Duterte says yes to providing free birth control for millions
PHILIPPINES: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has signed an executive order directing government agencies to provide contraception to 6 million Filipino women who don’t have access to birth control and other reproductive health-related services.
The executive order implements a landmark legislation signed by Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino III. The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, also called the RPRH Act, provides poor women access to reproductive health information and services.
The law, which was fiercely fought by abortion rights advocates, ‘‘recognises the right of Filipinos to decide freely and responsibly on their desired number and spacing of children’’, according to the executive order.
Citing 2013 findings by the Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey, the order states that at least 6 million Filipino women, including 2 million who are poor, don’t have access to contraception. The administration said it hoped to meet this need for all poor women by 2018.
Duterte has ordered several government agencies, including the education and health departments, to implement policies and mechanisms designed to meet the requirements of the RPRH Act. These include a comprehensive ‘‘gendersensitive’’ sexuality education in the school curriculum, health insurance benefit packages for women, and education campaigns.
‘‘There is a plan in the next six months for local governments to go out in the field, to do house-to-house visits, identify those in need of family planning, [and work[ with all these agencies,’’ National Economic and Development Authority Director General Ernesto Pernia said.
On the Duterte administration’s socioeconomic agenda is strengthening the RPRH Act ‘‘to enable poor couples to make informed choices on financial and family planning’’, the order states.
But the government’s efforts are likely to face strong resistance from the Catholic Church. About 80 percent of the country’s population - about 74.2 million - are Catholic, according to the last census of the National Statistics Office in 2010.
Implementation of the RPRH Act, which sat in Congress for more than a decade before it was enacted, has been bogged down in the courts.
In July 2015, when about 400,000 birth control implants had already been acquired, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order for distri- bution of the implants, which can prevent pregnancies for up to three years, and for the renewal of licences for other contraceptives, according to CNN Philippines. The order was issued after antiabortion groups, believing that contraceptives cause abortions, fought the law in court.
The government is seeking to have the restraining order lifted.
‘‘The government cannot continue to tolerate this delay in judgment,’’ Pernia told reporters.
After the law was signed in December 2012, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, which staunchly opposed the bill in Congress, sought to invalidate it in court. But in 2014, the Supreme Court found the controversial law, except for a few sections, to be constitutional, GMA News reported. - Washington Post
Following the ruling, Father Melvin Castro of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said he respected the court’s decision but would not let ‘‘the gospel teaching be compromised.’’
Duterte, the tough-talking former mayor of Davao who is known as the Philippines’ ‘‘Dirty Harry’’, has long been in favour of contraception. He has also spoken favourably of the LGBT community and same-sex marriage.
Last June, Duterte accused the Catholic Church of keeping the public ‘‘in total ignorance’’ about birth control and using faith to scare them.
According to the Central Intelligence Agency, the average annual birth rate in the Philippines - 24 births per 1000 people - is higher than in many Asian countries, including China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia.
- Washington Post