By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
President Benigno Aquino III says he will not withdraw his support for a controversial reproductive health bill that is making its way through the Filipino Congress, even if that means he will be excommunicated from the Church.
TodayOnline.com is reporting that the popular Aquino is continuing to back a bill designed to make birth control more accessible to women in order to slow population growth in that country which supporters say is the cause of its widespread poverty. About a third of the country’s 94 million pepole live on a little more than a dollar a day.
The Reproductive Health Bill requires the government to provide information on family planning methods, to make contraceptives available for free, and to introduce sexual education classes in schools.
The same bill has failed to pass several times before and is being vigorously opposed once again by the Catholic Church, which is a powerful force in the Philippines. The Church was involved in talks with lawmakers, but withdrew two weeks ago when it became apparent that no accord could be reached.
As a result, Church leaders are mobilizing another formidable public campaign to defeat the bill, with some bishops threatening to launch civil disobedience protests. Similar protests earlier this year drew tens of thousands into the streets of Manila.
As the battle heats up again, Aquino, a Catholic, appears to be digging in his heels and says he is ready to face the consequences and, if necessary, to risk excommunication.
Misstating Catholic teaching on conscience, Aquino told reporters yesterday, “I have been taught in school, which was a Catholic institution, that the final arbiter really is our conscience.”
Church teaching on conscience instructs Catholics that they are to inform their consciences according to reason and revelation as guided by Church teachings. This is necessary in order to be able to determine the true moral value of an action according to objective criteria, and not merely by a person’s feelings or intentions.
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Photo by CNS/Romeo Ranoco, Reuters
