RH Bill... Raising Hope?

There have been lots of talks, debates, and quarrels regarding the very infamous Reproductive Health Bill (RH Bill). It is in some way distressing that the government and the Catholic Church seem to have equal power when it comes to governing the country, similar to how the Spanish government ruled the Philippines some hundred years ago.

I am in no way pro or anti on this debate; however, the bill, for all purpose of fairness, has a lot of good points when it comes to the way they want things to carry on.

As stated, the RH Bill mandates the government to promote all efficient ways of family planning that is medically safe and legal. This easily translates to the government taking action to the continually looming population that the country has. The government, or at least the proponents of the bill, sees the reason of poverty is because of the fact that the Philippines, with its geological size, has more people than it can possibly carry.

The bill also gets into something very delicate as it tackles abortion into the mix. From the bill itself, it was stated that “the government shall ensure that all women needing care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner.” While abortion is recognized as illegal in the country, or most countries for that matter, the bill does not promote nor condemn it. The bill simply wants to make sure that anybody who committed such act and had complications right after shall have fair medical and social treatment from people within the country.

RH Bill also vows to implement family planning education to those who are less fortunate and promote responsible parenthood into all government anti-poverty programs, as well as sex education to the children of the state. The bill proposes that lack of education on sexuality and reproductive health is the main reason why families are prone to having large number of children and early pregnancies. While a lot of people may say that sex education is useless, you have to admit that proper education can change things in life.

Another good point that the bill is proposing is to mandate the Department of Labor and Employment to guarantee the reproductive health rights of its female employees. Companies with less than 200 workers are obligated to to have partnership with health care providers. They are also mandated by the bill to monitor pregnant employees and guarantee them of paid half-day prenatal medical leaves each month. The bill also covers the government itself, requiring the national and local government to ensure availability of health care services, which includes family planning and prenatal care. Anyone, both civilians and public officials, who disallows the delivery of legal and medically safe reproductive health care services, shall be punishable by imprisonment or a fine.

All points stated above are good; however, there are people who see things differently, hence, the debate getting started. Those who oppose the bill state that the continually growing population does not impede or promote economic growth, therefore, useless of its mission to solve poverty. They do not see the reason to have the bill converted into a law if population control due to economic purposes is what the bill is trying to achieve. They also connote that mistreatment against poor people somehow gets endorsed as the bill concentrates mainly on those who are in slum areas, hence, discrimination against the less fortunate.

They also utter that the resources are too limited to support such bill as it requires billions of the Philippine fund to be implemented effectually, only to be used to finance harmful and deadly devices. They state that things like birth control pills and IUD induce abortion to fertilized eggs, which kill human embryos whom, as the opposition states, are human beings equally worthy of respect that makes the bill unconstitutional. They also stated that contraceptives are more health and socially hazardous than they are helpful, saying that the best medical studies have shown that pills are carcinogenic and they eventually lead to abortion due to not wanting to have children, while more usage of condoms promote the spread of AIDS.

This is also where religious sectors, primarily the Catholic Church, come into play. As the Scriptures say, nobody is allowed to take away life as only God has the power to do it. The Catholic Bishops Conference even went on, at one point, to threaten to excommunicate the President, Benigno Aquino III, if he decided to ride with the bill.

Each one of us definitely have different takes about this issue… however, we all must agree that the need to solve national problems for the country to prosper is really high at this moment. Whether the bill will be passed or not is, at this moment, anyone’s guess but it should not be the only thing that we must do to help the Filipino family to thrive.