BAGUIO CITY, Philippines--Catholic bishops should visit Tondo in Manila to see the actual effect of their "blind" stance on population and family planning, according to backers of the reproductive health bills pending in Congress.

In a statement on Wednesday, lawyer Rita Padilla, executive director of the nongovernment organization EnGendeRights, said the battle was being fought in the real world, and not in churches.

"I challenge the bishops of the CBCP (Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines) and other religious fundamentalists to go to the poorest communities in Tondo and interview women there to see first-hand how having 10 children impacts on the health and lives of women and their families," Padilla said.

She said she had visited Tondo twice in the past three weeks and talked with women who were bearing the brunt of the policy of then Manila Mayor Lito Atienza.

"The women were denied access to family planning supplies and services [as well as] access to information to effectively control their fertility," she said, noting that the women had between three and 10 children each.

Padilla said the laws of predominantly Catholic countries worldwide belied the CBCP claim that restricting access to contraceptives and to safe and legal abortion was against the Catholic religion.

Right information
"Many predominantly Catholic countries around the world allow access to modern contraceptives, emergency contraception and even safe and legal abortion. The state of Philippine law on reproductive rights is blind adherence to our Spanish colonial past," she said.

Ben de Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc. (FFPDI), said they saw nothing un-Christian in what reproductive health advocates are doing.

"We are giving the right information about contraceptives and the reproductive health situation everywhere we go," De Leon said by phone on Thursday.

"We talk about all forms of contraception, including natural family planning. We neither withhold information nor mislead with wrong information," he said.

De Leon said FFPDI studies showed that 8 percent of almost 1.7 million Filipinos born every year were born to mothers between 15 and 19 years old.

Almost a third of Filipino women become mothers before reaching 21, he said.

"The more we keep our children in the dark about sex and population, the more they will resort to wrong information," De Leon said.

Not budging
Authors of the controversial reproductive health bill in the House of Representatives, called An Act Providing National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood, and for other purposes, are ready to dialogue with the bishops, but they're not budging from their position.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the principal author, said Friday he was ready to meet with CBCP officials to thresh out misconceptions about the bill.

The dialogue, set by Speaker Prospero Nograles, may be held next week, said Lagman, who heads the five-member House panel.

"We're going to explain to the bishops the contents of the bill, and show them that their apprehensions are not found in [it]," he said on the phone.

According to Lagman, the bill does not legalize abortion and is not biased for contraceptives. On the contrary, it offers medically safe and "permissible modes" of family planning.

He said that while he was prepared to talk, he was not about to change his position: "They can't convince me. Not even a century of convincing will change my advocacy."

Nograles said he hoped the dialogue would settle differences between the Church and the lawmakers over the bill.

"That's why we need the dialogue between the congressmen and the bishops," he said in a text message when asked if the lawmakers should yield to pressure from the Churchmen.

Church moves
Apart from the dialogue, the Catholic Church is also sending out priests to coax lawmakers into withdrawing their sponsorship or support for the bill, which has been approved at the committee level.

It has mounted a fresh campaign to block the bill, which was passed by the committees on health, population and family relations, and is expected to be tackled when Congress resumes session on July 28.

The bishops have met with President Macapagal-Arroyo to reiterate their strong opposition to the bill, and the latter said she was keeping to her policy against contraceptive use.

The Church has also taken the campaign to the grassroots level. Ozamiz Archbishop Jesus Dosado issued a pastoral statement ordering priests in his archdiocese to refuse communion to "antilife" politicians.

For all these, Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros agreed with Lagman: "No, we should not [budge]. We should listen to their coaxing as to any other constituents, but we will not withdraw support for the bill. It is a matter of public policy."

Said Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin: "I'm standing by it."

Lagman said part of the problem lay in the fact that the bishops had yet to read the bill.

"I think they have not read the bill. They're basing their arguments on the old, outmoded orthodoxy," he said. "Everyone, including the media, should read the bill."

Keep the peace
In the run-up to the dialogue, Lagman called on the bishops and his colleagues to "create an amicable atmosphere."

"Pending that dialogue, let's try to keep our peace," he said.

Apart from Lagman, Hontiveros and Garin, Representatives Narciso Santiago III, Mark Llandro Mendoza and Eleandro Madrona introduced the consolidated bill.

Lagman and Garin said they were not surprised that the CBCP Commission on Family and Life had decided to deploy priests to talk to politicians out of their support for artificial contraceptives.

"They've been doing that. That's nothing new," Lagman said, quoting colleagues who had been asked by the bishops to change their position.

Garin confirmed receiving a letter from Jaro Archbishop and CBCP president Angel Lagdameo not to support the approval of the bill before Congress adjourned in mid-June.

"Year in, year out, we get communications like this," she told the Inquirer.

Garin said she was sticking to her position despite possible backlash from the Church in the 2010 elections. "I hope and pray that the others will be firm in their stand," she said.