UN hails Duterte’s RH order | INQUIRER.net
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Friday hailed President Rodrigo Duterte’s intervention to provide free contraceptives to poor women as a “new momentum” in the provision of family planning services in the Philippines.
But Executive Order No. 12, signed by Mr. Duterte on Monday, faces hurdles, with conservatives and religious leaders preparing possible challenges.
In a statement issued late on Thursday, the UNFPA said Mr. Duterte’s order was a “major push” for the government’s family planning program, which has been hindered by opposition from the Catholic Church and prolife organizations.
... The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said it remained opposed to contraception despite the poverty-reduction intent of Mr. Duterte’s order. “When society opens its doors to welcome artificial contraception, abortion, divorce, legalized same-sex union, it opens the minds of people to a particular mindset that problems can only be resolved through termination of relationships, terminations of persons,” the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on the Laity said.