“I need to follow my conscience”

Jennifer Muguindo is hoping for an answer to her prayers this holy week.
The Vancouver-based Overseas Foreign Worker is hoping that God will show her the way when it comes to the use of contraceptives and issues of family planning.
“I don’t know what to do...my religion says one thing…the authorities are saying another,” said the mother of two, whose family lives in Cebu, while she works in Canada.
Like her, millions of Filipinos everywhere from a country that is predominantly Catholic are facing a contraceptive conundrum as the Southeast Nation moves closer to adopt a reproductive health policy – a move vehemently opposed by the powerful Catholic church.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino last weekend, as Catholics observed Palm Sunday, pushed for the enactment of the controversial Responsible Parenthood (RP) bill even if it would mean excommunication from the Catholic Church.
Aquino’s apparent strong stance came after the European Union (EU) expressed willingness to provide funds to help poor Filipinos gain free access to contraceptives.
The EU said it will provide US$50 million over four years to support health system reforms, including raising contraceptive usage in low-income, rural communities.
“We have always been very clear in supporting reproductive health rights,” Nicholas Taylor, head of operations at the European Union delegation office in Manila, told a news conference.
“I am aware that there are those who are against this (RP bill). But it is my obligation as the leader to approach all sectors, talk to them and explain to them even if others say I should be excommunicated,” Aquino said.
While he has to listen to others who have already closed their minds on RP bill, the president said at the end of the day, he has to make a decision.
“I need to follow my conscience. I need to do what is right,” he said, while citing a 16-year-old girl in a slum area in Manila whom he met and has already two children at a very young age.
The Catholic Church, which is only espousing for natural family planning, has been opposing the RP bill and the Reproductive Health bill pending in Congress since both provide for artificial family planning.
Two weeks ago, a UN delegation also called on the Philippines to introduce a reproductive health policy to lower its high maternal death rate -- an average of 11 women die in the country each day giving birth.
Efforts to enact a law that would promote access to sex education and contraception have been blocked since the 1990s by the Church. Around 80% of Filipinos are Catholic.
The Church says tackling corruption would do more to reduce poverty than slowing growth of a population that is nearing 100 million.
Taylor said former president Fidel Ramos, the country’s only Protestant leader, had a strong family planning policy, but his successors did not promote contraceptive use.
“The absence of a national reproductive health policy, especially for the poorest, is a vital concern,” said Brian Bowler, leader of the delegation of six U.N. bodies.
However, he noted that religious views had to be considered in setting national laws. “The Philippines is a Catholic country, and as such it has very strong principles, and of course religion must be observed,” said Bowler, who is Malawi’s permanent representative to the U.N.
The Philippines has one of Asia’s fasted-growing populations, which is nearing 100 million people. It also has one of the region’s highest rates of maternal deaths. The problem was particularly severe in Muslim communities on Mindanao island, where 320 mothers died per 100,000 live births -- double the national average, Bowler said.
Efforts to enact a law that would promote access to sex education and contraception since the 1990s have been blocked by the powerful Roman Catholic Church, which opposes access to and information about contraception methods.
A poll last year showed seven out of every 10 would support a reproductive health bill that does not decriminalize abortion.
Meanwhile, there is a growing number of villages seeking to outlaw the sale of condoms, birth control pills and other artificial forms of contraception without a prescription.
Seven villages in Bataan, a low- to middle-income province west of the Philippine capital of Manila, are lobbying to enact a local ordinance to ban condoms and other forms of modern contraception without a prescription.
The ban comes on the heels of a similar ordinance passed in January 2011 in Ayala Alabang, one of the most affluent areas in the country.
The Philippines is the only country in the Southeast Asian region without national legislation to institutionalize access to reproductive health information and services.