Philippine SC affirms legality of birth control law

MANILA: The Philippine Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the legality of the controversial reproductive health or birth control law as it rejected with finality the petitions of pro-life advocates to reconsider its decision.

“The court with the same unanimous decision promulgated on April 6, 2014, denied all the motions for reconsideration, subject to the same positions indicated by the specific justices on the specific sections declared to be unconstitutional,” the SC stressed in its four-page decision.

The petitions were filed by pro-life advocates identified with the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) whose strong opposition left the bill stranded in Congress for 14 years.

But despite the CBCP opposition and threats, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino certified the bill as urgent that resulted in its passage by the Senate and the House of Representatives in 2012.

With its ruling, former congressman Edcel Lagman of Albay province in the Bicol Region, one of the principal sponsors, urged the government to immediately implement the law aimed at reducing the country’s galloping annual population growth rate of less than two per cent.

At that rate, demographers warned the country’s total population would reach 100 million this year, which would pose a major and continuing problem on the capability of the government to provide their basic needs like food, education and housing.

The law mandates the government to provide for the necessary information, services on reproductive health including artificial birth control methods such as the pill and condom particularly to poor couples, who want to limit the number of their children. It also mandates the government to conduct sex education classes for students in the public elementary and high schools which the CBCP warned would encourage the youth to engage in sexual promiscuity.

But the “pro-lifers” argued the April 2012 High Court decision would violate the reproductive health rights of minor adolescent girls and would be detrimental to the work of medical providers in decreasing the transmission of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) cases.

The CBCP is adhering closely to the Vatican teaching that allows only the use of “natural” contraceptive methods such as rhythm and withdrawal. But it opposes the use of “artificial” family planning methods like the pill, intrauterine device (IUD) and injectables, which it considers as “sin” because these cause abortion and thus, violate the commandments of the Almighty. –Manolo B. Jara, http://gulftoday.ae/portal/ff3a095a-e3e5-4716-a85b-1b32d5ee82a2.aspx