Women from Manila's poorest sector have decided to temporarily stop making love, and have declared war against the Catholic Church for pressuring local officials to ban the use of contraceptives and its free access to indigent couples and sex workers. They have filed a legal challenge against Executive Order 003, issued by then Mayor Lito Atienza, which supports natural Family Planning, but carefully worded to avoid mentioning an outright ban on artificial contraception. The Executive Order, which follows the devolution of health services to local governments, have caused the disappearance of all family planning initiatives and services in the city; including the access to free pills, condoms and other effective contraception methods.
The influence of the Catholic Church is undeniably forceful. The Philippines' 80 million population is 82% Roman Catholic, and the pressure it applies on the politicians and government officials who are mostly Catholics, is the withdrawal of the Catholic vote; or a massive demonstration by catholic organized groups that could pressure the government into a very public capitulation. President Gloria Arroyo, herself being a devout Catholic, supports the Church ban on contraception in a country where abortion is banned and considered a criminal offense.
During the 1970s, the USAID initiated a massive family planning program supported by then President Ferdinand Marcos under a martial law regime. Commitments by the Philippine Government to the program were continued until after Marcos fled, but hardly supported by then President Corazon Aquino. The program by the end of the 1990s was considered a big failure and was not renewed. USAID pulled the program out in frustration. But from the time Marcos initiated family planning, the Church and its grassroots organizations in the rural areas and cities outside Manila, condemned the artificial methods as an evil that promotes promiscuity and sin. The priests spewed fire from the pulpits and went to the extent of excommunicating the officials and extension workers of the country's Population Commission. 
The women of Manila claim that the Executive Order has caused unwanted pregnancies, pushed them farther into poverty, and has harmed their health and well being. In addition, refusing their husbands at times led to quarrels that became violent. The policy is discriminatory since costs of contraceptives impact only on the poor. Rich women can afford to buy contraceptives.The case will also be filed in international courts and will seek assistance from US based organizations like the Center for Reproductive Rights, since the ban violates the constitutionally guaranteed right to plan a family based on individual beliefs. The case filed in Manila will be a tough battle since Pope Benedict XVI stated recently that the spread of HIV and Aids in Africa (60% of 40 million have Aids), should be tackled with fidelity and abstinence and not by condoms. Being the Pontiff, his words would carry a lot of weight in a Catholic dominated country.
It's as if the Catholic Church wants to make sexual deprivation the greatest achievement of mankind since splitting the atom. Ignoring the disease, poverty, hunger and environmental pressure of large populations, it insists on the traditional view that sex is only for procreation of children and should not be enjoyed for its own sake. And this present Pope is a traditionalist, who may just as well have said that castration is the next best thing after abstinence to prevent AIDS and population increase. Coming from someone who presumably hasn't had sex or made love in a very long time, or none in his lifetime; the proposition will create neurotics out of everyone and will remove one of the last bastions of gratitude to God when heaven is reached at that precise moment of total ecstasy.
The women of Manila must be openly supported, especially by the intelligent,
educated, and middle class Catholics who still hide in the shadows of the silent majority. Worldwide support from women's groups should also be tapped to put pressure on the Church to reconsider its views in the light of realities in poverty, disease, and environmental concerns.
Most of all, the men, who will be equally affected, if not the most affected, should stand up and raise their objection to the ban. Otherwise, they will turn into Christmas trees where the thing is dead at the roots, and the balls are only for decoration.
Haaaarrrrwwwwk...Twoooooph...Ting!
The influence of the Catholic Church is undeniably forceful. The Philippines' 80 million population is 82% Roman Catholic, and the pressure it applies on the politicians and government officials who are mostly Catholics, is the withdrawal of the Catholic vote; or a massive demonstration by catholic organized groups that could pressure the government into a very public capitulation. President Gloria Arroyo, herself being a devout Catholic, supports the Church ban on contraception in a country where abortion is banned and considered a criminal offense.
During the 1970s, the USAID initiated a massive family planning program supported by then President Ferdinand Marcos under a martial law regime. Commitments by the Philippine Government to the program were continued until after Marcos fled, but hardly supported by then President Corazon Aquino. The program by the end of the 1990s was considered a big failure and was not renewed. USAID pulled the program out in frustration. But from the time Marcos initiated family planning, the Church and its grassroots organizations in the rural areas and cities outside Manila, condemned the artificial methods as an evil that promotes promiscuity and sin. The priests spewed fire from the pulpits and went to the extent of excommunicating the officials and extension workers of the country's Population Commission. 
The women of Manila claim that the Executive Order has caused unwanted pregnancies, pushed them farther into poverty, and has harmed their health and well being. In addition, refusing their husbands at times led to quarrels that became violent. The policy is discriminatory since costs of contraceptives impact only on the poor. Rich women can afford to buy contraceptives.The case will also be filed in international courts and will seek assistance from US based organizations like the Center for Reproductive Rights, since the ban violates the constitutionally guaranteed right to plan a family based on individual beliefs. The case filed in Manila will be a tough battle since Pope Benedict XVI stated recently that the spread of HIV and Aids in Africa (60% of 40 million have Aids), should be tackled with fidelity and abstinence and not by condoms. Being the Pontiff, his words would carry a lot of weight in a Catholic dominated country.
It's as if the Catholic Church wants to make sexual deprivation the greatest achievement of mankind since splitting the atom. Ignoring the disease, poverty, hunger and environmental pressure of large populations, it insists on the traditional view that sex is only for procreation of children and should not be enjoyed for its own sake. And this present Pope is a traditionalist, who may just as well have said that castration is the next best thing after abstinence to prevent AIDS and population increase. Coming from someone who presumably hasn't had sex or made love in a very long time, or none in his lifetime; the proposition will create neurotics out of everyone and will remove one of the last bastions of gratitude to God when heaven is reached at that precise moment of total ecstasy.The women of Manila must be openly supported, especially by the intelligent,
educated, and middle class Catholics who still hide in the shadows of the silent majority. Worldwide support from women's groups should also be tapped to put pressure on the Church to reconsider its views in the light of realities in poverty, disease, and environmental concerns.Most of all, the men, who will be equally affected, if not the most affected, should stand up and raise their objection to the ban. Otherwise, they will turn into Christmas trees where the thing is dead at the roots, and the balls are only for decoration.
Haaaarrrrwwwwk...Twoooooph...Ting!
