Reason #1,0001 to be grateful for the election results earlier this month: the near-theocracy we in the U.S. have, at least for the moment, escaped. Lawmakers in the Philippines are currently debating a bill that would require the government to not only provide but promote the use of contraception for people wising to avoid pregnancy, and while most Filipinos seem to support the measure, the country's powerful Catholic church is bringing out the big guns in opposition. Bishops are lobbying legislators and on the ground, local churches are posting anti-contraception petititions for parishioners to sign.
The Catholic church in the Philippines has long sought to block divorce and abortion in that country, and its anti-family planning advocacy goes way back too, despite food shortages that will only get worse as its population continues to explode. From the Reuters article:
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 $0.86, around half the average
daily salary of almost half the population.
Without an effective birth control policy, the Philippines, already
the world's 12th most populous country with 90 million people, is
projected to have a population of over 140 million by 2040. This will
put a huge strain on its creaking health system, schools and other
services, and its ability to feed itself.
Couldn't happen here? Well, it nearly has. According to a New York Times article last summer, the Bush adminstration was proposing to cut off federal funding to all agencies that provided abortion services or abortion counseling, then tried to redefine abortion:
The proposal defines abortion as follows: “any of the various
procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration
of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action —
that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero
between conception and natural birth, whether before or after
implantation.”
Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National
Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, which represents
providers, said, “The proposed definition of abortion is so broad that
it would cover many types of birth control, including oral
contraceptives and emergency contraception." Such efforts won't entirely die under an Obama administration, but without the bully pulpit at least they won't have an advocate-in-chief.
