
If worse comes to worse, and The Pope does someday come to the Philippines, Philippine citizens can throw Imelda Marcos' shoes at him in protest.
Yer Pal Always,
Thee
God created the Heavens and the Earth. For any religion to say anything more is self-serving gibberish.
Jesus Christ was the original paranoid schizophrenic - I am the son of God. Yeah right. Sounds like somebody on LSD to me.
When the Pope wasn't buggering a choir boy he was selling Indulgences so you could pay for your sins and still get into heaven. I couldn't make this up. Ask Martin Luther.
Hey you Roman Catholics - what's up with Mary?
Anyway, back on topic. It fills my heart with pride to see the Philippine Government taking on the Roman Catholic Church. The Philippines are a rich, rich land that is held in poverty by the Roman Catholic Church and the corruption that goes with it. You have to go to the Philippines and get away from Luzon to see the real Philippines. The land and the ocean are rich and teeming with resources, but the country seems dead because of the heavy weight of the Roman Catholic Church and all of its self-serving insanity, corruption, oppression, and deception.
Overpopulation is the 800 pound gorilla in every room. The World can support about a billion people. The goal of the Roman Catholic Church is to have more babies so they can have more Roman Catholics. Political power - in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church - comes from a womb. In is an unbelievable attitude and it has everything to do with the destruction of the environment.
As the Eagles put it so eloquently in The Last Resort, "They call it Paradise, kissing it goodbye".
LOL!! but well said.
I used natural family planning so I would know when I could have relations with my spouse to either have or not have a baby. This did not require me to take any type of hormons or other medications and there was no barrier between myself and my spouse. Don't knock it until you've tried it and ....ITS FREE. The problem as always is no one wants to take responsibility for their actions any more....I want, I want, I want without any thought to the consequence is a ridiculous and dangerous way to live.
So are you saying that this poverty stricken country w/over-population should NOT use Contraception ???? Is that what you're trying to say ????
Sorry to disappoint you Gforce, but not everyone is perfect like you.
How do you know what is going on in other people's minds? Most of the people I have known have thought along the lines of "let's not have more kids than we can provide for properly." Their use of birth control IS taking responsibility. You don't know other people's circumstances, either. Unfortunately, physical aggression can occur in a relationship, married or not, such that a pregnancy would be an added burden on an already distressed person and might result in that person having to stay in an abusive relationship. Let's let people make these decisions for themselves in consideration of their individual circumstances.
Actually, correct. They should not use contraception. G-force didn't say he was perfect. He said he tried natural family planning. He got a little ham-fisted with it, I'll give you that. But the 1.95 population growth is not the cause of their poverty. The artlcle was also a little ham-fisted. IObviously the author was taking a position, not just reporting facts. Yes the woman in the story with 14 children is not in doubt. But that's not that's not the story, that's a characterization of the story, and a good editor should have sent that back for a rewrite. But that's not really my point here. I got off topic! My point is that not everything that is right is convenient. And Catholic dogma is that contraception is not God's will. I understand that. I'm Catholic. And I have used contraception. I'm not perfect, and I'm sorry that I was immature and self-centered. I'm sorry for thsoe sins. I wasn't strong enough to do the right thing. I wasn't educated well enough in my faith. Because something is hard to do, doesn't make it OK to condone the lack of trying.
G, your also overlooking the fact in a lot of these countries a woman doesent have the ability to say no to her husband, contraception is her only way to control this part of her life.