Time Magazine launched an anti-Catholic attack today by focusing its ire on the Philippines today because as the conservative government refuses to distribute free condoms and birth control. Oh! The horror!

This is agenda-drive journalism at its worst. In the opening paragraph, Time paints the worst possible scenario:

It’s lunchtime in Vitas, the sprawling slum built on the City of Manila’s garbage dump. Flies swarm as Bing, a 34-year-old mother of five, prepares a meal of salted rice for her children. While she feeds them, her husband sifts through the mounds of grease-stained cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and broken glass that crowd their home. He’ll sell his rotten harvest for about $3.50. For their family of seven, that’s 50 cents per person, per day. The arithmetic is simple, Bing says. “With every child I have, there is less rice each. I can’t give them all a good life.”

The story goes on to explain that Bing planned on having one child, but birth control was never an option because the mean old government didn’t give him any birth control. And he’s also completely powerless not to…uhm…well you know.

And Time then attacks the City of Manila for engaging in what they call “a campaign against modern contraception.” What does this campaign consist of? They don’t give hand out birth control in city-funded clinics. Time Magazine says, of course, this hurts the poor the most because rich people can afford condoms and all sorts of birth control but the poor go without.

And then you have to see this to believe it. Time Magazine goes on to speak about this ancient like voodoo like process that nobody’s ever heard of that some say helps poor people not have babies.

In lieu of condoms or pills, government and church authorities promote what they call “natural” family planning. Women are advised to purchase a thermometer, monitor their cycle, and abstain from sex on all but their least-fertile days. But abstinence is a tough sell and people, it seems, aren’t buying it.

And how does Time Magazine know that people aren’t buying it. Obviously because the birth rate is crazy high, right? I mean to warrant a story in Time Magazine about an out-of-control birthrate that warrants lawsuits and international aid organizations to fly in and drop pills and condoms over villages, it’s got to be babymania in Manila.

But.

The country’s population is growing at a rate of about 2.3% per year. Shhh. But that happens to be just about the same as the United States and you know how awful it is over here. 2.2 is demographic stasis. That’s your bare bones replacement rate.

Hmmm. Something tells me this story actually has nothing to do with the poor but has everything to do with forcing birth control down people’s throats.

It’s also ridiculous that Time looks at things this way. When a country can’t support families, what does Time think to do? Get rid of families, not fix the economy. A former Mayor of a Philippine city takes issue with Time Magazine’s assessment saying, “I reject the notion that we are poor because we are plenty…Poverty is caused by mismanagement, not by the number of people.” He said family planning advocates have been “brainwashed” by the West. Or by Time Magazine.