Philippines approves contraception reform - FT.com Philippine lawmakers cast a decisive vote on Monday night approving a highly contentious law allowing wider distribution of contraceptives to poor couples while requiring schools to teach sex education to teenage students. The proposed legislation has divided opinion in Asia's biggest Catholic-majority country. The Philippines has one of Asia's highest birth rates, which is partly blamed for the country's sluggish economic growth and high levels of maternal deaths. Unlike neighbours such as Thailand, which cut average births per woman to 2.1 back in 1990, the Philippines" birth rate still stands at 3.1 as of 2010 because of Catholic church opposition to contraceptive use. While the country's reformist and popular president, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, and his ruling Liberal party are behind the reproductive health bill, the influential Catholic hierarchy had called for its rejection. Catholic bishops warned they would work for the defeat of lawmakers voting for the bill in the next elections in May 2013. The measure had already passed two readings in the 287-member House of Representatives and an initial vote in the Senate. The lower House of Representatives, voted 133-79 to pass the so-called reproductive health bill. Meanwhile, the Senate also approved a slightly different version of the bill on second reading. It is expected to pass its final stage later on Monday evening. President Aquino is expected to sign the bill into law after the differing versions are reconciled and ratified by both the House and the Senate. Opponents of the bill will probably try to block the legislation at the Supreme Court. The bill's approval could be a sign of the waning influence in the Philippines of the Catholic church, which has successfully blocked the bill for more than a decade. A survey by the Social Weather Stations polling group last year showed that 68 per cent of Filipinos agree that the government should provide funding for both natural and artificial methods of family planning. The Catholic church is not a perfect entity. It is only human," said senator Miriam Santiago, one of the bill's co-authors, who drew a parallel between the church's opposition to the bill and its condemnation of Copernicus and Galileo for suggesting that the sun did not revolve around the earth. The bill's passage had been expected by analysts and lawmakers after Mr Aquino certified the bill as "urgent," which requires the leadership of both legislative bodies to bring the measure to a vote as quickly as possible. "The proponents of the reproductive health bill had the numbers to get the law passed some time ago, which is why the opponents of the law have resorted mainly to parliamentary delaying tactics to try to defeat it," said Earl Parreno, a former congressional staffer who is now a political consultant.