Same old

[afuna]

The reproductive health bill in the Philippines has just been shot down by Congress. Wish I could say I was shocked or disappointed, but I'm not -- just frustrated.

It pains me to look around, and see things that are taken as basic facts of life in other countries get repeatedly shot down here because "no good Catholic would ever want that". I am not religious, but I would still like to believe that I have a place in my country, somehow. (But sometimes it feels that maybe that's wrong).

Comments

[pauamma]

*sigh* (I assume that a "good Catholic" is defined after the fact as "one who doesn't, in fact, want that"? (which is obviously circular, and in addition stigmatizes those, if any, who would want (part of) what the bill provided)

That said, I'm curious: if you know, what proportion of women in the Philippines favor (some of) the services the bill would have provided? (Regardless of whether they would actually consider using those, if relevant.)

[afuna]

A bit simplistic, but yeah, it does feel that way. (The bishops threatened to refuse communion to the authors of the bill, who were Catholics, because they couldn't be good Catholics if they had authored that bill, right?).

I don't know the breakdown of nationwide opinion, unfortunately :( (Any surveys would probably slant towards the rich/middle class, who can well afford the benefits of the bill on their own, should they want to. I'm actually not sure how that would affect statistics).

[afuna]

Ah, someone left a comment further downthread, which seems relevant to the second half of your comment.