Women Activists Present Condoms to Philippine Bishops

In the latest escalation of an ongoing war of words, women from the leftist Party of the Workers marked International Women's Day on Monday by bringing two baskets of condoms to the Manila headquarters of the Catholic Bishops Conference. "We humbly ask the bishops to bless the condoms as a conciliatory gesture to unite for reproductive health and women's rights," said Judy Ann Miranda, the party's secretary-general. Last month after Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral helped distribute condoms as part of an anti-AIDS campaign, the bishops demanded that she resign and that condom advertisements be banned. So far, the government has not complied. The Roman Catholic Church, which counts as members 75 million of the Philippines' 93 million residents, forbids the use of artificial contraceptives, including condoms for disease prevention.

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