I came across a  front page  article in  a newspaper February 20, 2011, “Communion ban decried, denied” stating  that “a group of women advocates working with grassroots communities is angry over reports that a certain parish (unspecified) has initiated denying communion to Reproductive Health supporters.  The Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines cried foul over this initiative and called on Catholic RH supporters to defy the ban.”  But Church officials denied it as black propaganda.  Sabi ni Elizabeth Angsioco, DSWP National Chairman that it’s “totally unfair and detestable” at “coercion” daw.

I recently had a guest, a lady-lawyer friend from Spain sent to Manila by the Spanish government to attend a conference on the RH Bill.  She is a doctorate degree holder from Colombia University and a member of the faculty of a university in Spain.  She left Manila after five days worried and disappointed because, according to her, there is no legal international Treaty on Human Rights recognizing the term “reproductive rights;” that “reproductive health” is part of the right to health which covers services and programs for the whole vital cycle.  She further told me that she is worried that Congress might pass the Bill.

According to her, the RH Bill No. 96 has some references that are not in accordance with some of the United Nations instruments such as:

a) The main responsibility of parents with respect to education of their children;

b) The protection of children against interferences from the State; and that

c) The definition and content of the term “Reproductive Health” is not a new right but part of the right to health.

Anyway, I mention what I gathered from an outside observer who feels that there is something going on in Congress regarding the RH Bill that is not quite in order.

It is common knowledge that I am not a supporter of the RH Bill.  I am totally opposed to it for many reasons which I need not reiterate again and again.  Briefly, I sincerely believe that those who support the RH Bill would have been the ones aborted by their parents. If their parents used artificial contraceptives, they probably would not even have been born at all.

To end this endless discussion, let me just refer those in favor of the RH Bill to a very comprehensive study done by the University of the Philippines featured in this newspaper not too long ago.  It’s a two-part series entitled “UP Community explains stand on RH Bill,” published last December 29 and December 30, 2010.  This says it all; and I fully agree with the study made, point by point by the faculty, students, and alumni of the University of the Philippines http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/upiansonrhbill.

Let me quote some portions of the article:

“As faculty members, students, and alumni of the University of the Philippines, we state here the bases of our objection to the Reproductive Health bills (HB 96 and its related bills) that are being deliberated under your supervision.  Given the secular background of UP education, we put forward arguments from reason, to wit:

Population is not an obstacle to development.  The bills assume that a nation’s population hinders its development… Nobel Prize winner Simon Kuznets saw that the basic obstacles to economic growth arise from the limited capabilities of the institutions political, social, legal, cultural, economic) to adjust…  Fertility rates in the Philippines are progressively decreasing… Our Total Fertility Rate is

expected to reach the replacement level of 2.1 in 2025 without massive government intervention like the passing of a population control or RH bill.  The passing of an RH bill will only accelerate this…  Many of these countries are now asking their people to have more children.  Why then are our legislators thinking of cutting down our best asset – our people?. Another study by Moreno et al. in the Lancet also points to an increase risk of cervical cancer with OCP use…  OCPs have also been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular  diseases, especially venous thrombosis and ischemic stroke.  Will our government legislate a bill that will use taxpayers’ money to further expose women to all these risks?  It is not the State’s job to facilitate access to what is harmful…

What the government should do is craft laws that prevent people from harming themselves… We urge the legislators to dump the contentions and flawed RH bills and to pass more bills strengthening the Filipino family, protecting its citizens against the risks of contraception.” 

To me, the RH Bill is pure and simple genocide disguised as Reproductive Health Bill.        

It would be a good idea for the members of Congress to go over this two-part series so they may know what others who may be more intelligent than them have to say about the RH Bill.  To think that it had to come from U.P. a bastion of liberalism, independent thinkers, without biases but pure and simple facts which are undisputable.  Read it again and again for you might learn something from it.

Other newspapers should reprint this two-part series now that the RH Bill issue is in full swing in Congress.

I congratulate the People’s Journal for accommodating the two-part series which the big and powerful broadsheets did not have the good sense of publishing. As always, they want to be on the “safe” side.        

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