Nearer the Church, farther from
birth goals By Marwaan
Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - When Philippines
President Benigno Aquino delivered his annual
state of the union address in July, he appealed to
the country's politicians to break a deadlock on
progressive birth control laws in this
predominantly Catholic nation.
An
estimated 15 Filipina women currently die from
pregnancy-related complications every day - up
from a daily average of 11 a decade ago - and many
of these are teenagers from among the urban and
rural poor, according to a government survey.
In the decade after the law was originally
proposed, unintended pregnancies have risen by
54%, according to the government's family health
survey of 2011. The bill seeks to addresses this
situation by offering
contraceptive options, reproductive health care
and sex education in schools.
According to
the survey, the maternal mortality rate (MMR)
reached 221 deaths for every 10,000 live births
during the 2006 - 2010 period, marking a 36%
increase from the 162 deaths during the 2000-2005
period.
In early August, the president's
allies in the House of Representatives had
occasion to cheer as lawmakers in the Congress
voted to end the fractious debate that had trapped
"The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health
and Population Development Act" in a Lower House
parliamentary committee.
But, as the
reproductive health (RH) bill makes its way
through the Senate and the House for amendments,
its sponsors face filibustering by a vocal
minority trying to delay passage of the bill
before October 15 when the term of the current
Congress expires. "The anti-RH forces know
that at the moment the pro-RH forces are likely to
have the majority, so their strategy is to prolong
the parliamentary process," Congressman Walden
Bello of the Citizens Action Party told IPS in an
interview.
"Once we get to mid-October, it
will be very difficult to muster quorums to take
up legislation since most members of the House
will be busy campaigning for re-election (for next
May's election)," Bello said.
According to
Bello, the strategy of the vocal minority - about
120 members in the 285-strong Lower House - is to
leverage the political influence that the Catholic
Church wields in this archipelago of 96.5 million
people.
"The anti-RH forces hope that some
of the pro-RH forces will waver and decide against
voting for the bill for fear that the Catholic
Church hierarchy will tell their Catholic
constituents to vote against them," Bello said.
The clout of the Church is playing out in
the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University where
some 190 academics supporting the RH bill have
been threatened with heresy proceedings, according
to local media.
"The first principle of
canon law is that we don't allow teaching that is
against the official teachings of the Church,"
Bishop Leonardo Medroso told a local radio station
in an interview. "If there is somebody who is
giving instructions against the teachings of the
Church, then they have to be investigated
immediately."
The Church has also backed
street protests against the controversial bill and
one "people power" gathering drew an estimated
10,000 people in the capital.
Arguments
trotted out against the bill at such meetings
include loss of family values in a "contraceptive
society" and state interference in what is seen by
many as a religious domain.
"The RH bill
has become a political question because of the
role of the Church in opposing it," says Harry
Roque, professor of constitutional law at the
University of the Philippines. "The influence of
the Church is ever persuasive."
"But the
reality is that we need this bill," Roque said in
a telephone interview from Manila. "It is
important for the president to do what is right.
He is deeply committed to supporting this bill."
To do otherwise would expose the Aquino
administration to charges of being remiss in
meeting United Nation's Millennium Development
Goal (MDG) of slashing by three-quarters the
maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by 2015 against
what it was in 1990.
Local women's rights
groups and UN agencies monitoring the country's
progress in meeting MDG five (one of eight goals)
relating to maternal health and reducing the MMR
hold that the Philippines is likely to miss the
target.
"The first RH bill, which was
proposed in the Upper and Lower House in 2001, was
meant to "respond to the various RH problems in an
integrated and rights-based fashion," says Junice
L Demeterio-Melgar, executive director of Likhaan,
a centre for women's rights and health that is
backed by a national network of grassroots
activists.
"It specifically wanted to call
attention to existing but essentially tabooed
issues like adolescent RH, post-abortion care and
sex education," Demetrio-Melgar said.
"A
law was needed to mainstream the integrated health
and rights-based approach, as well as to override
the devolution of the Philippines healthcare
system," she told IPS. "The bill was meant to
institutionalize the department of health's RH
programmes."
The non-passage of the bill
has adversely affected lingering poverty in a
country where nearly 20% live below the UN's 1.25
dollars-a-day poverty line.
"The richest
women want 1.9 children and have two; the poorest
women want four children but have six," says
Demeterio-Melgar. "Unintended fertility keeps
families poor and families with more than three
children have difficulty feeding their children
and sending them to school."
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