Women in the Philippines have launched a major campaign for reproductive rights in response to recent offensives against access to contraception and abortion.
These offensives were triggered by the United States reintroducing the "global gag" rule into US foreign aid policy. This prohibits any organisation in receipt of US aid providing information, advocacy or services relating to abortion, or contraception (other than abstinence or the "rhythm method"). This applies even if the organisation uses other funds to do so.
The rule was initially introduced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Bill Clinton reversed the policy in 1993, but the new Bush administration reinstated it after two days in office.
Without US aid funding, local Filipino health centres cannot give out condoms, and a major health crisis resulting from the spread of HIV/AIDS is predicted. The Philippines government has done nothing to address the situation.
The Catholic Church has used this opportunity to launch a propaganda campaign against reproductive rights, particularly against the use of condoms. Its propaganda material claims that condoms contribute to the spread of AIDS by promoting promiscuity, thus "destroying" the family unit. The Catholic Church is also using its influence to try to stop businesses from stocking condoms.
As Bush's gag order also affects HIV/AIDS information and prevention programs, people in the Philippines are now receiving no information about how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Abortion is a criminal act in the Philippines and abortion providers are regularly prosecuted. Surveillance of abortion providers has increased in recent months, with providers being driven deeper underground.
Working women often have no choice but to have an abortion as their families would be unable to support another child. As a result, there is a high rate of backyard abortions, leading to many injuries and deaths of women.
The activist campaign defending contraception also includes a public defence of abortion and a woman's right to choose. It is publicly countering the messages coming from the Catholic Church and speak out in defence of a woman's right of access to contraception and abortion. The main organisation leading the ideological counter offensive is Women's Rage, the Socialist Campaign Centre for Women's Emancipation.
Women's Rage has initiated rallies, mass leafleting and education classes for working and poor women. Women's Rage has spread responsibility for this campaign throughout its affiliated group, which include trade unions, urban poor, students and rural women's organisations having a combined membership of 200,000.
Four recent congressional bills that proposed the easing of restrictive abortion laws, legalising divorce, allowing same sex marriages and the outlawing of domestic violence and trafficking of women were recently shelved due to interference by the Church on the grounds that these bills were "anti-family".
On every issue affecting women's rights, the Church has taken a reactionary position on the grounds of "defence of the family". Its position denies women even the most basic rights to control their bodies and sexuality, and to leave dysfunctional or violent relationships. The Church has also had some success with forcing censorship of the media, blocking the presentation of anything that it deems to be "anti-family".
In the lead up to the April national budget and beyond, Filipino women's rights activists are focussing on demands that the government include provisions for adequate funding for reproductive rights services and condoms. They have connected these demands to the demand that the Philippines government stop its repayment of loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which consumes one third of the government's budget.
Struggles by women in the Philippines for even the most basic rights and freedoms illustrate the hypocrisy of Western, Christian, politicians like George Bush who try to claim that women rights are more restricted in Muslim countries than in Christian countries. It is easier for women to get contraception and abortion in predominantly Muslim countries like Malaysia and Indonesia than it is in the Philippines.
The extent of women's reproductive freedom is much more a reflection of the level of social acceptance of women's right to control their own bodies and lives. This is a product of success of social struggles by men and women for democratic rights rather than what religion most people subscribe to.
BY NATALIE ZIRNGAST
From Green Left Weekly, May 14, 2003.
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