Philippines debates government promotion of contraception A debate is stirring in the predominantly Roman Catholic country of the Philippines: should the government provide contraceptives to the public? More than 100 members of the House of Representatives have co-authored a bill that would allow government funds to be used to promote artificial contraceptives — which is now prohibited in the Southeast Asian nation. Some one-third of the country’s 90 million people live in poverty. The Asian Development Bank said that problem will persist until the country curbs its birth rate — one of the highest in the world. The nationwide Pulse Asia Poll found nearly two-thirds of people support the bill. But the Catholic Church is fiercely opposed, and is pressuring lawmakers to vote against it. “Why should we use contraceptives, teaching our children the use of contraceptives,” said Ed Sorreta of Pro-Life Philippines. “It’s totally against the teaching of the Catholic Church. The poverty is really caused by other issues, moral values.” “When you talk about natural family planning, it needs discipline, that’s where many couples fail. They lack the discipline.”
Philippines debates government promotion of contraception
A debate is stirring in the predominantly Roman Catholic country of the Philippines: should the government provide contraceptives to the public?
More than 100 members of the House of Representatives have co-authored a bill that would allow government funds to be used to promote artificial contraceptives — which is now prohibited in the Southeast Asian nation.
Some one-third of the country’s 90 million people live in poverty. The Asian Development Bank said that problem will persist until the country curbs its birth rate — one of the highest in the world.
The nationwide Pulse Asia Poll found nearly two-thirds of people support the bill. But the Catholic Church is fiercely opposed, and is pressuring lawmakers to vote against it.
“Why should we use contraceptives, teaching our children the use of contraceptives,” said Ed Sorreta of Pro-Life Philippines. “It’s totally against the teaching of the Catholic Church. The poverty is really caused by other issues, moral values.”
“When you talk about natural family planning, it needs discipline, that’s where many couples fail. They lack the discipline.”
The Church doesn’t care about alleviating poverty, reducing suffering, or stopping the population explosion. They’re more interested in holding on to their dwindling control over people’s lives (whom they describe as lacking in discipline).
Church teachings and doctrines supervenes over all other considerations for Catholic die-hards. This is in stark contrast to the humanism of the biblical Jesus, who chose human welfare over dogma: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). If only the papists would apply the words of their savior to this issue.
It’s hard to believe that we’ve regressed this far back, that providing contraception is still being debated. More than ten years ago, president Fidel Ramos, a protestant, went against the Church to promote contraceptives and was very successful about it. Whatever gains were earned in his administration on population control, was quickly reversed by the current president, a dwarfish Catholic lackey who’s more than happy to advance her Church’s policies on the whole country.