Inter Press Service,
January 06, 2011
PHILIPPINES:
Catholics Dare Excommunication Over Reproductive Rights
By Kara Santos
MANILA, Jan 6 (IPS) - Support for reproductive health legislation,
popularly known as the RH Bill here, has snowballed on social
websites and among peer networks, yet passage and funding of the
bill remain uncertain. Catholic bishops have long used the threat
of excommunication in the raging debates over use of modern contraceptive
methods - such as pills, IUDs and condoms - in the Southeast-Asian
nation of over 92 million, 85 percent of whom are Catholic.
In response to the
Catholic Church’s vehement opposition to the bill, activists
staged the first ‘Excommunication Party’ as 2010 closed.
The event dubbed, "If
Supporting the RH Bill Means Excommunication, Excommunicate Me!"
was hosted by secular group Filipino Freethinkers and was advertised
as a night of "dinner, entertainment and dissent."
There are six RH bills
pending at the House, all allowing the use of artificial methods
of family planning, like condoms and pills - the Church allows
couples to use only the natural family planning method.
It is estimated that
4,000 babies swell the country’s population every day.
The Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has threatened excommunication
for politicians who support the RH Bill, which provides for universal
access to methods and information on birth control and maternal
care. Catholic groups have claimed that some artificial contraceptives
actually induce abortion and that the RH Bill promotes a "culture
of death and immorality" by promoting abortion and promiscuity
among youth.
In a recent incident
at the Manila Cathedral, members of Pro-Life Philippines - led
by Eric Manalang, their president and one of the RH Bill’s
most outspoken opponents - barred a group of students, urban poor
mothers and young professionals from attending a prayer service
tackling the RH Bill.
"Satan, get away
from us! You should have asked your mother to abort you,"
were just a few of the statements hurled by Pro-Life members in
a video captured by the Filipino Freethinkers, which was screened
during the party.
"Manalang called
even the devout Roman Catholics among us Satan," said Red
Tani, president of the Filipino Freethinkers in a statement. "He
branded the Catholics among us oxymorons, as if it were a contradiction
to be pro-RH and remain Catholic. If the church hierarchy thinks
supporting the RH Bill means heresy, then by all means - excommunicate
us!" Tani said.
Said to be the first
of its kind, the excommunication party featured live music, solidarity
messages by pro-RH personalities, improvisational poetry and theatrical
performances on reproductive health issues and abortion and adult
games. Guests also signed a symbolic "excommunication document,"
a copy of which would be sent to each participant’s parish
and the CBCP, to show their support for the cause.
"I think it’s
wonderful that freedom of expression means something - that people
are finally speaking their mind and expressing what they feel
in a very creative manner," performance artist and activist
Carlos Celdran told IPS.
In September, Celdran
was jailed for "offending the feelings of the faithful"
after he protested against the Catholic Church’s opposition
to the RH Bill during an ecumenical service at the Manila Cathedral.
Of the harassment of
students at the Manila Cathedral, Celdran had this to say: "Whatever
was done was done in a very peaceful way. It was an absolute epitome
of freedom of expression and you should not give it up and take
it for granted."
A message board near
the entrance of the venue became a graffiti wall for people to
weigh in on their thoughts about excommunication and RH debate.
"Keep your dogmatism to yourself," one person wrote
directing their statement to the Catholic Church. "Stay out
of my vagina, my vagina my rules!" wrote another.
In his Christmas message,
CBCP president Bishop Nereo Odchimar equated the RH Bill to terrorism
and said that: "With the approval of RH Bill, a woman’s
womb can be a ferocious threat to those who are yet to be born,"
he said in an official statement.
Sylvia Estrada-Claudio,
professor and director of the University of the Philippines Centre
for Women’s Studies (CWS) told IPS that the high turnout
at the event was emblematic of the public’s reaction to how
the church had been playing the "excommunication card"
wrongly in the country.
"It amazes me
that so many people who are Catholic, and who don’t even
want to stop calling themselves Catholic, came here for an excommunication,"
said Claudio. "Perhaps there’s something about how Catholic
spirituality is breaking away from traditional standards of uncritical
acceptance to a spirituality that is more personal."
Despite the hasty organisation
of the event, tickets for the excommunication party were sold
out and statement shirts were in high demand - reinforcing public
support for the passage of the RH Bill.
The latest surveys
from public opinion polling body Social Weather Stations (SWS)
show that 71 percent of Filipinos favour the passage of the RH
Bill, while 76 percent want family planning education in public
schools.
In a press statement
Elizabeth Angsioco, National Chair of the Democratic Socialist
Women of the Philippines (DSWP), which was part of the group blocked
during the mass, said that lives were being lost while the debates
over the RH Bill raged on.
"We believe the
bill’s passage is imminent. This is long overdue," said
Angsioco. "Poor women continue to die of preventable pregnancy
and childbirth complications. These unnecessary deaths and almost-deaths
must end."
Figures from the United
Nations Development Fund For Women (UNIFEM) show that at least
eleven women die every day in the country due to childbirth-related
complications. (END/2011)
Back
to Top
Send
this page to a friend!
