Philippines health law tests power of Catholic church

June 17, 2013
By Tom Hundley

MANILA — In what is expected to mark a pivotal moment in this rapidly developing but still impoverished nation, the Supreme Court of the Philippines will weigh next month the constitutionality of a new reproductive-health law that pits the entrenched power of the Roman Catholic establishment against a rising tide of modernization and economic aspiration.

The measure, which was signed into law in December after a bitter 14-year battle between women’s rights advocates and Catholic bishops, would fund access to contraceptives for the nation’s poorest women. The key question before the court is whether it violates a 1987 constitutional guarantee of protection for “the life of the unborn from conception.”

Catholic bishops in this profoundly Catholic country of 96 million argue that any form of contraception other than Vatican-approved “natural” methods or abstinence is tantamount to abortion. They also warn that the RH bill, as it is called here, is the first step down a slippery slope that will inevitably lead to the legalization of abortion, euthanasia, divorce and same-sex marriage.

The law has been backed by a loose alliance of women’s groups, medical professionals, academics, business leaders, celebrities and a few progressive Catholic organizations. It also received key support from President Benigno Aquino III, who ignored threats of excommunication to actively campaign for its approval.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/philippines-health-law-tests-power-of-catholic-church/2013/06/16/36bc3bdc-d36a-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html

So, this law in the Philippines outlaws contraception. The Philippine bishops have mobilized their political power against this civil statute on moral grounds.

In the U.S., contraception is legal but the bishops have not mobilized against it.

Something is wrong. Either it is an inherent moral evil that must be politically opposed or it is not. Either the Church, as a Church, can oppose a civil law or it can't. The answers to these questions do not depend on longitude.

It's past time the Church reconsidered both its positions on what is and is not inherently morally wrong and its position on the proper role of Church and State.

As it stands, all that's debated is political calculation.