RH Bill

Living in a third world country means there are some things that needs further improvement & development. Recently, the buzz about RH Bill is disturbingly loud and if you have no opinion nor say about it then I guess for the sake of your future family,it’s time you do. After reading few articles and hearing both sides, I finally have my take on the Reproductive Health Bill.

Based from what I read, I’ve learned that RH Bill advocates these principles:

-Information and access to both natural and modern family planning methods which are medically safe and legally permissible.
-Hospital based family planning and the recognition of contraceptives as essential medicines.
-Reproductive health education (from Grade 5 to 4th year High School)

According to Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay (one of the principal authors of the RH Bill). Population impacts all other aspects of human development (such as housing, education, and health care service) and that rapid population growth makes it difficult to spread out already limited resources to a large number of constituents.

SWS survey in 2008 shows that 61% of Filipinos favor the RH Bill and 66% adult Filipinos want family planning education in public schools. If that’s the case then what’s there to debate about? or rather who’s against it? Right. The Church. It is very obvious that the Catholic Church appears to have a strong hold on political and social power here in our country (Philippines). I have no issues about them and I for one am a devote Catholic, but come on! Can we get real here? Whatever happened to the separation of the church and the state?  If the church is all about the sanctity & dignity of life, then where is the sanctity & dignity for those living in the streets & experiencing involuntary hunger?

Also,the Philippines is a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals. It is a set of eight international development goals that include eradicating poverty, fighting epidemics like HIV/AIDS and reducing maternal and infant mortality. The Philippines committed to reduce deaths by 75% before 2015 year of reckoning, that means reducing maternal deaths to 52 per 100,000 live births. But 11 Filipino women die of birth related complication per day and that’s about 230 per 100,000 women. How do you think can we manage to reduce death in 4 years time? Here’s when the RH bill gets in the picture.

RH Bill’s Three-pronged approached:

-Family planning and contraception

-Access to quality health care

– Access to emergency obstetric care which includes post-abortive complications

The church actually lauded the last 2 pillars but against the contraception part, but unfortunately the first one is crucial for the second & third one to push through since it is the preventive measure. CBCP says the faith only allows natural conception any other are abortifacients or abortion inducing and that RH Bill is criticized as encouraging promiscuity and promoting abortion.

I believe that every person, especially women have the right to know proper information to prepare them for what they think they’re ready with (and what they think they already know) about reproduction or the act of it. I for one would like to be knowledgeable about the right and appropriate family planning. It’s not about abortion nor limiting the number of children you should have but it’s about options & choices and being open to these ideas can really help not only yourself or the people you love but the entire nation. If you’re still not convinced then there’s just one question you should ask yourself. Would you not want to have the best for yourself (if you’re a woman) or for your sister, mother or even your child? Think about it.

P.S.

I seriously want my tax money to go into educating & informing people about reproduction & such rather than to be corrupted by public officials. Wouldn’t you?