The population issue in the Philippines continues to attract various and usually opposing views among different sectors of society. One sector that has been very active in the population debate is the Catholic Church that has long maintained a strong position against artificial contraceptives and in favor of natural family planning (NFP). Economists and demographers meanwhile have long argued for a national population policy which allows a choice among both natural (modern) and artificial (traditional) methods of contraception (Pernia, 2007; UPSE, 2004). Despite the high unmet need in family planning and the high clamor for budgetary support for modern methods of family planning, the Arroyo administration has displayed strong support for programs that favor only the use of NFP methods.

ALthough contemporary Church teachings already recognize that there is indeed a population problem, the Church only allows the use of NFP methods in the context of "responsible parenthood". This objection to artificial contraceptives can be traced from the way the Church views human sexuality and morality. Sex is viewed in two ways -- procreative (life giving) and unitive (love-sharing) -- and any act that interferes with the procreative potential of the sexual act is vehemently prohibited (Genilo, 2007; Genovesi, 2003). However, as Fr. Carroll (2007) observes, the Philippine Cathloic Church has been more active in opposing contraception through political means instead of forming the consciousness of people on NFP methods. For instance, during President Fidel Ramos' administration when the use of artificial or modern methods of family planning was promoted, the Catholic Church was severely critical of the government.

The Church's influence on government's population policy is viewed from different perspectives. On the one hand, there are some who regard the Church's active position on population and family planning (FP) as the main culprit for the government's inability to manage the country's population. On the other hand, there are some who claim that the influence of church in politics and government, as well as in people's decision making, is overstated. Within these different views, however, there has been little direct effort to empirically link religion and religioisity to use of contraceptives in the Philippines. In terms of evidence, the argument that the Church's position in family planning directly influences people's decisions on what FP method to use remains unsupported.

This paper seeks to examine if there is empirical evidence to the claim that religion influences individual decisions to practice family planning. By many accounts, 84% of Filipinos are Catholics and thus there is little variance in religious affiliation. There is however more variance in the degree to which people are religious. Hence, instead of religion per se, this paper focuses more on the extent to which a person is involved in religious activities, or what is referred to as religiosity.

Few notable foreign works on the link between religiosity and contraceptive use provide contradictory findings. While Studer and Thornton (1987) found that adolescents who regularly attend religious services were less likely to use an effective medical method of contraception than those who rarely attend church, Okun's (2003) analysis of Jewish women's contraceptive behavior found that contraceptive unrelated to religious doctrine. In the Philippines, while religion is largely blamed for its dismal national population policy, little has been done examining the link between religion or religiosity and contraceptive use. This study aims to pave the way for more research efforts on this subject. It also aims to extend our understancing and knowledge of contraceptive behavior with the higher aim of arriving at a resolution among opposing groups that are sympathetic to the population issue.

The full study can be downloaded for free at http://pcpd.ph