Church vs. state in birth control battle

Manila housewife Jasmin knows that the bigger the family, the bigger the potential poverty trap.

"I feel it most when we eat together because the food on the table is not enough," said the 33-year-old mother of six who had her fallopian tubes tied to avoid getting pregnant again. "So, I decided to have ligation because life is hard."

Artificial birth control is often taboo in this staunchly Roman Catholic country. Yet with a birth rate that is one of the highest in the world, sustainable population growth is becoming a burning issue, especially as millions of poor people struggle to feed themselves at a time of high food prices, reported Asia One.

This year’s global food crisis, which saw prices of basic commodities such as rice soar beyond the reach of millions of poor people, created shock waves in the Philippines where more than 40 per cent of the population live on $2 or less a day. Spooked by a precarious political and economic situation, some lawmakers are trying to pass a bill that will compel the central government to promote artificial family planning rather than solely focus on natural birth control methods supported by the Church.

Twenty-seven economists, including four former economic planning secretaries and one former budget secretary, have signed a paper supporting the bill.

"The lack of an unambiguous population policy reflects a lack of seriousness in promoting long-term economic growth and poverty reduction," said Ernesto Pernia, a professor of economics at the University of the Philippines, and one of the 27 signatories.

He compares the Philippines to Thailand.

In 1975 both countries had similar population sizes of 41 to 42 million. Then Bangkok launched a major family planning effort.

Now Thailand has a population of around 64 million and is the world’s top exporter of rice. Meanwhile, the Philippines with a population of 90 million is the world’s top importer of the grain.

Thailand had a gross annual income per capita of $8,355 in 2007, while in the Philippines it was US$3,934. "Our studies show that if the Philippines had followed the (population) growth trajectory of Thailand between 1975 and 2000 the per capita income would have been at least 22 per cent higher and there would have been 5 million less poor people," said Pernia. "That is a conservative estimate."

Yet the proposed reproductive health bill will likely never see the light of day as the influential Catholic Church is staunchly opposed to artificial birth control.

The Church has denounced the bill as "morally unacceptable" and warned politicians, particularly senators considering running for the presidency in 2010, that their stance will be remembered. "The Catholic Church knows how to mobilize its members not to vote for anti-life politicians," said Father Melvin Castro of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

Priests at some Sunday masses gave PowerPoint presentations reiterating the Church’s line on family planning and one archbishop even suggested denying communion to politicians who supported the law.

Nearly half of the estimated 3.1 million pregnancies that occur every year in this Southeast Asian country are unplanned. Around half a million end in illegal and often dangerous back-street abortions.

While a relatively small middle class in the Philippines can easily afford contraceptives, millions of poor women cannot. A month’s supply of the pill costs 39 pesos or around $0.91, around half the average daily salary of almost half the population.

A lack of accurate information and access is also a problem.

Local governments often do not have the money to provide pills and condoms in public clinics and mayors that prefer to toe the Church line can ban them from clinics.

Officials who defy the Church sometimes face a backlash. Joseph Juico, a Manila councillor, was denounced as a "worker of satan" for introducing a family planning program in schools.