In the heavily Catholic Philippines, clergy members are beginning to rise up
against President Rodrigo Duterte’s ruthless drug war.
But the priests are also fighting against a 2012 law to provide free contraception
to the country’s 100-million people, many of whom are desperately poor.
Duterte, who once bragged about throwing a man out of a helicopter, isn’t your typical progressive.
But this January, he stepped in to enforce that law
with an executive order to ensure access to reproductive health and sexual education,
opening a new front in his battle with the church... and the country’s conservatives.
Inside one of the busiest maternity wards in the world,
nurse John Paul Domingo counsels young mothers on the benefits of family planning.
Birth control has long been available in the Philippines,
but for decades, only a sliver of the population could afford it.
In January, President Rodrigo Duterte signed an executive order that will make contraception free
for everyone by 2018, in an effort to reduce poverty nationwide.
— Is this something that you planned?
— The Philippines is one of few countries that has seen an increase in adolescent birth rates,
and maternal mortality is also high.
Before the executive order went into effect, women who couldn’t afford birth control tried
cheap and potentially risky alternatives, like these herbal potions,
sold in many of Manila’s markets, alongside crosses and religious charms.
These healthcare workers are taking to the streets
to distribute free birth control and contraceptive information.
— So one of the main reasons why Duterte is pushing for this contraception to be available
is because of the economic situation facing women in communities like this,
who are having large numbers of children and not being able to afford to pay for their upkeep.
— Community mobilizers like Nene Armayan go door-to-door in poor neighborhoods,
where families earn just a few dollars a day.
— They also help transport women to nearby clinics to get the services they need.
Before January’s executive order, the Likhaan Center for Women’s Health, an NGO,
was one of few places where low-income women could get access to all kinds of contraceptives free of charge.
36 year-old Jenalyn Arong is a mother of seven.
— How difficult it is for you to raise children in your situation?
— She came here to have this contraceptive implant inserted in her arm.
— But the church and conservative congressmen continue to challenge Duterte’s executive order.
— Bishop Broderick Pabillo is one of many high-ranking public figures opposed to the executive order.
— What do you think the church's responsibility is here?
— But if they choose to have contraceptives...
— That's something that you’re discouraging.
— But this is... obviously it’s not working.
— Don’t you think your position on contraceptives undermines that?
Congressman Jose Atienza, Jr., of the “Life” Party, is one of a handful of politicians
leading the legal battle to block access to contraception in the Supreme Court.
— What if they’re having sex?
— There are mothers in these neighborhoods that are 15-, 16-years-old.
— But community health workers say that those resisting the executive order
are putting politics over women’s lives.
— They equate contraception with abortion, and, therefore, they want it to be totally illegal.
They're forcing women not to use contraception.
But that would be driving them into unintended and even unwanted pregnancies, which actually cause abortions.
And there are so many poor.
And the poorest know that contraceptives help them.
Help women, help their families, and help against poverty.