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News > Daily Service > PHILIPPINES Comment
PHILIPPINES Catholics Sign Church Position Paper Opposing Reproductive Health Bill
September 11, 2008 | PL05731.1514 | 699 words Text size

PARANAQUE CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- Noemi Poblador was one of 127 Catholics at a
recent parish meeting who signed a Church position paper opposing a proposed law on
population, parenting and reproductive health.
 They joined the signature campaign started by the
Philippine bishops' Commission on Family and Life
against passage of House of Representatives Bill 5043
after an Aug. 20 lecture at Presentation of the Child
Jesus Parish in Paranaque City, south of Manila. Father
Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the bishops'
commission on family life, delivered the lecture.

On Sept. 9, Macy Vernilio of Congressman Edcel

Lagman's office told UCA News the House Committee
on Rules approved the bill that day for plenary
deliberations. House committees on health, and on
population and family relations had already approved
the bill, which incorporates a draft Lagman proposed.

Poblador told UCA News she signed the paper because

there is "no way" she would give government a "free
hand" in the sex education of her nieces. The single, 50-
year-old parish lay-formation planner lives together with her 7- and 8-year-old nieces, their
parents and their grandmother.

She maintains sex education must be taught from the perspective of values and is primarily the
responsibility of parents. She does not want her nieces to develop the "contraceptive mentality"
she believes the advocates of the reproductive health bill are promoting.

Father Castro explained the proposed law titled "An Act Providing for a National Policy on
Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development and for Other
Purposes" consolidates four bills titled Responsible Parenthood and Population Development Act
of 2007, The Reproductive Health Care Act, The Women's Right to Know Act and Reproductive
Health Care Structures.

Father Castro noted while its proponents say overpopulation is aggravating poverty in the
country, government reports that the Philippines population growth rate has declined.

National Statistical Coordination Board data show the average annual growth rate between 2000
and 2007 declined to 2.04 percent from 2.36 percent between 1995 and 2000. The statistical
board projects an average rate of 1.95 percent for the 2005-2010 period.

The priest warned the forum that even if the bill does not explicitly advocate legalizing abortion,
"reproductive health" and "reproductive rights" are terms used by international agencies and
NGOs to give "universal access to abortion." Abortion is illegal in the Philippines.

The bill states among its aims preventing abortion, managing reproductive tract infections,
HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted disease, protecting and promoting equal gender rights,
empowering women and counseling on sexuality. It mandates reproductive health education for
youth.
Specifying that the ideal family size is two children, it explains this is not mandatory and no
punitive actions will be taken against those who choose to have more than two.

Father Castro also reported having seen teaching programs for sixth-graders in provincial public
schools that teach young couples to avoid pregnancy and use artificial contraception for "safe
sex."

Cathy Tillah and her husband, Rommel, who head the parish's Commission on Youth, attended
the talk and signed the Church's position paper. Cathy told UCA News the bill's "contraceptive
mentality" is based on a "wrong sense of freedom" that promotes promiscuity. She worries this
could lead young people to get an abortion when contraception fails. In her view sex education
must be based on "sacredness of the body" rather than prevention of pregnancy.

Since July, Father Castro has been speaking around the country, after which he invites people to
sign the position paper. He is still collecting signatures and plans to submit them to the House of
Representatives at the end of this month to "pressure legislators" as they consider the bill.

Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila recently affirmed the Church wants "our congressmen
and -women to observe and respect the will of God and the nature of man and woman." He was
speaking at the Sept. 8 launch of a seven-part DVD series titled SAFE (Subtle Attacks against
the Family Explained).

The Church permits only natural family-planning methods. In the Philippines, where Catholics
form 82 percent of the population, 49.3 percent of 50,000 women surveyed by the National
Statistics Office in 2005 reported they tried in some way to prevent conception. Among this
group, 36 percent said they used pills or other forms of artificial contraception.

END

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