Duterte’s Free Birth-Control Order Is Latest Skirmish With Catholic Church

By artappraiser on Sat, 01/28/2017 - 10:58am |

@ New York Times reporting from Manila, Jan. 27

[....] The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, signed an executive order this month calling for the full and immediate enforcement of a 2012 law that would give six million women like Ms. Torreras free government-distributed contraception and reproductive health services.

Mr. Duterte portrayed the order as an antipoverty measure, with an official calling it “pro-life, pro-women, pro-children and pro-economic development.”

But the order was also Mr. Duterte’s latest jab at the Roman Catholic Church, which wields significant power in the Philippines and has fought for years to keep the law from taking effect [....]

URL:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/world/asia/philippines-free-contraception-duterte.html