The Philippines: A new condominium

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Devout sceptics

THE Philippine Supreme Court has upheld a law obliging the government to offer contraception to poor Filipinos. Members of the Roman Catholic church had asked the court to throw out the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act. The church, to which four-fifths of Filipinos profess to belong, prohibits contraception. In backing the essential provisions of the act, the court has not only removed an obstacle to the government’s efforts to reduce poverty. At a stroke, it has also dispelled a long-held tenet among politicians in the Philippines that the church wields decisive political influence.

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino signed the act into law in December 2012. But opponents persuaded the Supreme Court to stop it from coming into force until the judges had considered their objections. The act is meant to curb population growth of 1.9% a year by obliging the government to help poor people use various methods—including condoms and the pill—to limit the number of children they have. The act also mandates sex-education classes in state schools (something else that alarms members of the church). The hope is to reduce high rates of death in childbirth, unwanted pregnancy and abortion—which remains illegal. For years the population, which is officially projected to top 100m this year, has grown so swiftly compared with the economy that the proportion of Filipinos who are living in poverty—about one-quarter, by the official reckoning—has barely changed.

The first of several attempts to make the government offer contraception was proposed in Congress 16 years ago. All attempts failed, shunned by presidents and politicians reluctant to antagonise the church. Since the Catholic primate of the Philippines, Cardinal Jaime Sin, called on the faithful to join the People Power revolution that overthrew the autocratic regime of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, politicians have been in awe of the church, believing that voters would do whatever it told them.

But even as politicians sat on their hands, voters—particularly women from a growing middle class—were ignoring the church’s prohibitions and using contraception in increasing numbers. It has contributed to a recent slowing in population growth.

Just before the Supreme Court made its ruling, an opinion poll indicated that 72% of Filipinos supported the new act. Indeed, by 2012 sufficient members of Congress were prepared to defy the church. But it was only when Mr Aquino indicated his firm support for a bill that Congress summoned up the courage to pass it. Before, Mr Aquino had supported the bill only tentatively. After all, his own mother, the late Corazon Aquino, was not only a devout Catholic, she had replaced Marcos as president largely thanks to the power that was wielded by Cardinal Sin.

The church will continue to portray itself as one of the few national institutions that view public policy from a moral perspective. A spokesman for the Catholic bishops said they would persist in telling the faithful that contraception is a sin. But most voters, politicians and, now, senior judges do not agree.

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