Abstinence, Baby Factories & Pro-Life Talibans

The Philippines once more scored big in terms of the fastest growing industry…. baby making factories probably even ahead of the rabbits surpassing its neighboring Asian counterparts nearing 90 million population at the rate of 2.1% growth. 1.4 million Unplanned pregnancies and an estimated 473,000 abortions annually despite a US program providing free contraceptives the Philippines still ranks 1st as the highest in coupling errr producing babies.

Following in the footsteps of their “devout” Catholic president to get the Catholic hierarchy not to drop her has insisted on promoting “abstinence” when the woman is not ovulating is just out of this world thinking this will work. How will abstinence work when people are really stuck in their hut staring at the ceiling day in and out with no work in sight, do they think abstinence will work? It is clear that Abstinence can't prevent the rise in baby factories producing 2 M babies a year is just ridiculous.

Heck this was in 2000 and 20 million babies later the women in the slums area finally decided to question the constitutionality of the order and hopefully they win unless we want to still hold on to the trophy of being the fastest growing population in Asia beating China by a thousand mile as if this was a derby with a billion people

At the rate Filipinos are staring at the ceiling in 20 years it is estimated the population will explode to 150 million. At 3 newborn babies every minute translating to 2 Million babies yearly which will naturally grow in number as more people get into the coupling errr get married and stare at their ceilings why they will even beat the rabbits and may take away their crown in baby making contest

Too many pregnancies are a health hazard according to family planning doctors and the situation gets aggravated when 500K women a year go to illegal abortion clinics due to unwanted pregnancy which puts them at even more risk. The government would rather act like a die hard Taliban inspired Pro-Life advocate and promote abstinence just does not make sense. While abortion is highly taboo in this predominantly Catholic country women still do go to these backroom clinics and quacks where women die.

Family planning organizations and NGOs are complaining that these Pro-life advocates are stricter than the church itself so they will definitely fight tooth and nail to derail the women’s lawsuit. Let us see if the court decides in favor of the poor and give baby making a rest or do we just love having 2 million babies a year and can’t have enough of them.

DJB at Philippine Commentary points out the Papal Infallibility and the Union of Church and State in Breeding Hunger and Poverty OR: The Real Reason the Church Won't Change It's Stand on Birth Control quoting Dr. Hasler:

Thus it became only too clear that the core of the problem was not the pill, but the authority, continuity, and infallibility of the Church’s magisterium.

That I think is partly to blame but then again it is not enough where to pin the blame but a thorough understanding of the problem is needed to come up with doable solutions…… unfortunately population control pitted against religious beliefs and dogmas in a country dominated by intolerance and religious zeal in a Taliban fashion the women and the poor are always the eventual losers.

Anna of Manila Baywatch says otherwise in her post Catholic Church to blame for RP overpopulation? Hogwash! Citing DJB’s earlier article How Catholic Hierarchy Loves the Poor and Makes More of Them wherein she pointed the blame at the doorstep of the powers that be, and I quote:

My highly esteemed blogging friend, Dean Jorge Bocobo, opines, "So it would seem to me that the Catholic Bishops are directly to blame for the 24 million more people we reproduced than the Thais since 1970."; he also said, "The big difference is that they are Buddhist and we are Catholic."

In other words, Dean is laying the foundation for the blame of the nation's overpopulation and poverty-related human explosion at the doorstep of the Quiapo Church and not at the entrance of RP seat of power, Malacanang!

Blame the Catholic Church? Utterly stupid to do that! As Dean said himself, France, Spain, Italy, and let's not forget Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, and other Catholic-predominated countries do not suffer from overpopulation despite or in spite of Church admonitions against the use of contraception. (And by gum, these nations can afford to populate if they want to -- they are stable and prosperous!!!!)

Why? Simple: Their governments are strong, they are level-headed, they do not have wishy-washy leaders, they do not have a liliputian whore at the helm with gargantuan lust for power, they do not allow themselves to be bamboozled by Medieval-age superstitions (espoused vigorously during the Feast of the Black Nazarene), they believe in respecting the Social Contract, they believe that they owe their jobs to the people and not to any religious, pontificating men and women of any religious denominations but most of all, because they take their responsibilities seriously and judiciously, i.e., welfare, well-being, prosperity of their people.

Indeed, and one of the causes of poverty is our “increasing” GDP cannot keep pace with the increased in population with 70% of the population relying on Family planning “freebies” was denied access to proven medical methods with one based on prudish errrr “moral” religious dogma of “natural” family planning methods. Yeah right like withdrawal is going to work and proof of that is we have 1/3 of the population that are wallowing in despair in a deteriorating quality of life that is a bigger crime in not being able to provide better care to their offspring’s.

If ever there is anything that can be gleaned upon in these Abstinence, Baby Factories & Pro-LifeTalibans, it is certain and these combination definitely spells disaster. The problem with politicians is that they really don't think of the consequence of their decision even if it has dire consequence as long as they are assured of supporters. In the case of the Philippines where 85% of the population are Chrisitian taking an ultra conservative approach results in population explosion.

Religious ultra conservatism in the city of Manila has no place in how the government should run its healthcare system. As if the city does not have enough problems to deal with the city officials should have rescinded the order 10 years ago promoting natural methods in lieu of contraceptives. Page 15, last par. Of Misery as Policy:

The Arroyo government is the first administration since 1969—the beginning of family planning policies in the Philippines—to weld its policies not to medical standards, but to the moral standards of the Catholic Church. President Arroyo is adamant that in focusing solely on NFP her government has not violated any law, since modern contraceptives have not been banned in the country and are available commercially nationwide and in DOH facilities,21 a position similar to that taken by the Manila City government. However, given that the majority of Filipino incomes fall below the poverty line, expecting families to purchase contraceptives when they can barely meet their most basic needs is out of touch and cruel. DOH facilities also will no longer be a reliable source for artificial methods, given that national government resources will be focused on NFP.

I believe DJB and Anna are both right and if I may add it is not just the Catholic Church or the Pope per se that should take the responsibility in the looming crises of starvation due to the unchecked rise in population but the government as well. The point is there is a need to curb the proliferation of baby making factories but that is easier said than done when you have quite a number of couples staring at the ceiling night in night out after toiling desperately in trying to put food on their table. How do you prevent people from coupling when that is the only pleasure they can indulge in easily for “free” but with consequence because they are denied access to proven effective birth control methods.

Rina Jimenez-David aptly puts it in her article Misery as a policy, based on a report Imposing Misery, The Impact of Manila’s Ban on Contraception by Linangan ng Kababaihan, Inc. (Likhaan) during Talibani pro-life Lito Atienza now the Secretary of natural Resources. A policy that allows the Talibani Catholics of the Pro-Life faction that literally dictates like Hitler their ultra-conservative stance at the expense of women’s right to choose.

Lito Atienza during his reign as the Catholic Taliban pro-life mayor of Manila signed in 2000 Executive Order 003, which declared that “the City promotes responsible parenthood and upholds natural family planning not just as a method but as a way of self-awareness in promoting the culture of life while discouraging the use of artificial methods of contraception like condoms, pills, intrauterine devices, surgical sterilization, and other.”

This is the guy who promotes ignorance saying that condoms does not guarantee against sexually transmitted disease such as AIDs because they are tiny microscopic organism that can seep into the condom. The guy is a certified idiot and a hopeless moron, of course accidents do happen and nothing is guaranteed in this life but sex without condoms is just like playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun if one partner is infected.

Now that "Dirty harry" or Alfredo Lim is back as mayor of the City of Manila they have started to document the consequence of Atienza's idiotic "natural" family planning while denying access to medical birth control to its residence arresting people selling the devices even at pharmacies. But then again now that the Pro-Life Taliban is out, there is no freebies anymore because the USAID program that gives free birth control contraceptives to the Philippines will stop the aid so local governments will be self-reliant...... oh gee tough luck if during the time that the government gets these freebies La Gloria is reallocating funds for political of corruption reasons like the US$888,000 from a contraceptive programs fund to a NGO called "Couples for Christ" in 2003 and has consistently blocked HIV-prevention efforts, according to Human Rights Watch what's the prospect that the government will be self-reliant?

1/3 of the Filipinos not able to afford rice to eat, earning less than US$1 a day and barely eating enough with more mouth to feed, while being denied access to safe birth control contraceptives things are not looking bright unless something is done now....... But will La gloria and the corrupt politicians take the honorable recourse of serving the peolple through good governance? I doubt it............ at the rate the plunder goes on unabated and whistleblowers are harrassed and intimidated what will it take for these idiots to change? Nada............ its all about the moolah and more of it....... and in a Taliban Fashion impose their religious belief that spells disaster that is being felt now.

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