PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates’ Political Guts

By Kara Santos
MANILA, Mar 12 (IPS) Filipino voters who have yet to make up their minds
about their choice for their next president are being advised: look at
each aspirant’s stance on reproductive health to help them gauge the
candidate’s leadership mettle and political guts.

A candidate’s position on issues like reproductive health, which
has a long history of opposition from the Catholic Church in this mainly
Catholic country, reveals clues regarding his or her capacity for
governance, says Ramon San Pascual, head of the Philippine Legislative
Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD).

"If you see a presidential candidate readily tackling the issue of
(reproductive health) and who has the courage to confront the biggest
institution — the Catholic Church – (this) shows what kind of
governance he or she will have the moment they win the presidency,"
says San Pascual.

Indeed, 15 years after the Beijing declaration on women’s rights
emphasised "explicit recognition and reaffirmation of the right of
all women to control all aspects of their health in particular their own
fertility", this South-east Asian country remains mired in debates
over modern or ‘artificial’ contraceptives, whose use the
Church considers immoral.

Nowhere is this more evident than during the campaign period ahead of
the May 10 presidential election in this country, 85 percent of whose 92
million people are Catholic.

Alongside issues like corruption and the economy, reproductive health
has emerged among the perpetual and controversial talking points in public
forums attended by candidates, especially those gunning for the
presidency.

It is, after all, linked to many Filipinos’ daily concerns about
family planning, cost of living, health, education and options on
reproductive health. "It's important to look at the reproductive
health agenda of the candidates because of the problem of overpopulation
in our country," says Ellen Guanzon, a mother of two.

The Philippines’ population growth rate of 1.90 percent from 2005
to 2010 is still among the highest in East Asia, although this has gone
down from 2.3 percent in the nineties. In a country that has no clear
policy on family planning and population, more than 4,000 babies are added
to its population every day.

In poorer areas, women have as many as six to seven children due to the
lack of access and information to modern methods of family planning in the
last decade. Depending on which government was in power, local clinics
were giving out information about contraception that included condoms or
were instructed to avoid doing so.

Incumbent President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who came to power with the
backing of the Church, has consistently emphasised natural family planning
– including abstinence –and "responsible parenthood"
over modern methods.

Thus far, three of the nine presidential candidates seem to be in
favour of having a legislated policy on reproductive health, San Pascual
says, based on their track records and public pronouncements.

Such a law on family planning, including artificial methods of
contraception, has yet to be passed by Congress eight years after it was
first filed in the legislature. Politicians are generally wary of
offending the Church, which has made no secret of its staunch opposition
to the bill, and losing potential voters that the Church is seen to wield
tremendous influence over.

In favour of the reproductive bill are Sen. Benigno Aquino III,
evangelical Christian leader Eddie Villanueva and former President Joseph
Estrada, who was ousted in a popular rising in 2001, convicted for
corruption and then pardoned.

Those who San Pascual sees as having an open mind and may allow
Congress to debate and decide on the bill as it wishes include candidates
Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Sen. Richard Gordon and activist Nicanor Perlas.

Those he considers as against being against reproductive health
legislation are three other candidates – Gilberto Teodoro Jr, who
the candidate of the incumbent government, Sen. Manuel Villar and town
councillor JC de los Reyes.

In late 2009, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)
warned the electorate not to vote for candidates who favour the
reproductive health bill. "It would not be morally permissible to
vote for candidates who support anti-family policies, including
reproductive health," said the CBCP's Catechism on Family and
Life for the 2010 Elections.

The election guidelines for Catholics state that contraception is
"morally wrong…endangers the spiritual health of the
marriage" and "impedes the process or possible fruit of
conception", which the Church says should be the point of conjugal
union. Voters who elect pro-reproductive health candidates in the May poll
would become willing accomplices to "evil", they added.

But advocates say that the failure to pass the reproductive health bill
has been detrimental to women’s health.

"Eleven women die every day due to pregnancy and
childbirth-related causes, almost half of all pregnancies are unintended
and one-third of unintended pregnancies end in abortion," says lawyer
Clara Rita Padilla, executive director of EngendeRights Inc, a
non-government organisation promoting women's rights through legal
advocacy.

Asks Padilla: "Will the next president turn a blind eye and not
provide for the proper budget for wide access to reproductive health
information, supplies and services simply because such a stance would take
the ire of the CBCP?"

Already, PLCPD's San Pascual notes, candidates for the 2010 polls
have been careful not to make their statements on reproductive health
issues too strong because of the perceived weight of the Church’s
position among many voters. But he says, "By trying to balance their
agenda so that they will not face the ire of their bishop or parish, they
end up not helping their constituents or giving justice to their job as a
public servant."

Guanzon, a Catholic, says that though she and her husband do not use
artificial methods of contraception, such decisions should rest on couples
themselves. "I am against abortion but I don't agree with what
the Church is saying that pills and condoms are anti-life. These kinds of
methods prevent pregnancy from happening in the first place," she
adds.

A survey by the Pulse Asia polling group, released Friday, shows that
64 percent of Filipinos would vote for candidates who publicly promote
modern methods of family planning and that 75 percent think it is
important for a candidate to include family planning in his or her
programme of action.

The same pre-election survey on family planning also shows that 87
percent believe it is important for the government to allocate funds for
methods of contraception such as birth control pills, intrauterine
devices, condoms and vasectomy.

Almost half of the respondents – 48 percent – disagrees
that the Church should participate in the choice of family planning
methods. Fifty-one percent do not believe that using modern methods is a
sin.

"There has to be a provision for reproductive health because the
only ones who get information and medical services are those who can
afford these," says Kitty Gorospe, a technical assistant with a
background in medical technology. Right now, she points out, poor families
continue to have more children despite their inability to raise them
properly.

Previous governments have had different policies on reproductive
health. During her term from 1986 to 1992, former President Corazon
Aquino, a devout Catholic who had strong Church backing, took the
Church’s position against artificial methods of family planning.

Under her Protestant successor, Fidel Ramos, the number of family
planning programmes rose significantly and more health workers were
employed.