This is an article repost.
MANILA, Philippines – House leaders yesterday assured supporters and critics of the Reproductive Health bill of fair floor debates on the controversial measure.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said lawmakers are working on some ground rules to make the debates orderly adding that there would be no railroading of the measure despite its being on the Aquino administration’s priority list.
House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II said the procedure for deliberating on the measure would not be as fast as many would like to believe because there would still be a period of amendments.
Belmonte said lawmakers opposed to the RH bill are unlikely to change their position just because of President Aquino’s endorsement of the measure.
“This is personal, personal to their beliefs and conscience to lawmakers but that’s good because it gives us time to allow it to progress,” he said.
At the Senate, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said the chamber’s version of the measure does not promote abortion and in fact seeks to reduce cases of the illegal practice.
“In addition to reducing maternal and child deaths during delivery, family planning would prevent not only unwanted and high risk pregnancies, but also abortion,” she said. “Under the Penal Code, abortion is a crime, and it will remain a crime under the RH bill. In fact, one important reason to pass the RH bill is that it will reduce abortions,” Santiago said in her sponsorship speech.
“The Act will provide full information to any mother on the entire menu of family planning options, making it unnecessary for the mother to resort to abortion. Hence, pregnancy will result in a wanted child, not an unwanted child that the mother might be forced to abort,” she added.
According to Santiago, one of three unplanned pregnancies in the country end in abortion with the number of induced abortions up to 473,400 in 2004 compared to 400,000 in 1994.
Nine out of 10 women who resort to induced abortions are married women, 87 percent of whom are Catholics.
“These statistics lead to the question of how the government should prevent maternal death. The obvious answer is that government should provide access to skilled care during pregnancy, during childbirth, and during at least the first months after delivery,” she said. “Poor women are more at risk of dying from pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications.”
Santiago said that statistics also show that voluntary family planning reduces deaths, lowers fertility rate, and reduces poverty incidence.
On the issue of contraceptives, Santiago pointed out that it has been established that these are not abortifacients.
“A position paper on reproduction issued by international organizations and released by the World Health Organization categorically stated: ‘none of these methods have been shown to cause the abortion of an implanted fetus. Therefore they cannot be labeled as abortifacients.’ The position paper covered virtually all the methods of contraception,” she said.
Santiago said that the question of when life really begins in the context of abortion should no longer be debated because even the doctors and scientists do not know the answer.
“It would be presumptuous for legislators to settle this question by the expedient of parliamentary debate. We cannot settle a scientific issue by spouting anecdotal evidence to support a layman’s view,” Santiago said.
Santiago also argued that the provision on “sexuality education” in the bill would also have significant positive impact on the youth, particularly in preventing risky sexual behavior and even unwanted pregnancies.
“Sexuality education does not encourage promiscuity among the youth. On the contrary, if young people know more about sexual health, they are even more likely to postpone sexual initiation,” Santiago said.
“Mistimed or unwanted pregnancies result in health risks which are higher for adolescent mothers. They are more likely to have complications during labor,” she said. “Unwanted pregnancies compel society to pay a social cost. Parents who are able to plan their families are usually able to raise and educate them. But poor families who cannot plan their families have to rely on government for education, health and other goods and services,” she added.
As a tool for development and poverty reduction, Santiago said the RH bill is of great importance.
She said that the country needs a population policy, as well as a government-funded family planning program.
“A rapidly growing population has a negative impact on economic development. Rapid population growth is largely caused by the least urbanized, least educated, and poorest segments of our population,” she said.
“Getting out of poverty becomes difficult with larger family size. Poverty is strongly affected by population growth. Lower birth rates and slower population growth rate over the last three decades contributed to faster economic progress in developing countries,” she added.
==============================================================================
By: Paolo Romero with Marvin Sy
Source: The Philippine Star, Aug. 19, 2011
To view the original article, click here.
Comment here