Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) – Rural health care
workers in the Philippines reportedly are using contraceptives in ways never
anticipated by donor agencies.
The country’s health secretary, Manuel Dayrit, was quoted
this week as saying that contraceptive pills are being used to fertilize
plantations of orchids, while condoms have found a new role as party
balloons.
Dayrit attributed the novel uses for the items to the
fact that the supply is so abundant, the pills and condoms aren’t
needed.
But in the mostly Roman Catholic Philippines, birth
control acceptance levels are also relatively low. The church opposes artificial
birth control methods.
According to official figures cited late last year, only
3.7 million Filipinos — or about one-tenth of the sexually-active population —
use contraceptives. Of those, 43 percent take the pill and just under 10 percent
use condoms. [Full
Story]
I once read a story about the introduction of
contraceptives into Africa. They demonstrated condom usage via a stick and
showed the women how to use birth control pills. When they came back some time
later they found that pregnancies hadn’t decreased and on further investigation
found that the men took the pills instead of the women and that they stuck
condoms on sticks and placed them by their beds.
It’s amazing what can happen in a country where the
Church actually teaches about contraception instead of dissenting. My wife is
Filipina and so I can attest to the fact that they have a very Catholic culture
there (she probably prayed as much for men as St. Augustine’s mother did for
him). When the Pope visited the Philippines in 1995, four million people
attended a Mass in Manila making it the largest crowd in
history.
