Unity in Diversity

Convinced that our country needs an aid for destitution and economic degeneration, many politicians propose the Reproductive Health Bill. They believe that this bill will improve Filipino’s quality of living thinking that our country is facing the problem of overpopulation. They attest that the said bill is neither anti-life nor anti-family, that contraceptives are not life threatening, and that the bill could provide a better community to live in. Well, I say, even though it has been an established fact that our country Philippines is the 12th most populous country in the world, it does not necessarily mean that RH Bill is the right answer for the said problem.

One of those many politicians is Albay’s 1st District Representative Edcel Lagman. He passed the House Bill No. 4244 in the senate or An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health. It centers the topic of abortion and the most talked about issue of reproductive health education for the youth. It also covers artificial methods of family planning and birth control.

The good congressman delivered that a rapidly ballooning population and high unwanted fertility are primary factors in restricting both educational and employment opportunities for women and are responsible for the alarmingly high infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates in the country. He stated that the RH bill is not about sex, neither it is about religion. It is about health, rights and sustainable human development. He also stressed out that there is a direct relationship of the vast increase of population and the rate of development of our country.

On the other side of the story, the Catholic Church stands that implementation of RH Bill does no good in our country as well as in our religion. The Church points out that, poverty is not mainly caused by overpopulation but rather because of the corruption which secretly happens in the government. The Church also states that the bill is not pro-life neither pro-women. It further develops health risks such as being more prone to STDs or AIDS. It also increases the rate of promiscuity, teenage pregnancy since not all contraceptive works effectively, and values deterioration.

In addition, latest studies in scientific journals and organizations show that the ordinary birth control pills and the intrautenary devices (IUDs) are abortifacient to fertilized eggs. They kill young human embryos. Just like human beings, human embryos are also worthy of love, care and most especially respect. And the bill violates moral ethics towards a mother and a child given the fact that human life begins at fertilization.

The Church has its point when it says that overpopulation has never been the cause of the poverty we are facing, because it is corruption that drags our country to the mud of distress and inadequacy. The problem of extreme destitution needs an immediate action. But population control has never been the solution, or even one of the solutions to it. And in the light of the two clashing parties, the church and the government, there is a need to sit down and iron the differences in order to come up with the best possible solution for the general welfare. With this, Filipinos in all sorts must finally unite amidst the diversity which RH bill brings.