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 A majority of the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives separately cast their votes for the bill, which has languished in Congress for more than a decade as legislators avoided colliding with the influential church. In a scene considered unlikely just a few years ago, lawmakers openly defied the church's stand during the plenary voting, which was shown live on nationwide TV.
"The Catholic church has steadfastly opposed the RH bill for 13 years," said Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a key proponent of the Reproductive Health bill. "But I humbly submit this afternoon that there is no force more powerful than an idea whose time has come."
President Benigno Aquino III considers the bill as a major step toward reducing maternal deaths and promoting family planning in the impoverished country, which has one of Asia's fastest-growing populations. Church leaders said in a pastoral letter Sunday that if passed, the bill would put the moral fiber of the nation at risk.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, vice president of the Philippines' Bishops Conference, said that "the wide and free accessibility of contraceptives will result in the destruction of family life."
"Money for contraceptives can be better used for education and authentic health care," he said, adding that "those who corrupt the minds of children will invoke divine wrath on themselves."
The long delay in the bill's passage has been attributed to the fear of legislators and politicians of upsetting conservative Catholic bishops, who helped mobilize popular support for the 1986 "people power" revolt that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the 2001 overthrow of another president, Joseph Estrada.
But in a sign of changing times and attitudes, particularly across generations, reformist civil society groups and Aquino threw their weight behind the bill despite the threat of a backlash.
An independent survey in June last year found 68 percent of respondents agreed that the government should fund all means of family planning. An October survey of 600 teenagers in Manila, the capital, also carried out by the Social Weather Stations, found that 87 percent believed the government should provide reproductive health services to the poor.
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 The United Nations said early this year that the bill would help reduce an alarming number of pregnancy-related deaths, prevent life-threatening abortions and slow the spread of AIDS.
The U.N. Population Fund says 3.4 million pregnancies occur in the Philippines every year, half of which are unintended while a third are aborted, often in clandestine, unsafe and unsanitary procedures. It says 11 women die of pregnancy-related causes every day. Nearly 70 percent of women use no contraception at all.
Reproductive health programs are patchy and often unavailable to the poor. Some local governments have passed ordinances banning the sale of condoms and their distribution in health clinics.
"Many Filipino women have faced difficulties and sometimes death because of the absence of a comprehensive and consistent reproductive health policy. This law can change that," said Carlos Conde, Asia researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, who opposes the bill, said pro-church groups were considering asking the Supreme Court to declare the bill unconstitutional. "You cannot legislate anything that is contrary to one's faith," he told reporters.
After Monday's approval, the two chambers of Congress will need to reconcile their separate versions then send the legislation to Aquino for signing.
[Associated
Press; By HRVOJE HRANJSKI]
Associated Press writers
Teresa Cerojano and Jim Gomez contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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