POPE RATZO was careful not to mention it during his comical U.S. visit
with the world's foremost WAR CRIMINAL, but the Roman Catholic Church,
the world's foremost training ground and sponsor of priestly
pedophiles, is also the reason why most nations populated by a
Catholic majority are impoverished or controlled by dictators or
corrupt "goverments." Or all three.
The Philippines is one atrocious and SINFUL example of why and how
"The Church" likes to keep its "flock" fertile, impoverished,
ignorant, and fearful of hell's fire for using condoms and other man-
made birth-control methods.
If there was a god, I'd certainly ask it to DAMN the anachronistic
Roman Catholic Church!
--------------------------
"Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty"
"Contraceptives, Rejected by Government, Are Unaffordable for Many in
Majority-Catholic Nation"
By Blaine Harden
Wa****ngton Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 21, 2008; A10
MANILA -- Maria Susana Espinoza wanted only two children. But it was
not until after the birth of her fourth child in six years that she
learned any details about birth control.
"I knew it existed, but I didn't know how it works," said Espinoza,
who lives with her husband and children in a squatter's hut in a vast,
stinking garbage dump by Manila Bay.
She and her family belong to the fastest-growing segment of the
Philippine population: very poor people with large families. There are
many reasons why this country is poor, including feudal patterns of
land owner****p and corrupt government. But there is a compelling link
between family size and poverty. It increases in lock step with the
number of children, as nutrition, health, education and job prospects
all decline, government statistics and many studies show.
Birth and poverty rates here are among the highest in Asia. And the
Philippines, where four out of five of the country's 91 million people
are Roman Catholic, also stands out in Asia for its government's
rejection of modern contraception as part of family planning.
Acceding to Catholic doctrine, the government for the past five years
has sup****ted only what it calls "natural" family planning. No
national government funds can be used to buy contraceptives for the
poor, although anyone who can afford them is permitted to buy them.
Local governments can also buy and distribute contraceptives, but many
lack the money.
Distribution of donated contraceptives in the government's nationwide
network of clinics ends this year, as does a contraception-commodities
program paid for by the U.S. Agency for International Development. For
years it has supplied most of the condoms, pills and intrauterine
devices used by poor Filipinos.
"Family planning helps reduce poverty," President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo said in a 2003 speech that detailed her approach to birth
control. But she said then and has since insisted that the government
would sup****t only family planning methods acceptable to the Catholic
Church.
Women not wanting to get pregnant, Arroyo advised, should buy a
thermometer and recording charts and abstain from *** when they are
outside the "infertile phases of the monthly cycle."
Arroyo, 61 and a grandmother with three grown children, said in 2003
that when she was a young mother, she took birth control pills. She
said that she later confessed to a priest.
Opposition From the Catholic Church
At the Manila garbage dump, Espinoza said she has been lucky.
A nongovernmental organization with health workers who regularly visit
the dump told her that an intrauterine device could prevent her from
having another baby. She plans to visit a clinic this month to get an
IUD.
The organization that is helping Espinoza agreed to introduce this
re****ter to her on condition that it not be named. The group's health
workers said they fear retaliation and harassment from officials in
the national and city government, as well as from the Catholic Church.
In 2005, Catholic bishops in the southern Philippines announced that
they would refuse Communion to government health workers who
distributed birth control devices.
In the past two weeks, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the
Philippines declined repeated requests for comment on its family
planning policies. The church leader****p made its last major statement
on birth control last fall.
"Chemical agents and mechanical gadgets that make up the cluttered
display of contraceptive methods of birth control have caused serious
damage in family relation****ps, disrupting the unity and openness that
build family life by the effects that accompany the contraceptive
culture which include extramarital relation****ps, adolescent
pregnancies, and even the hideous murderous act of abortion," said
Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, chairman of a bishops' commission on
family life.
Aggressive Family Planning in Thailand
In recent weeks, public alarm in the Philippines over the soaring
price of rice has focused attention on the fast-growing population and
its dependence on rice im****ts.
Despite steadily increasing rice harvests, farmers here have been
unable to keep pace with domestic demand. Economists here have
calculated, though, that the Philippines would not need im****ted rice
if it had managed to control population growth -- like its neighbor
Thailand.
In 1970, the population of each country was about 36 million people
and growing at about 3 percent a year. But with an aggressive family
planning program that provides the poor with free contraceptives,
Thailand has since reduced its population growth rate to 0.9 percent.
In the Philippines, the rate has declined sluggishly to about 2.1
percent.
There are now about 26 million more people in the Philippines than in
Thailand.
"It's a no-brainer," said Ernesto M. Pernia, professor of economics at
the University of the Philippines.
The Philippines now produces 16 million metric tons of rice a year --
and needs to im****t 2 million tons more to meet local demand.
"If the Philippines had pursued what Thailand has done, the
Philippines would be only consuming 13 metric tons of rice per annum,"
Pernia said. "We could be a net ex****ter of 3 million metric tons."
Besides increased food security, the Philippines could have lifted 3.6
million more people out of poverty if it had followed Thailand's
population growth trajectory, according to Pernia's analysis.
"Even when there is widespread corruption, insurgent violence and
other powerful reasons for poverty, the evidence from across Asia is
that good population policy by itself contributes to significant
poverty reduction," he said.
Strong Public Sup****t for Contraception
There appears to be widespread public sup****t in the Philippines for
modern contraceptives.
Public opinion surveys in recent years have consistently found that
about 90 percent of respondents sup****ted government funding of
contraceptives for people who cannot afford them.
Surveys by the government also show that poor families have
significantly more unwanted pregnancies than richer families -- and
much more difficulty finding affordable contraceptives.
The problems the poor face in finding contraception products will
increase sharply this year as the Philippine government and USAID end
the distribution of donated contraceptives, according to Suneeta
Mukherjee, country representative for the U.N. Population Fund. "The
poor cannot afford to go somewhere and buy contraceptives," she said.
"Many cannot even afford the trans****tation. By the time they go, they
are already pregnant."
The government's plan for "contraceptive self-reliance" anticipates
that market forces will make condoms and other products available in
shops or that they will be given to the poor by local governments.
But Mukherjee predicted that these new sources will not keep up with
demand. "Access to contraceptives will be restricted for most of those
who cannot pay and for many who might be willing to pay," she wrote in
a February re****t.
A reduction in the use of contraception -- which is now about 33
percent among women of childbearing age -- will lead to an increase in
abortions, Mukherjee predicts.
Abortion is illegal here, but a 2006 study found that there were about
473,000 a year, which accounts for about a third of women with
unwanted pregnancies. The study also found that 80 percent of
abortions had complications requiring medical treatment.
As for the efficacy of "natural" methods to control population growth,
Mukherjee said "it does not work."
At the U.S. Embassy in Manila, an official confirmed that USAID would
soon end all donations of contraceptives, after having phased out the
program over several years.
But this does not mean less U.S. money for family planning. The
official said that USAID has increased its budget, from about $12
million to about $15 million a year, to provide technical assistance
to 700 local governments and "to help the private sector to grow the
market" for contraceptives.
"We are working in a devolved setting," said the official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity. "I am not saying it is a perfect
situation."
'I Don't Want Any More Children'
In the garbage dump on Manila Bay, Espinoza said she is nervous about
getting an IUD. But she sees no alternative. "I already have so many
kids I have trouble looking after them," she said.
Until her fourth child was born in October, Espinoza, 26, had time to
work as a scavenger in the dump, collecting plastic bottles. On a good
10-hour day, she said, she could collect enough bottles to earn $1.
Her husband sells salt and sometimes makes $4 a day.
Espinoza is the oldest of nine children and left school after fifth
grade. She grew up in another Manila garbage dump, where her parents
also worked as scavengers.
"I don't want any more children," she said. "Life is hard. Rice is
expensive."
http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/20/AR2008042001930.html
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