The article I read was
called Condom Queues Incite Church Tensions in Philippines written by Natasha
Khan and Norman P. Aquino, from Bloomberg.com. This article describes the
ongoing fight for birth control for women, especially poor women in the Philippines. A health bill supported by the Philippine
president is trying to get passed which would allow free or subsidized
contraception, especially for the poor.
The problem is that the health bill, which is going on its 14th
year attempt, is continuously being blocked by the Catholic Church, which accounts
for about 80 percent of the nation’s population. The beginning of this article starts in the
same manner as the article “My Fight for Birth Control” by Margaret Sanger from
our text. A poor Phillopene woman, Lorna
Villar, has given birth seven times in the last fourteen years and almost died
after her last pregnancy due to blood pressure complications. It was the same sort of situation that led
Margaret Sanger to fight for birth control availability for all women, no
matter how much income they held. In the
opening of Sanger’s article, she is caring for a young poor woman who attempted
an abortion on herself and ended up not surviving. In the Philippines, 37
percent of the pregnancies are not planned and over a third are ended with illegal,
and often times dangerous abortion. Fortunately for Villar, she was lucky enough to
obtain an intrauterine device, which was inserted by a charity, free of charge
to help curb the unplanned pregnancies. There
in the Philippines, the 20 percent wealthiest women are having about 1.9
children, while the poorest fifth of the population are having 5.2 children.
Also dually noted in this article is the
fact that once again, religion is being used as oppression against women and
the poor, not allowing them the freedom of choice for birth control. With a quickly growing Phillipene population
of almost 100 million people and 52 percent of the population in poverty, there
is no time to spare. The assistant legal
counsel to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Phillippines, James Imborg,
says that using artificial contraception “is a denial of the natural life
giving powers that God gave us. Who are
we to say that five children are too many?
Children are gifts. If you
interfere with that, you are denying that creative role God gave us.” Chapter 12, in our text, Women's Voices Feminist Visions, cites that religion
maintains women’s oppression directly through church laws that say to abide to
your husbands, regulate women’s sexuality, and create huge gender gaps. Our book also cites that religion uses prevention
of birth control and abortion as means of oppression against women. The article was left hopeful saying that now, for the first time in fourteen years, the Phillipene president is supporting the use and giving away of contraceptives to the nation's population. The legislation is due to be voted on in the next three months.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-27/condom-queues-incite-church-tensions-in-philippines.html
Very interesting post Sarah; I must say that I am surprised to read about it. Living in a country that provides assistance for birth control makes you forget that there are plenty of other countries out there that still do not have this right. It is very sad to see that women are being denied their rights over their own bodies even in this day and age. I can understand what the females in Philippines are going through because even I come from a country that is very religious and oppose the use of birth control. My mother had 16 live births and 11 of us survived so I know the difficulties that go with numerous pregnancies and births. To this day my mother is sick and has many health problems and is a very fragile woman. I believe that the numerous pregnancies might have had something to do with them and it has taken a toll on her body throughout the years. I hope that Philippines and all other countries that are in need of laws protecting contraception easily achieve this and hopefully someday soon women all over the world will have easy accessibility to all sorts of birth contraception.
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