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MANILA : The Philippines has one of the highest birth rates in Asia. With over 40 per cent of the population living on just US$2 a day, women's groups have said it is time to rethink its population management policies.
After giving birth to eight children, 34-year-old Vilma Lopez finally decided it was time to use artificial birth control.
With inflation surging to 12.2 per cent, the highest in 17 years, Vilma said they are lucky to eat even twice a day.
She said: "I can hardly cope in providing for my children. It's hard to budget for food, that is why I decided to (use an) IUD (intrauterine device) so that I can provide well for them."
Vilma is one of thousands of scavengers living in a massive garbage dump in Vitas, Tondo, where families have an average of five children each.
Given a choice, the women of Tondo would engage in family planning, even artificial family planning. But economic reasons and religion prevent them from doing so.
Artificial birth control is prohibited in the staunchly Roman Catholic country. A month's supply of the pill also costs around a dollar, which is enough to buy one and a half kilos of rice.
Various non-governmental organisations have been pushing for the enactment of a Reproductive Health Bill - which will include the use of contraceptives for family planning.
But the influential Catholic Church's opposition to it has put it on hold.
Dr Junice Melgar, executive director, Likhaan, said: "When we talk about a family planning programme, it should be something that the woman wants because that is the most sustainable method of family planning. It should be the one that has been chosen by the woman and her husband because they know their life circumstances."
Women's groups fear that the population rate would continue to soar as President Gloria Arroyo has declined to provide funding for artificial contraception when the US Agency for International Development (USAID) programme ends.
The USAID has been providing free artificial contraceptives for the last 30 years.
Dr Aye-Aye Thwin, chief, Office of Health, USAID-Philippines, said: "The phase-out plan was developed in consultation with the Philippines' Department of Health and was started in 2003, starting first with condoms.
"The other methods are being phased out gradually, so the last batch of shipments will be made at the end of 2008 for all the different kinds of family planning commodities. The phase out is in response to the Philippine government's decision to move to a self reliance in commodities."
But women's groups have said many local governments lack the necessary funds to subsidise contraceptives for the poor, and that many politicians will never risk the ire of church officials by promoting alternatives to natural family planning.
Fr. Anton Pascual, executive director, Caritas Manila, said: "We believe that the artificial use of contraception does not promote self-responsibility and self-restraint which is very important in developing a person to be fully human and fully alive."
Nearly half a million abortions, one-third of about 1.4 million unplanned pregnancies, occur in the Philippines every year.
A government survey has shown that two out of five women who want to use contraceptives do not have access to them, especially in the provinces where women are forced to resort to abortion due to lack of family planning information and maternal health care.
The Philippines' population is projected to balloon to 94 million in 2010. - CNA/ms
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