Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
4. The City Mayor issues an Executive Order declaring that the city
promotes responsible parenthood and upholds natural family
planning. He prohibits all hospitals operated by the city from
prescribing the use of artificial methods of contraception, including
condoms, pills, intrauterine devices and surgical sterilization. As a
result, poor women in his city lost their access to affordable family
planning programs. Private clinics, however, continue to render
family planning counsel and devices to paying clients. Is the
Executive Order in any way constitutionally infirm? Explain.
a. The Executive Order is constitutionally infirm. Under the 1987
Constitution, the State shall defend the right of spouses to
establish a family in accordance with their religious
convictions and the demands of responsible parenthood. By
upholding natural family planning and prohibiting city
hospitals from prescribing artificial methods of contraception,
the Mayor is imposing his religious beliefs on spouses who rely
on the services of city hospitals. This clearly violates the
Constitution.
Moreover, the 1987 Constitution states that no person shall be
denied the equal protection of laws. The Constitution also
provides that the state shall promote a just and dynamic
social order that will ensure the prosperity and independence
of the nation and free the people from poverty through
policies that provide adequate social services, promote full
employment, a rising standard of living and an improved
quality of life for all. The loss of access of poor city women to
family planning programs is discriminatory and creates
suspect classification. It also goes against the demands of
social justice as enshrined in the Constitution.
b. The Executive Order is constitutionally infirm. It constitutes
an invalid exercise of police power and violates substantive
due process by depriving people of the means to control their
reproductive processes.
Moreover, since the national
government has not outlawed the use of artificial methods of
contraception, then it would be against national policies. In
addition, the Mayor cannot issue such Executive Order without
an underlying ordinance. Besides, the action of the Mayor
may be in violation of a persons right to privacy.