Philippines High Fertility Stands Out in Asia

The Philippines has too many babies to feed. Other countries in East Asia have too few to stabilize their populations. There needs to be a middle ground between population boom and bust.

A woman supports a baby on a wall outside their home in Manila on Aug. 10. The Philippines high birth rate is correlated with widespread poverty. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/GettyImages

MANILA—As Japan’s population shrinks and China grays fast, a battle is shaping up in the Philippines, pitching its demographic and economic future against Catholic orthodoxy. The issue: Fewer babies or more?

A global demographic dichotomy is coming into focus in the Philippines where the Congress is to vote soon on legislation known as the Reproductive Health Bill, which would enable government clinics to provide contraceptive advice and devices. 

President Benigno S. Aquino III supports the bill, and for this he’s been denounced by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, representing the celibate hierarchy of a politically powerful church in this majority Catholic country.