Last week the United Nations declared that access to contraception is a universal human right. It brings into sharp relief the long-running debate in the Philippines over family planning.
According to UN Population Fund executive director Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, 'Not only does the ability for a couple to choose when and how many children to have help lift nations out of poverty, but it is also one of the most effective means of empowering women. Women who use contraception are generally healthier, better educated, more empowered in their households and communities and more economically productive.'
Yet for decades, Philippine Catholic Church officials have been vocal in their resistance to any state policy that includes artificial contraception. It was not until Benigno Aquino III was elected in 2010 that proponents found a presidential ally. Aquino has so far resisted calls to drop his legislative agenda on reproductive health and 'responsible parenthood' despite threats of a tax boycott and excommunication.
Artificial contraception is taboo in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. The Church holds that it is intrinsically evil as it is non-procreative, a teaching that many Filipino Catholics take to heart. The policy and politics around it is thus personal, and so discourse has been emotive and divisive.
The doctrine is not infallible, though its defenders speak as if it is. Their language has been uncommonly fervent.
Churchgoers have been warned from the pulpit about expulsion should they support legislation. When floods shut down the capital in August, some public figures concluded that 'heaven must be crying' because the bill had progressed to the amendment stage. When 160 faculty members at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University produced a statement supporting the bill, a bishop declared they ought to be investigated for heresy and sacked if found guilty. (There are now 192 signatories.)
The fervour is hollow because it is does not address identified social problems such as high rates of poverty and teenage pregnancy, as well as inconsistent access to sexual health information, products and services.
As a Manila-based friend pointed out to me, the Church's opposition is not about policy, including whether the legislation would effectively meet its stated goals, but doctrine.
In fact, the rhetorical focus on fertility control has been at the expense of other provisions in the