Polling has reported strong public support for the legislation and Aquino’s supporters have a majority in congress, but there is no guarantee of passage. The country’s bishops halted dialogue with the government on the topic because the president is likely to push the measure ahead despite their concerns.
Bill opponents have tied red ribbons around Catholic churches in metro Manila as a symbol of life.
Debbie Rodrigo, a mother of five who is an advocate of Catholic teaching on natural family planning, told Channel News Asia that she opposes the bill not only because of her religious duty but because she is worried about the negative effects of artificial contraceptives on a woman’s health.
She also voiced concern about provisions that will teach sex education to children as young as 10.
“I am very concerned that the schools are already now supplanting the role of parents so this is not right. We feel that it's too much information for too young a child and for too long,” she said.
While Aquino has said the bill will not allow abortion, Fr. Melvin Castro of the bishops’ Commission on Family and Life said that reproductive health is an “initial step” toward abortion.
“The succeeding step will be the dissolution of marriage, to divorce. It will be one step at a time. So here they are introducing this contraceptive mentality. Because their basic idea is, when you promote contraceptives, you are promoting a mentality which is anti-life,” he said.
Some backers of the bill are trying to split Catholic opinion.
Bishop Leo Drona of Laguna, the region southeast of metro Manila, has warned that a group calling itself “Catholics for Reproductive Health Bill” is not an authentic Catholic group.
“The public espousal of measures that directly undermine these non-negotiable principles of the Catholic faith is a sharp wedge that cuts the unity of the Church,” the bishop said. He added that any Catholic who affiliates with such a group endangers his or her “spiritual well-being.”