Pressure Mounts on Catholic-Run Family Planning Clinics In PNG
Pressure is mounting on Papua New Guinea’s government to reconsider its contracts with health clinics run by the Catholic Church, amid concerns some are deliberately failing to meet their obligations of providing a full family planning service.
PNG’s considered to be one of the world’s most religious countries — 96 per cent of the country identify as Christian, and about a quarter of the population are Catholic. While advocating natural methods of contraception, the Church insists it also provides counselling and a patient referral system, which is a requirement of its contract with the PNG Health Department. But family planning advocates claim items being provided to Catholic clinics by the Government go unused and are being destroyed, while others report spot checks are being carried out by senior church officials.
They have to respect the plan of God
The Catholic Church officially promotes the natural “ovulation method”, but the outspoken views of people like Rolando Santos, the Bishop of Alotau, point to a much harder line which is causing considerable anger among health professionals.
“They should not use artificial means in order to prevent the natural process from taking place,” he told the ABC’s Pacific Beat programme. Family planning advocate Wendy Stein, who set up the NGO Spacim Pikinini — which translates as “space your children” — to provide implants to women living in remote PNG, has raised her concerns about the Catholic Church.
“They’re out of touch and I feel like they’re oppressing the indigenous people in PNG,” she said. “We’ve had instances where the bishops send teams out to villages with propaganda and discourage people, whether they’re Catholic or not, about the implant.”
She has had her own run-ins with Father Santos, who questioned the work of her NGO.