Fight against contraceptives

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Artificial birth control is often a taboo subject for leaders of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. In the capital city of Manila, a nine-year-old mayoral order that bans the teaching of artificial contraception in public health clinics has remained in effect even after a new mayor took over in 2007.

A reproductive health bill that aims to stem the country's birth rate has also languished in Congress for years after President Arroyo told lawmakers that she favors natural family planning. In some cities, couples who attend compulsory family planning seminars are taught that artificial contraception increases cancer risk and could make one go deaf.

Reproductive health advocates, however, point out that food stability and economic growth could take a hit as the Philippine population reaches more than 92 million before the end of 2009.

Benjamin de Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning and Development, said the Catholic lobby is a big factor in the country's lack of a national policy on artificial family planning.

"Even former President Fidel Ramos says President Arroyo is subservient to the Church so she does not want to talk about artificial family planning. She has relegated this to the local government units for them to promote family planning methods in their own municipalities, cities and provinces," he said in an interview.

LaRainne Sarmiento, convenor of the Quezon City Anti-Poverty Integration Task Force (APITF), said Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte's push for a better quality of life for his constituents necessitated the need to push for the reproductive health ordinance.

"Quezon City is the largest city in Metro Manila in terms of land area. The largest district is District 2, Novaliches, where half of the population live. The poorest of Quezon City live in this district, which includes Payatas and Batasan Hills. According to the last census, the city's population grew from 2.173 million in the year 2000 to 2.68 million in 2007," she said.

Juico said population growth is aggravating problems such as unemployment, poverty and a housing shortage. In the Payatas community, families of six or seven people are living in shanties that could barely fit four or five at a time.

"In the squatters, I've seen families living in one room. They eat, sleep, play, watch TV and have intercourse in the same room. The kids are exposed to sex at a very early age and they become curious. When I'm campaigning, sometimes I approach pregnant women in these areas and ask how they are. When you're pregnant, you're supposed to be happy. These women, when you ask them, they say: 'This is my fifth child. I wish we could stop but we can't.' They don't look at pregnancy as a gift of God anymore but another mouth to feed," he said.

The Quezon City ordinance, which is dubbed the MP4 program, aims to address the city's burning issues of poverty, rapid population growth, and teenage pregnancies. The program allocates more than P10 million for basic services such as health and nutrition, training for counseling for government workers, peer counseling and effective parenting, adolescent health education for youth, sustained information dissemination to different barangays, family planning services and education, and livelihood generation and entrepreneurship programs.

A study using data from local health departments bears out the wisdom of relying on different methods of family planning. The study, conducted by Dr. Jonathan Flavier of the Cooperative Movement for Encouraging NSV (No-Scalpel Vasectomy), showed how maternal deaths in Quezon City decreased after the local government encouraged artificial contraceptive use starting in the year 2000.

On the other hand, maternal deaths in Manila have increased over the same period after the local government banned contraceptives and the teaching of modern family planning methods in public health centers.

"Supporting family planning reduces the deaths of women that are caused by getting pregnant too often or too many times, getting prenant at very young or very old ages, and when the woman is too sick or unable to nurture more children. We believe that part of the decreasing maternal deaths in Quezon City is due to their encouragement of family planning and reduced births per woman," he said.

No stone unturned

Juico said he left nothing to chance when he submitted the ordinance in late 2007. After getting the go-ahead from lawyers that the proposal was not unconstitutional, he then conducted several public hearings to find out what people thought about the measure.

Bishop Reuben Abante, who headed a local Baptist group, backed the proposal but opposed the provision that mandated sex education for Grade 5 up to fourth year High School students. The ordinance later mandated sex education classes for high school students in state-sponsored schools only.

There was also a revision of terms used in the ordinance -- "sex education" became "adolescent health education," "traditional family planning" became "natural family planning," and "modern family planning" became "artificial family planning."

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, however, said some provisions in the ordinance completely ran counter to the Catholic Church's teaching, such as state-sponsored purchase of contraceptives and sex education in classrooms.

"The Catholic Church is not against the policy of birth spacing or controlling the population. This is at the heart of responsible parenthood. It is up to the husband and wife to assess the situation of the family on how many children they want.The Catholic Church upholds the teaching that in matters of controlling conception, we are allowed only to make use of natural means that accepts the rhythm of the body and nature," he said.

Juico said the ordinance is virtually a continuation of an existing family planning program implemented since Belmonte became mayor in 2001. He also said various surveys have shown that majority of Filipinos support and are willing to use contraceptives.

More importantly, he said the ordinance does not promote or support abortion since it is a violation of the Revised Penal Code.

"There is nothing coercive about the ordinance. There are no penal provisions. Its goal is provide artificial contraception to those who need it but with a wholistic approach. When a couple wants to get a condom, we will give them a seminar first. We will teach them abstinence, be faithul and natural family planning. We will also teach them about artificial family planning methods including condoms. We will teach them all the different types of family planning, not just the artificial but the natural as well," he said.


source: abs-cbnnews.com