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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THE Catholic Church is not against family
planning per se, according to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP).
But CBCP president, Jaro Archbishop Angel
Lagdameo, pointed out that it should not be done according to some
“cafeteria methods” with instant results, such as through the
use of contraceptives, or resort to abortions, ligations and
vasectomy.
Unnatural methods of family planning, the CBCP
said, is a form of abortion, which, it added, is against the
Church’s teachings and advocacy of the formation of core values
and education on the natural methods of family planning.
“It is not true that the widespread use of
contraceptives will reduce illegal abortions,” Lagdameo argued.
“In countries where contraceptives have become widely available,
cases of abortion have increased, because contraceptives also fail,
and some contraceptives are in themselves abortifacient.”
The issue on the use of natural and unnatural
methods of family planning had long been a bone of contention
between the Church and the State.
‘Legalized’ abortion
Years back, the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA) admitted that the government has
imported P2.5-billion worth of contraceptives.
A number of proposed bills pointing to the use
of unnatural methods of family planning has been filed in Congress,
among them House Bill 3773, the Responsible Parenthood and
Population Management Act of 2005, whose principal author is Rep.
Edcel Lagman of Albay.
The bill, for one, recommends teaching sex
education to elementary-school children. The Church believes that HB
3773 is “legalized” abortion.
The CBCP has also strongly opposed the
Department of Health’s “Ligtas Buntis Program,” wherein
government workers will conduct house-to-house sex-education
counseling, particularly in slums and other poor areas, and also
teach residents there the use of various family planning methods,
such as the use of pills and condoms.
The CBCP has also denounced a plan in the House
of Representatives to buy P1-billion worth of condoms, pills and
other “reproductive-health products” to control population
growth.
The CBCP called on lawmakers to instead spend
the huge amount on projects that would alleviate poverty and provide
free education to poor children.
Changing public sentiments
But despite the Church’s strong objection to
unnatural methods of family planning, a recent survey involving
1,800 adult respondents showed that “9 out of 10 Pinoys
support birth control.” The respondents said they want the
government to pay for the medication, ligation, vasectomy,
intrauterine devices (IUD) and condoms.
Archbishop Lagdameo said the CBCP is not shocked
by this survey, as the Church, through the Catholic Family Life
Apostolate, is doing its responsibility in educating the people to
practice scientific, natural family planning methods that are
approved and promoted by the Catholic Church.
“The widespread use of contraceptives, even
with government support, and the great number of abortions committed
daily do not change the objective moral law on birth control,”
Lagdameo said. “Surveys favoring contraceptives or birth control
will not alter the Church’s position and insistence on teaching
the objective moral laws regarding the dignity of human life and
family.”
He explained that the Church’s pro-life,
pro-family and pro-morality stand is wrongly perceived by certain
people as obstructing the economic progress of the country.
Lagdameo said scientific studies find no
correlation between population and poverty.
He cited United Nations and National Statistics
Office’s data that show “our population is decreasing, but still
poverty is worsening.”
Development dimension
San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto,
chairman of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (ECFL),
said “contraceptive mentality” is not the way to promote
authentic development for the country.
Such development “should come out from a real
serious economic management and proper economic planning for our
country,” Aniceto added.
He called for a moratorium on population-control
bills, saying measures are a form of abortion disguised as
“reproductive heath projects.”
The Church, Aniceto said, backs the propagation
of the use of the “Billings Ovulation Method” (BOM) for couples,
instead of the hormonal and barrier contraceptives, which have been
proven harmful to women’s health.
The CBCP’s support for the ovulation method
stems from President Gloria Arroyo’s speech delivered this year
before the United Nations urging the use of UNFPA funding for
reproductive health projects.
Mrs. Arroyo also urged protection of women’s
health by promoting the ovulation method of family planning.
The President’s policy, Aniceto said, is
precisely what the Catholic Church has been advocating since the
first attempt to impose population control in the country was made
during the Marcos administration.
“The method helps couples to either achieve
pregnancy or space births,” he said.
The BOM supposedly has been proved to be a
highly effective and morally sound method for family planning. It is
said to be 99 percent effective. More important, it eliminates
artificial methods and abortion that the Church abhors.
Asked why the Church has chosen the BOM, Aniceto
explained that the method has undergone extensive research and
studies, making it accurate and reliable.
He said the process of learning and using BOM
depends on self-discipline, which, the bishop added, couples learn.
Aniceto said that when couples master the
method, there will be no need for importing hormonal preparations
worth billions of pesos, which the government can better use for
other purposes.
Blame the government
For his part, outspoken Lingayen-Dagupan Bishop
Oscar Cruz likens the use of contraceptives to the abuse of nature
through illegal logging that causes deadly flooding.
“Natural family planning is not a Church
invention. It is nature that rules human fertility, that regulates
birth, that spaces children,” Cruz said.
“When nature is violated, nature strikes back.
Illegal logging has impoverished the nation much,” he added. “It
is incongruous to accuse the Church of [causing the poverty of the
country on account of the population boom].”
Cruz said responsible
parenthood is not a Church concoction either, since it is also human
nature that dictates that parents should be responsible for them to
be able to raise responsible children.
It is government mismanagement of the national
economy and unabated graft and corruption that makes the people
poor, Cruz said.
Government inefficiency, he added, gives birth
to scarcity of jobs, low salaries and high cost of basic
necessities.
China has a big population and yet the Chinese
are progressively becoming a rich people, while Bangladesh, which
has a small population, among the poorest, Cruz said.
“It’s easy to blame population for
poverty,” he added. “But this accusation if flagrantly false.”
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