reason is the reason

If our life were a sitcom, our friend Dr. J would be the nosy neighbor, a la Bob in That Seventies Show, except he doesn’t “annoy the hell out of us,” as Red Forman would say. More the opposite. He drops by every so often to smoke (not allowed in his home), share funny stories, and tell us, in a humorous manner, exactly what’s wrong with the universe.

So what was wrong with the universe last night? This: The Ospital ng Maynila forbids their doctors from performing tubal ligations and vasectomies.

Is it a good idea? Look at the facts: women do go to the Ospital ng Maynila, voluntarily seeking sterilization. Noncompliant husbands, children bursting their small houses at the seams. Reasons abound. I presume it’s the women’s right to seek such treatment; it’s not illegal, it’s not abortive, and the women who do seek it, in Dr. J’s words, are desperate for a solution.

The system in the Ospital works like this: doctors are forbidden from performing such procedures, full stop. Nurses are paid handsome rewards to report erring doctors to the proper authorities, who will proceed to terminate said doctor’s services. Dr. J says that many doctors have been fired this way.

But doctors afflicted with a conscience may, and often do, bow to their patients’ will. They risk their careers to help their patients. Manila Mayor Lito Atienza doesn’t see it the way they do. A devout Catholic, Mayor Atienza considers “artificial contraception to be a very very destructive practice which ruins Filipino values… Value of life, value of the family, value of relationship.”

The Ospital ng Maynila’s policy is only the tip of the iceberg. For years now, Atienza has pursued a rabidly pro-Church, anti-contraception program in his city that hurts his constituents more than it helps. A religious stance that is questionable at best, becomes monstrous when it is coercive, as it is in Manila. Atienza’s religion will allow no other choice. It’s a throwback to the medieval past, and a dangerous portent of a Church-dominated future.

Did I say Dr. J told funny stories about medical life in the city? For once, he was at a loss for a punchline.