Manila - Senior bishops of the influential Philippine Roman Catholic Church on Friday warned that a proposed law that aims to curb the country's runaway population growth would be a threat to life and family.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged legislators not to pass the Reproductive Health bill without fixing "fatal flaws" that make it unacceptable.

"It is our collective discernment that the bill in its present form poses a serious threat to life of infants in the womb," the CBCP said in a pastoral statement. "It is a source of danger for the stability of the family."

"It places the dignity of womanhood at great risk," it added.

The CBCP contends that the Reproductive Health, which aims to ensure that women have access to all necessary health services, including artificial contraception, would legalize abortion.

The bishops also reiterated their objection to the promotion of the use of artificial contraceptives, which they alleged was also a form abortion.

"Although it mentions that abortion is a crime, it does not state explicitly that human life is to be protected upon conception as stated in the constitution," the bishops noted.

"This ambiguity can provide a loophole for contraceptives that prevent the implantation of the fertilized ovum," they said. "The prevention of implantation of the fertilized ovum is abortion. We cannot prevent overt abortions by doing hidden abortions.

"It is a fallacy to think that abortions can be prevented by promoting contraception. Contraception is intrinsically evil," they added.

The proposed national reproductive health care act would provide access to "a full range of safe, legal and effective family planning methods, techniques and devices."

It would also provide incentives to couples who only have two children in a bid to encourage them to practice family planning.

While abortion is not legalized in the bill, it stipulates that "government shall ensure that women seeking care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner."

Supporters said the Philippines needed to implement a comprehensive family planning policy to rein in the country's population growth rate of more than 2 per cent, considered one of the fastest in South-East Asia.

The country's population has been estimated at 88.57 million in 2007. It is projected to balloon to 94 million in 2010, according to the Philippines' National Statistics Office.

According to estimates, nearly half a million abortions, or one-third of about 1.4 million unplanned pregnancies, occur in the Philippines every year. A survey also showed that two out of five women who want to use contraceptives do not have access to them. (dpa)