Face the Facts, Pass the RH Bill

Ceredeña also  cited the NYC’s National Youth Assessment Study that revealed that unplanned pregnancy was one of the main reasons  young people do not complete their education.

The UNFPA study indicated the rate of teenage pregnancy in the country at 53 out of 1,000 Filipino women aged 15 – 19.

…The youth official is recommending “Age-appropriate reproductive health education” to address is problem.

Parents, have you talked with your kids? Talked WITH, not AT, not TO. Do they know and understand what sex is, how it’s done, and what could happen?

Without the RH Bill, without proper sex education, the worst can and will continue to happen. 

Face the facts today. 

Worth noting: “Experts couldn’t say whether more liberal laws led to fewer procedures, but said good access to birth control in those countries resulted in fewer unwanted pregnancies.”

A video by BBC.

Tens of millions of people in the Philippines live in poverty and the country also has one of the highest birth rates in Asia.

The government now wants to encourage its citizens to have fewer children, and is putting forward a bill in parliament to provide free contraception.

But many Filipinos are Catholic and the church is unhappy with the bill, Kate McGeown reports from Manila.

BAGUIO CITY- Young Filipinos have been resorting to a concoction of detergent or bath soap plus cola drink, which they consume after engaging in premarital sex because they believe that the mixture can prevent the transmission of sexually-transmitted infections, a doctor revealed in this year’s national school health and nutrition congress here.

RH Bill not a priority? For how long? And how much longer do we let this go on?

Amnesty International-Philippines appealed to lawmakers not to let 2011 end without the much-needed measure being passed, saying not one more mother should suffer from preventable maternal death.

Aurora Parong, director of AI-Philippines, said Congress should pass the bill that would help millions of women prevent mistimed and unwanted pregnancies, and have safe pregnancies and child birth.

It could also help improve everyone’s enjoyment of sexual and reproductive rights and enhance personal and family relationships.

The bill, which has received staunch opposition from the Catholic Church, is being debated in the Congress, and there is no indication of when it could be put to a vote. Advocates for the bill have embarked on a series of activities to convince lawmakers to pass it soon.

“Ten years of waiting for the enactment of a reproductive health law is too long. Our lawmakers must get their acts together to enact the law before the year ends,” Parong said in a statement.

She also said preventable maternal deaths have been among the biggest problems affecting women in the country and in most developing countries.

A Global AIDS Report released recently by the UNAIDS observed there has been a 25 percent decline in HIV infections and AIDS-related illness and deaths, and that countries who have given enough funding and attention to the problem have stabilized the rise, spread and deaths caused by the virus.

Merceditas Apilado, a UNAIDS social mobilization adviser, said the Philippines is “one of the exceptions …and the number of HIV infections and AIDS cases in the country continues to rise, and not lessen.”

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said deliberations on House Bill (HB) 4244, or the “Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2011,” will have to drag on to next year due to the number of congressmen who want to debate on the measure.

“Don’t expect that this [the RH bill] will be passed this year. I’m just being honest,” he said at a press briefing, adding that more than 20 House members are still on the list of interpellators despite the fact that plenary debates on the bill started last March.

“We have to consider the legislative mill… Itong RH, in my experience as a floor leader, it’s not really time na pagbotohan ito,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales, however, said HB 4244 will be put to a vote by next year.

Stalled again.

But when is it a good time to vote for this bill?

Who are you among the 7 billion? Plug in your birthdate, get your number.

From the site:

“The world’s population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Where do you fit into this story of human life? Fill in your date of birth below to find out.”

There are a number of constitutional provisions that underlie the RH bill.  But the most salient is what I would call the “Sanctity of Life” Clause found under Article 2, as a declaration of state policy:

Sec. 12. The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution.  It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.

This provision does not mention the term “reproductive health” or any of its affiliate vocabularies.  This is in the nature of a constitution.

We can hope that one day makes all the difference.

The Vatican has granted priests the right to forgive the sin of abortion when hearing the confessions of hundreds of thousands of young people attending a Roman Catholic youth festival in Spain this week.

The termination of pregnancy is a sin punishable by excommunication under Church law. The World Youth Day (WYD) pilgrims will attend a mass confession in the presence of Pope Benedict on Saturday in a central Madrid park.

“This (concession) is to make it easier for the faithful who attend the World Youth Day celebrations to obtain the fruits of divine grace,” the Madrid archdiocese said in a statement on its website.

A very good summation on the theological issues at hand with the RH Bill. This is part 1 of a speech by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago.

For those conflicted with their faith and sensibilities, this is worth the read. 

The RH bill is supported by a big majority of Filipinos in the country, as shown by certain nationwide surveys.  In October 2008, Social Weather Stations reported that 71 percent were in favor of the RH bill.  In October 2010, Pulse Asia reported that 69 percent were in favor of the RH bill.

Despite these surveys, certain Catholics, notably certain bishops, seem poised to fight to the death against the RH bill.  To understand why Catholics are so divided on this issue, and why there is such fierce antipathy, we must go back to the Second Vatican Council, the greatest of the councils held by the Catholic Church…[read more]

How ironic that the women most affected by the decisions of political and religious leaders about their wombs and sexual behavior, are accorded the least say on their expressed need for reproductive health services. Although it is their lives that hang in the balance, celibate males and conservative Catholic laity unabashedly speak for them in these matters. Let us for a change listen to poor women’s voices, as articulated in empirical studies like Likhaan’s “Imposing Misery: The Impact of Manila’s Ban on Contraception.” (2007) It details some of the effects of former Mayor Lito Atienza’s Executive Order 003 passed in 2000 declaring total commitment and support only to natural family planning methods.

Rosario (fictitious name to protect her identify) speaks: “I feel anxious and fearful of the chance of getting pregnant if I don’t have money to buy pills, unlike before when I used to get injectables for free, which were very convenient and effective for months …. I got depressed when the mayor banned family planning. It was a big loss for many mothers…”

Laarni, already in her eighth pregnancy, explains, “My life was put at risk when I gave birth to my fifth child … The doctor … said that this should be my last pregnancy or else my children would suffer if I die…. The doctor really wanted me to have a ligation but she couldn’t do anything since it was banned in the hospital.”

I am angry that the so-called “sex education” I was provided with was so incredibly inadequate. I find it hard to believe what I’m about to say, but I know it’s true, because I lived through it.

Nobody told me I had a clitoris.

Nobody told me I was capable of having orgasms.

For five years I was given “sex education”. It mostly consisted of periods and condoms. It didn’t talk about consent. It didn’t talk about the actual mechanics of sex, about arousal and lubrication and oscillation. It didn’t tell me a single thing about relationships and it didn’t tell me I had a clitoris.

What do you say, ladies?

“Citing data showing that contraception lowers unintended pregnancy and abortion rates, the IOM also said birth control can help women better space out their pregnancies, which can have positive health impacts.”

Behind the open door stood nine-year-old Michelle Esconde. Most kids her age are often seen holding a doll, but not Michelle. Her tiny arms were tightly wrapped around the small frame of her one-year-old brother.

Their mother Julia died last year, just five minutes after giving birth to the eighth child in the family. Julia was 39 years old.

Since then, the responsibility of taking care of the baby has been passed on to Michelle. For a year now, she has missed out on playing with other kids and going to school – rights that duly belong to a child like her.

—

The Philippines is among the 68 countries that contribute to 97 per cent of maternal and children’s deaths worldwide, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in its State of the World’s Children 2009 report.

Eleven Filipino pregnant women die each day, or some 4,500 each year, due to complications in childbirth. These are caused by hemorrhage, sepsis, hypertension and abortive outcomes, which are preventable. An overwhelming majority, 70 percent of the deaths, occur at childbirth or within a day after delivery.

Amnesty International Philippines has weighed in on the debate over the Reproductive Health bill, calling on the Roman Catholic church to reconsider its opposition to the measure.

At the recent launch of its 2011 Human Rights Report here, AIPh said it has agreed, after substantive discussions among its members, to officially support the campaign for the enactment of the RH bill.

“We add the voice of AIPh in the call to pass the RH Bill as a significant step towards ‘choosing life,’ as a step towards the realization of sexual and reproductive rights and maternal health rights. We add the perspective of human rights in this campaign,” AIPh director Aurora Corazon A. Parong said.

Parong cited a report of the Centre for Reproductive Rights in August last year that “found that more than 560,000 women terminated their pregnancies each year and about 1,000 of them died annually after clandestine illegal abortions.”

The ward is at Dr Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila in the Philippines where some 300 new mothers crammed three to a bed. It may look more like an overcrowded squat but this is actually a maternity ward. 

It is one of the busiest maternity wards in the world with an average of 60 births a day but it can record as many as 100 in 24 hours.

“We support the RH bill because it emphasizes and reinforces the long-neglected responsibility of the State to provide the citizens, especially the marginalized, their reproductive health needs. For so long, the government has shunned this very important duty to profit-oriented and private health institutions that remain inaccessible to the poor. Furthermore, it has not mustered enough political will and concern for the marginalized women and youths as it remains afraid to challenge some antiquated beliefs of the influential church hierarchy. The failure to institute a reproductive health program at this crucial time would only prolong the agony of the sectors most affected by the crisis in our health system.”

“Mr. President, because of all the misinformation regarding the contents and objectives of the bill, let me start by what this bill is NOT.

1. This is NOT a bill that promotes or legalizes abortion. On the contrary, it is for the protection of the unborn along with its mother.

2. This is NOT a bill that imposes one mode of family planning method on all. Every person will be allowed to choose the method suitable to his needs and based on his religious beliefs.

3. This is NOT a bill that imposes a certain family size.

4. This bill will NOT solve all the problems of our country. Like most of the bills filed in the Senate, it is just one measure that will address a particular problem. In this case, it is the reproductive health of all Filipinos, particularly the women and her child.

5. This is NOT a bill that will teach 9 year olds how to use a condom. Neither does it promote sexual activity among the youth or promote promiscuity among adults.”

Hmm, thoughts?

Contraception and reproductive health is not a modern anomaly. This website shows practices of contraception and reproductive health from the medieval ages.

“Each time those women have sexual intercourse, those who wish not to be with child put a teaspoonful of the seeds, saved from the autumn harvest, in a glass of water and drink it.” (Riddle, 1992, p.325) To determine if this form of contraception worked, medieval physicians performed experiments with mice, and it was viewed as a promising substance to prevent preganancy.”

A very good example of faith and reason at work.

Last July 11, 2008. The very first Manila family planning fair was held.

John Rock was baptised Catholic, and was a pioneer behind stem cell research and birth control. This is the story of his struggle with his faith, science, the church, and what we didn’t know then. Written by Malcolm Gladwell.

“Rock, his friends would say, was in love with his church. He was also one of the inventors of the birth-control pill, and it was his conviction that his faith and his vocation were perfectly compatible. To anyone who disagreed he would simply repeat the words spoken to him as a child by his home-town priest: ‘John, always stick to your conscience. Never let anyone else keep it for you. And I mean anyone else.’”

With Denmark being the first country to legalize pornography and same-sex unions, it seems understandable that a Danish author, Per Holm Knudsen, wrote How a Baby Is Made (originally titled The True Story of How Babies are Made, published in 1973) - an extremely detailed children’s book about the very happy process of making a baby.