President and the Pulpit Our World

remove a cigarette branding. Now on BBC News it's time for Our World.

Kate McGeown reports from Manila on how women are risking their lives

with desperate abortion measures. The Philippines is one of the most

catholic countries in the world. But some Filipinos believe

traditional teachings on contraception are condemning

millions to a life of poverty. A radical plan to provide free birth-

control is challenging the power of the Church as never before. It is

not the business of the government to be promoting contraceptive

devices. We are here to celebrate life! What is the alternative?

Should I keep quiet? But with neither side willing to back down,

who will win this increasingly bitter battle between the President

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

and the Pulpit? Lunchtime in Tondo, a slum in Manila. For 42-year-old

Clarissa, finding each meal is a struggle. Large families are common

here. This woman and her husband have ten children. The youngest of

whom is a baby. The family home is this one-bedroom shack with no

electricity. She is rarely able to find work so the family live a

hand-to-mouth existence. Often we have nothing to eat. When my

children are sick, we have to pawn whatever we can. Half of my stuff

is always pawned. To help out, her children work here. In the slums,

many children have to skip school to scavenge rubbish dumps for

anything they can sell. It is a grinding cycle of poverty from

which the young have little chance of escape. TRANSLATION: It hurts

because my kids really want to go to school. But since my husband

can't find work, I have to ask them to stay at home and find work. It

pains me but what can I do? Sometimes it comes to a point where

my husband and I fight, discussing the children's future. We do not

have enough money for all of them to finish studies. Clarissa and her

family are devout Catholics. Contraception is legal but most

people have been brought up to believe that using it is a sin. But

now, she, like many others, has begun to think the unthinkable.

TRANSLATION: I used to believe in the Church's teachings about having

lots of children. Now, I think we should have family planning.

contraception is out of reach for many. Condoms are readily available

but one packet costs more than families like this have to live on

for one week. The government believes something has to change if

the country is to advance. It has proposed legislation to provide

free birth control and family planning advice to anybody who

wants it. In this society, where Conservatism has held sway, the

Reproductive Health Bill has caused an unholy row between politicians

and priests. The Catholic Church remains incredibly powerful here.

Abortion is illegal. This is the only country in the world where

Catholics still cannot divorce. So the President's plan to introduce

free contraception has put him on a collision course with the Church.

More than 80% of the population are Catholic. And the Church has put

its full weight behind efforts to prevent parliament passing the bill.

Bishop Teodoro Bacani says the government is acting in defiance of

the nation's wishes. When it comes to the Philippines, the majority

are Catholics. The government will promote and fund an essential

medicine, can you imagine? An essential medicine of birth control

which is against the teaching of the Church and, we believe, against

the natural law. Against the will of God. It is not the business of

the government to be promoting contraceptive devices. It would be

like the government passing a law which will fund the promotion pork

eating amongst Muslims. Can you imagine the uproar there would be

amongst the Muslim population? Church has mustered a huge

publicity campaign and mass protest rallies to try to influence

legislators to oppose the bill. It is a tactic that has worked before.

This is the sixth time a bill like this has been put forward. Each

previous versions have been seen off by the Church without even

coming to a vote. We have an egg, we have a sperm, they meet together

and then we have a fertilised egg or zygote. Is that fertilised egg

already a human being? This time, reformers are more hopeful because

the government has made the bill one of its main priorities. Those

who are proposing the legislation say that, ultimately, they are

fighting for the rights of Filipino women. The most controversial part

of the bill says that no Filipinos should be denied information and

access to family planning. That's all. And yet, in this united

country, as if we were living in the Middle Ages, that is considered

heresy. Why is there so much opposition to information? We just

want the poor Filipino woman to know that family planning is

available. There is no compulsion. Every single day, 11 mothers die

from pregnancy and childbirth complications. This means some

3,000-5,000 Filipinas die simply because they did not know about

reproductive health measures or were not given access to facilities.

Much of the debate, both inside and outside parliament, has centred on

the question of exactly when life begins. This is the core message of

the Church's campaign against the bill. It equates contraception with

abortion, which is illegal under the Philippine's constitution.

main objection is this - according to the bill, the government is

going to fund and promote the distribution, as essential medicine,

of contraceptive devices. In your view, are contraceptives like the

pill, IUDs, exactly the same as abortion? Yes. There is absolutely

no direct connection between contraception on the one hand and

abortion on the other. Contraception means the use of a

method to stop fertilisation. church said it is not opposed to

family planning but it says the answer is what it calls natural

contraception, such as the rhythm method and abstinence from sex.

own proposal is this, and this should be effective, tell the

Filipino people, we need you to be responsible parents. And

responsible parenthood means planning your families. And

planning your families means that you should try to bring into this

world those children and only those children whom you can raise in a

human and Christian way. If the Church and the government and the

NGOs all deliver that message, you will see that there will not be

this problem of the poor even reproducing much more. It has no

relation to reality. These bishops have not even been married. They do

not know what sexual urges do. To claim exclusivity or monopoly on

knowledge is always a dangerous situation. Almost one-third of the

Philippine population live on less than $1 a day, according to

government figures. Supporters of the Reproductive Health Bill say

its success is a vital step in reducing the numbers living in

poverty. What do you think the consequences would be for the

country if the bill does not pass? First, we will be the joke of the

international community. The Philippines will sound very much

like it is still in the Dark Ages. Is the Philippines out of step with

the rest of the world? Yes. And happily we are. The Philippines has

the highest birthrate in South East Asia and its health system is

struggling to cope. Supporters of the bill say you just need to come

to places like this to see why it is so urgently needed. There are

often two or even three mothers to every bed here in this maternity

ward. Because there are so many patients in two beds, for example,

they just lie down alternating. One will sit, the other will lie down.

TRANSLATION: At first there were only two of us but now I have to

share with another two women. 36-year-old woman cradles her ninth

child. She is a practising Catholic but she is daunted by what lies

ahead. TRANSLATION: No. I do not have enough money to take care of

the nine children. What is life like for you with so many children?

TRANSLATION: I feel happy but I know it will be hard. Did you want

I only wanted four kids. Meals are basic. But it is still much better

than any care these new mothers received before they were admitted.

Many were not able to see a doctor at all before giving birth. You see

women dying because they do not have any medical care. They don't

even know their blood pressure is high. For the President of the

Philippines, it is a national disgrace that this situation exists.

He is the first president to publicly endorse the reproductive

health bill. I keep saying, this is not a fight against the church.

This is an attempt to address a situation that exists where 40% of

the population never get to see health professionals and 20% of the

population live below the poverty line, there are 140,000 classrooms

needed. I could go on. They spend more on cellphones than they would

on birth control. Although the debate is deeply polarised, those

advocating free contraception said they do not see it as a stepping

stone to even more radical reform. Do you think the Philippines will

ever allow abortion? I don't think so. Not in my lifetime at least.

There is a very strong prejudice against the taking of life in a

Filipino culture. While abortion is illegal and likely to remain so,

many hundreds of women take huge risks to end unwanted pregnancies

each year. This woman almost died after buying a drink from a market

on the promise it would make her miscarry. We have concealed her

identity at her request. TRANSLATION: I am a Catholic, but

not practising. That is why I was able to do something. Soon after

drinking the potion, things started to go very wrong. TRANSLATION: When

I got home I had lost lots of blood. I used all the blankets and towels

to stop the blood but it did not help. My mother took me to hospital.

We went to two hospitals that did not want to admit me. At the third

I passed out and they took me in and operated on me and took the

foetus out. In this country, abortion is illegal and you're

taking a big risk to do that. Were you aware of the risk? TRANSLATION:

It was a very hard decision to do that. At the time, I was being

battered by my husband. My children were also. I did not want another

child to go through that. After her ordeal, a charity provided her with

contraception which she could not otherwise have afforded. It meant

continuing to disobey the church's teachings. TRANSLATION: I do not

believe what the Church says about family planning. Contraception

really helps us. If I did not use it, I would have 16 children by now.

Even though abortion is illegal, there are some extraordinary

contradictions in Philippine attitudes. We are outside one of

the main churches and the vendors are selling religious icons. But

there are also very openly selling home-made concoctions to end

pregnancies. The name means to menstruate. The label says it helps

women who have not had a period for one to two months. It helps to cure

what they euphemistically call "delay". What does this do? What is

it for? Is this for women? Yes. stop pregnancy? Yes. Isn't that

dangerous? No side-effects. Soon, we were joined by the boss of the

operation. What is it made from? From roots of a tree, from ash.

that dangerous? No. No side-effects. And you're sure it is safe? Yes.

The woman soon decides to change her story. She insists it is an

anti-ulcer medicine. I have tested it. I have four kids. Then I had an

unexpected pregnancy. I used it but it did not work. But it is a bit

strange, the fact you're selling these things and your neighbours

are selling these things right outside a church. No. These

concoctions are illegal. These posters warn people of the tough

penalties for selling them. It has to be of concern that women with

unwanted pregnancies are resorting to unregulated black-market

products that at best are ineffectual and at worst may kill

them. Less than 100 metres away, the faithful are at prayer. The

Church has an unusual ally in its attempt to deliver a knockout blow

to the reproductive health bill. This is arguably the most famous

and most loved Filipino in the world. An international boxing

champion eight times over. He has used his sporting success to win

election to Congress and now has thrown his weight behind the

church's campaign. TRANSLATION: If we believe in God, we should follow

what he tells us. There are laws being passed in Congress which are

against the will of God. But the Church's publicity coup backfired

when shortly after he made the comments, his wife revealed that

she had been using the pill because she did not want any more children.

It is not clear what the result of all this lobbying will be. Both

sides have been here many times before and there have been no

definite results. Why do you think that this Bill has been put forward

five times and has never succeeded? Because the fear of the Catholic

vote. It has never been proven that there is such a thing as a Catholic

vote' and yet this thing still continues to haunt every single

member of the Philippine Congress. They are afraid that in the next

election, if they vote for the Reproductive Health Bill, they

might lose. If the Bill is passed, the Church has no intention of that

being an end to the matter. It intends to challenge the verdict in

the Philippine Supreme Court and the bishops insist it is the

politicians, not Catholic values, that are holding the country back.

The greater cause of poverty in the Philippines is corruption. Secondly,

this government, the lack of good government. Our population problem

is not that there are too many Philippines, but that they are not

distributed well. Neither is the wealth. As the nation grapples with

questions of belief and conscience, who will back down first? The

Church or the state? How far are you prepared to push it? What is

the alternative? Should I keep quiet? I was brought up a Catholic

and we are taught that when we're called before the Almighty, we will

be asked, what we have done to help our brethren? I could not in good

conscience allow the status quo to continue. Today, this woman can

afford to send some of her children to school for the afternoon. It

will not be long before their education is interrupted again to

help earn money for the family to survive. It is a hard life and one

which she hopes her children will not have to endure forever.

Meanwhile, the Church's sermons have begun to grate. TRANSLATION: I

would ask the priests if they're going to help us if we have this

many children, will you help feed our family and bring them to