1. The Philippines' population is projected to grow significantly even with lowered growth rates, posing economic and security risks. Rapid population growth strains resources and hinders development. 2. Most economic studies show a clear link between rapid population growth, large family sizes, and increased poverty. Slower population growth allows countries more time to develop and reduce poverty. 3. Modern contraceptives are proven safe and needed to effectively plan families and protect women. Natural family planning methods alone are ineffective and can cause embryo loss.

1.
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The Inconvenient Truth: popdev@mulatpinoy.ph
Facts and Common Sense on Family Planning, RH, and Development
1. The Philippines’ population will balloon to 160 million, and may rise to 240 million, 1 even with lowered growth
and fertility rates. This is an economic and national security risk for current and future generations.
• Asian Development Bank: “Population growth is not a problem if resources are available to cope with the
additional people requiring public services, employment, housing, and so on. But in a country where the budget
is already stretched and where poverty is high to begin with, population growth becomes a major issue.” 2
• With a 65% youth dependency rate, the Philippines’ ‘youth bulge’ is a socio‐economic and national security
risk. Regions with the highest ‘youth bulges’ are prone to poverty‐related conflicts. Between 1970‐ 1999, 80% of
civil conflicts occurred in countries where 60% of the population or more were under age 30. 3
• A slower population growth rate through an effective family planning policy will enable the economy to develop
and accommodate the doubling of the population at higher standards of living.
• The Philippines is living beyond its means and cannot sustainably develop its resources to manage rapid
population growth.
o The Philippines is the 12th largest nation in terms of population, but only 77th in terms of land mass. With
dwindling resources, it cannot sustain a large population.
o Growing population, combined with inconsistent governance, has increased the Philippines’ resource demand
from less than its own biocapacity in 1961 to more than double its domestically available biocapacity in 2002. 4
• The pressure of competing demands for cropland, pasture, and forest create a production footprint in excess of
available biocapacity, which has worsened due to rapid population growth and environmental degradation. 5
• The need for limitation of births was recognized by St. Thomas Aquinas, the foremost theologian in human
history. Aquinas proclaimed that reproducing in numbers that outstrip the resources of a nation is immoral
and should be prevented by legislators. 6
1
Sources of Data/Charts: Population Reference Bureau, Venture Strategies for Development, and UP School of Economics 1996‐2010.
2
Asian Development Bank.Causes of Poverty in the Philippines. 2004. http://www.adb.org/documents/books/poverty‐in‐the‐philippines/chap6.pdf
3
Beehner, Lionel. The Effects of ‘Youth Bulge on Civil Conflicts’. Council for Foreign Relations. 27 April 2007.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/13093/effects_of_youth_bulge_on_civil_conflicts.html
4
World and Country Trends. Global Footprint Network. http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/footprint_for_nations/
5
Wackernagel, Mathis, et al. Ecological footprint time series of Austria, the Philippines ,and South Korea for 1961–1999: comparing the conventional
approach to an ‘actual land area’ approach. Land Use Policy 21 (2004) 261–269

2. 2. Majority of Global and Philippine Economic studies (at least 23, more than all others) 7 show a clear, strong, and
undeniable link between rapid population growth, large family sizes, and increased poverty.
• According to the UN State of the World Population Report, “family planning and reproductive health are
essential to reducing poverty, and that “countries that invest in reproductive health and family planning and
in women’s development register slower population growth and faster economic growth”. 8
• The Asian Development Bank cites a large population as a major cause of poverty in the country. In Asia, a
slower population growth and higher ratio of working‐age group was responsible for about a third of the
region’s increase in income per person. 9
• The UP School of Economics affirms that “Rapid population growth and high fertility rates, especially among
the poor, exacerbate poverty and make it harder for the government to address it.” 10
• “Slower population growth has, in many countries, bought more time to adjust to future population increases. This
increases those countries’ ability to attack poverty, protect and repair the environment, and build the base for future
sustainable development. Even the difference of a single decade in the transition to stabilization levels of fertility can
11
have a considerable positive impact on quality of life.”
o The Philippines has less than 10% of its forest cover and coral reefs remaining 12 , while only 39% of 525 water
bodies are potential sources of drinking water. 13
o 44% of the population earn less than $2/day, and 2/3 of the population are engaged in unsustainable
environmental and natural resource usage. 14
o “Already, the Philippines shares the vicious cycle of high population growth, social conflict; large migration;
depleted ecosystems, food, water and energy insecurity/insufficiency/dependence; failing governance; failing
health care and education systems as “political and environmental hotspots as Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Burundi, Haiti, Indonesia, Nepal, Madagascar, Mongolia, Pakistan, and the Solomon Islands.” 15
• UN Human Development Reports: Countries with higher population growth score lower in human development.
o The Philippines is the 12th most populous country in the world and placed 97th out of 169 countries in quality of
life in the UNDP’s 2010 Human Development Report. 16
o China, the world’s most populous country, ranks 89th; India, 119th; and Pakistan and Bangladesh, which rank 6th
and 7th, respectively, in terms of largest populations, are 125th and 129th in human development.
o The top three countries in human development, Norway, Australia and New Zealand, all have extremely lean
total populations and low population growth rates.
• The Philippines climbed higher on the Annual Ranking of Failed States 17 , thanks to high population pressures.
o The Philippines is in the same league as Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Laos, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in terms of
population pressures, (7.7/10); overall, ranked worse than West Bank, Papua New Guinea, and Angola.
6
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Omnia Opera, Tomus XLVII, Sententia Libri Politicorum (Rome: Ad Sanctae Sabinae, 1971), A 140‐141.
7
Pernia, Ernesto PhD, et al. Population and Development: the Real Score.” University of the Philippines. 2004. p. 11, 18
8
UN World Report. and http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2010/web/en/index.shtml
9
Bloom, David, D. Canning, and P. Malaney. 2000. “Population Dynamics and Economic Growth in Asia” in C. Chu and R. Lee (eds.) Population and Economic
Changes in East Asia, a Supplement to Population and Development Review, Vol. 26.
10
Pernia, Ernesto PhD, et al. Population and Development: the Real Score.” University of the Philippines. 2004. p. 2
11
ICPD Programme of Action para 3.14
12
Conservation International. Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Profiles. 2002. Pp.3‐4.
13
EMB. 2006. National Water Quality Status Report 2001 to 2005. http://www.emb.gov.ph/wqms/2001‐2005%20NWQSR/NWQSR%20‐%20Body.pdf and,
World Bank. 2003. Philippine Environment Monitor
14
State of the Philippine Environment: A Progress Report, February 2006
15
Diamond, Jared. “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive.” Penguin. 2005. pp. 496‐499; 515‐516
16
United Nations Development Report. 2010. www.undp.org
17
Foreign Policy Magazine’s Annual Ranking of Failed States. www.foreignpolicy.com. The Philippines climbed up the ranking and is now at 53 (2009) from
58 in 2007, driven by a key component: population pressures

3. 3. Modern contraceptives are proven safe, internationally medically accepted, and are needed to effectively plan
families and protect women. Natural Family Planning (NFP) methods are ineffective and cause embryo loss. NFP
must be combined with modern methods to be effective, as is done in other countries.
• World Health Organization: Oral contraceptives are medically safe and reduce the risk of cancer, particularly
ovarian, endometrial, and bowel cancers. 18
• The largest, most advanced study in 2010: Oral contraceptive users live longer than women who have never
used the Pill and this benefit comes from a reduction in cancer and circulatory diseases. 19 (See Table 4)
o The study is the most comprehensive, based on 23,000 women who used the Pill and 23,000 controls. These
women were followed for 39 years and the study includes a total of 1.2 million (cumulative) years of exposure.
• NFP is ineffective in preventing unwanted pregnancy, and never played a role in fertility decline in any country. 20
o According to the Guttmacher Institute, NFP has a 25.3% failure rate and results in 35% of abortions. 21
o Non‐users and NFP users account for 9 of 10 unintended pregnancies. 22
o NFP programs are only used by 0.5% of married women in the Philippines, despite Catholic Church programs. 23
In the marginalized community of Payatas, a Catholic Church program resulted in only 27 successful users (out of
390 documented women), after 4 years of effort. 24
• NFP contradicts and nullifies the central principle of the Catholic Church position on contraceptives.
o Prof. Luc Bovens, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics and
Political Science, says that about 2 to 3 embryos die for every pregnancy that occurs using the rhythm method.
The rhythm method may well be responsible for massive embryonic death. 25
o Biology professor S. F. Gilbert, Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, affirms that NFP also results in
heavy embryo losses: 20% of eggs come in contact with sperm. Of this 20%, 16.8 % have successful fertilization
and 13.8% have successful implantation. Only 6.2% of the fetuses come to term. 26
• Investing in family planning services saves several billion pesos, which can be used for critical social services.
o The latest US and Philippine research show that governments annually spend a minimum of Php 5.5 billion
in healthcare costs to address unintended pregnancies and their complications. 27
By contrast, only Php 2.0‐3.5 billion annually is needed to fund a comprehensive range of voluntary family
planning services for the entire country, which also results in a more sustainable population to provide for.
o UNICEF: “Family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology
now available to the human race. This would still be true even if there were no such thing as a population
problem, if one just considers the prevention of maternal and infant deaths from unwanted conceptions.” 28
18
WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) MONOGRAPHS. VOLUME 91 Combined Estrogen‐Progestogen Contraceptives and Combined
Estrogen‐Progestogen Menopausal Therapy (2007). pp. 169‐170
19
Hannaford, Philip, M.D., et al. “Mortality among contraceptive pill users: Cohort evidence from Royal College of General Practitioners’ Oral Contraception
Study.” British Medical Journal. 5 January 2010.
20
Interview. Dr. Malcolm Potts. UC Berkeley School of Public Health. 18 November 2010
21
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_contr_use.html
22
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/MWCNPmethodology/pdf.
23
National Statistics Office. Press Release No. 2007‐30.
24
Carroll, John. SJ and Mendoza‐Rivera, Didith. “Lessons from a Failure: Natural Family Planning in an Urban Poor Community.” John Carroll Institute on
Church and Social Issues. Population Center for Population and Development. 2008.
25
Bovens, Luc. Journal of Medical Ethics, 2006;32:355‐356
26
www.arhp.org/uploadDocs/RH09_Gilbert.ppt
27
http://www.likhaan.org/content/health‐benefits‐family‐planning‐and‐reproductive‐health

4. 4. Contraceptives prevent abortions & STDs. RH education saves lives and DOES NOT promote promiscuity.
• Modern contraception averts over 112 million abortions in the developing world each year, 29 and conforms to
majority of country experiences where increased contraceptive use lowers induced abortions. (See Figure 5)
o This will help reduce the over 500,000 abortions in the Philippines, mostly from non‐users & NFP users. 30
o Examples: In Kazakhstan, South Korea, and Russia, contraceptive use climbed while abortion rates plummeted,
and total fertility rates (# of children per woman) were went down to sustainable levels.
• The use of contraceptives can reduce abortion rates by 85%. 31
Figure 5. World and Country case studies: contraception and abortion inverse relationship
• Condoms have been proven effective artificial contraceptives, and are virtually 100% effective in preventing the
transmission of AIDS/HIV and other sexually‐transmitted diseases as shown by research conducted in Europe. 32
o USAID, as proven by their vast experience in Africa: Scientific studies of sexually active discordant couples, where
one partner is infected with HIV and the other partner is not, have demonstrated that the correct and consistent
use of latex condoms reduces the likelihood of HIV infection by 80 to 90%.
• UNICEF: The Philippines is 1 of only 7 countries where HIV cases increased by over 25% from 2001‐2009.33
o In December 2010 alone, 174 new HIV cases were reported, a 38% increase from the same month in 2009 and
the highest number of cases reported in a single month since 1984.
o Infections among young people 15 to 24 years of age increased 10 times from 2007‐2010 (41 to 489 cases).
o The Philippine Department of Health confirmed it would champion the ABCs of preventing HIV: 34
Abstain, Be faithful, and use a Condom; condom use is a proven way to prevent HIV transmission.
• Recently Pope Benedict XVI affirmed that condoms could be used in sexual intercourse to prevent HIV transmission.
o This shows that in his view the use of condoms can be justified in certain circumstances and that intercourse
using condoms is not in itself intrinsically evil. If it were, it could never be justified for any reason.
• The United Nations International Conference on Women reaffirmed the value of giving young people better access
to health care information, especially reproductive health care. (Chapter IV, Section C).35
• World Health Organization: Over 1,000 reports on sex education programs worldwide show that sex education
courses did not lead to earlier sexual intercourse. In some cases they delayed it. 36
• United Nations: In 22 studies, sexual health education delayed the onset of sexual activity, reduced the number of
sexual partners, or reduced unplanned pregnancy and STD rates. In 27 studies: sexual health education neither
increased nor decreased sexual activity and attendant rates of pregnancy and STDs.
o Only 3 studies found increases in sexual behavior associated with sexual health education. 37
28
UNICEF Annual Report.1992. http://www.unicef.org/sowc/index_38236.html
29
Singh S, Juarez F, Cabigon J, Ball H, Hussain R and Nadeau J. (2006). Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion in the Philippines: Causes and
Consequences. New York: Guttmacher Institute.
30
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/MWCNPmethodology/pdf.
31
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/06/4/gr060407.html#c1
32
Romaris, Manuel. “HIV virus cannot pass through condoms. European Commission. HIV/AIDS Research, DG Research.
33
United Nations Children’s Fund. “State of the World’s Children.” 2010
34
Interview. DOH National Epidemiology Center Director Dr. Eric Tayag. GMA News. 2 March 2011
35
http://www.unesco.org/education/information/nfsunesco/pdf/BEIJIN_E.PDF
36
UNAIDS: Impact of HIV and sexual health education on the sexual behavior of young people. United Nations. 1997. pp. 5, 41‐63
37
Meeting the needs of young adults. Population Reports . October 1, 1995. http://info.k4health.org/pr/j41/j41print.shtml

5. 5. The Philippines is the last remaining Catholic country that doesn’t have a modern family planning policy.
• For the Philippine Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, it must align with how other predominantly Catholic countries
have addressed reproductive health and family planning policies. (See Table 3 and 4)
o Catholic countries like Panama, Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Venezuela, Paraguay and Ireland all prohibit abortion as a family planning method, even as they
vigorously promote contraceptive use, while the Philippines has not.
• Chile serves as a model of how a predominantly Catholic country can pioneer a family planning program with the
support of the Catholic Church, academe, and international community.38
o The Catholic Church hierarchy promoted such policies because they felt it would reduce the alarmingly high
rates of induced abortions that were then prevalent in Chile.
o Today, Chile has a sustainable population (17 million), with higher investments per person; Chile has become
the first Latin American country to reach OECD and 1st World/Developed Status.
• Ireland, a progressive, developed and mostly Catholic country, has a Constitution similar to the Philippines: “State
acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees
in its laws to respect, and as far as practicable, by its laws, to defend and vindicate that right (Article 40, Sec. 3.3).”
o In light of this, the Irish government has a family planning policy that funds and delivers all modern
contraceptive methods including IUDs, pills, injectables, and implants.
• The 3 other major religions in the country: Islam, Protestantism and the Iglesia ni Cristo, support family planning,
state funding for contraceptives, and legislation promoting both modern and natural family planning.39
• According to a prominent Filipino theologian, modern family planning “is also pro‐life, in the sense of pro‐quality‐
life. Each life brought into this world deserves to be raised in a dignified, human way that the parents are capable
of, according to God’s design, and not left to a ‘bahala‐na’ attitude”40
• Constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas’ affirms the Church‐State separation, & the Constitutional rights of all faiths 41 :
“Very much involved in the debate about contraception is the matter of religious liberty. We have to be aware of the fact that we live in a
pluralist society where various religious groups disagree about the morality of artificial contraception. The official Catholic teaching, for
instance, is that only natural family planning is allowed. The religion of many non‐Catholics, however, prescribes a different set of rules on
sexual morality. And, as much as Catholics, they too have the right of moral equality and moral freedom under our democratic system.”
Table 4: Catholic Countries with Modern Family
Planning Methods and Lower Fertility Rates
Country %Catholic TFR before FP TFR after FP became
became available available
Italy 90 2.47 1.4
Spain 88 2.92 1.4
Portugal 90 2.88 1.3
Mexico 87 6.5 2.2
Brazil 79 6.15 2.0
Malta 98 4.1 1.4
Source: World Health Organization, UC
Berkeley School of Public Health
38
Power, Margaret. Gender, Modernity, & Technology: Chile during 4 Different Political Regimes, 1964‐2000. Illinois Institute of Technology. 2004.
39
Rodrigo Tano, “Reactions from Different Sectors – The Religious Perspective,” Philippine Population in Focus: Myths and Challenges, 28 August 2010.
40
Tanseco, Ruben, S.J. “Population Crisis” The Philippine Star (August 8, 2004), p. 16.
41
Bernas, Joaquin, SJ. “Back to the RH Bill.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. 7 February 2011