From CBCP for Life
MANILA, September 11, 2011–Developing nations around the globe have been working to fight off cultural imperialism which parts of the Western world have been pushing through imposed population control — and the Philippines is not spared from this anti-life agenda, said American culture of life advocates.
“There are similarities between the situation in the Philippines and what we see in other nations worldwide — many, many millions of dollars are sent from the US and Europe to promote the RH agenda in an attempt to stop people in the developing world from having children,” said Stephen Phelan, Human Life International (HLI) Communications Director.
“The RH promoters do whatever they have to do to get these things passed — they spend their money in promotion, in getting journalists on their side, opening clinics to circumvent pro-life laws, wooing politicians who value their own power more than they do the families and culture of the nation they represent. If they can’t get what they want — which is free-of-charge and full access to contraception and abortion — passed democratically, they will use the courts or other non-democratic means to get what they want.”
The “reproductive health” (RH) issue has been the subject of numerous news reports, surveys and television debates since the start of the year, and mass actions demonstrating opposition to the RH bills have been carried out in different parts of the Philippines. And House Bill 4244 and Senate Bill 2865, both in the period of interpellation, have been taken up in both chambers of Congress consistently since President Benigno Aquino III issued a directive in August to prioritize the pending measures despite the public outcry against these from faith-based groups, civic and family organizations, and medical and child development experts.
“Ordinary people don’t want their governments passing anti-life, anti-family legislation. That’s why these measures can only be passed when government officials force their will on the people. That’s what happened in the United States in 2010 with “Obamacare” — which expanded taxpayer-funded abortions, despite massive public opposition — and it’s the same tactic President Aquino is trying now in the Philippines,” observed John Jansen, Director of Generations for Life, the youth arm of the Pro-Life Action League.
“[RH promoters] have unlimited money, and they are very patient, and they try to convince people that if they want the “respect” — really the funding — of the wealthy nations, they will do what they’re told and put structures in place to stop having children. They will exploit corruption in government especially,” Phelan pointed out.
“They know that history shows that you can sneak or force these policies through, then eventually people will come around to the idea that happiness is not in children and families, but in having more wealth and things,” the HLI official added.
Pro-lifers putting up a strong fight
He observed that the Philippine president, however, seemed “very frustrated” and embarrassed in front of international colleagues because “he hasn’t been able to force this bill through. He and his allies are promising hundreds of millions in ‘aid’ and all kinds of worldly accolades if he can just get Filipinos to do what they’re told. He has even adopted the tactic of tying legitimate reforms and development policies to the radical RH policies. It turns out that Filipinos who love life and family are more sophisticated and more united than the pro-RH crowd thought, and they are putting up a strong fight.”
This strong fight as well as the entire backdrop of the fight against “reproductive health” in the country is the subject of “The Philippines: Preserving a Culture of Life,” an HLI-produced documentary which debuted to Philippine and American audiences in August and which features interviews with prominent pro-life crusaders including Dr. Ligaya Acosta, herself a former RH believer as a Department of Health (DOH) employee for almost 30 years.
Despite the “millions of dollars” being poured into forcing RH into the local culture, significant revelations have been made at the Senate and House debates on the legislative measures, such as RH backers’ use of outdated and bloated numbers on maternal mortality and abortion rates, the admission by a pro-RH congresswoman that the RH bill is a population control measure, and the abortion advocacy of at least three pro-RH groups.
But the Philippines is not the only nation fighting imposed demographic targets and working to uphold the culture of life, Jansen stated, and people with faith especially have the necessary means to beat those forcing anti-life, anti-family values on others.
“Without a doubt, the same scenario is playing out in developing countries all over the world,” the Generations for Life official said.
“The morally decadent countries of the Western world have been pushing population control for decades, and the pro-abortion forces have seemingly no reservations about manipulating data — or even resorting to outright lies — if it serves their agenda. Opposition to the pro-life movement is extremely well-funded, and so the only way that people of faith can hope to prevail is by relying on God’s help by being devoted to prayer and penance.” (CBCP for Life)
