POVERTY & REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL

by Earlie Doriman

The Philippines’ consolidated RH Bill (HB No. 4244 & SB No. 2378) called “An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population Development and for other Purposes”; is a challenging subject of debate not only between the legislators but also amongst ordinary Filipino citizens. Observers and writers consider it as a ‘culture war’. The bill intends to guarantee a convenient access to modern methods and information on birth control, maternal and child health.

 To mention some of its important provisions, the RH Bill mandates the government to promote, without bias, all effective methods of family planning both natural and artificial; those that are medically harmless and lawful. It calls for the inclusion of reproductive health and sexuality education in the national curriculum from Grade 5 (11 years old) to Senior high school (16-17 years old). And under the bill, it will authorize a multi-dimensional approach to integrate family planning and responsible parenthood into all government anti-poverty programs.

Role of the Church

The Philippines, being a predominantly Christian nation has always been a tough opposition to artificial family planning even in the early 1960’s. On the other hand, it is one of the poorest and most populated countries in the world. Throughout the country’s political history, the Catholic Church has a voice that is as important as the constitution and its influence to public life and opinion has rooted ever since Christianity conquered this archipelago. 
To the many political issues and episodes in the past, the church played an active role as an advocate, or participant, or supporter, or adversary to these reforms and changes. The bloodless EDSA Revolution in 1986 that overthrew the Marcos dictatorship, was a remarkable triumph in which the Catholic Church and other religious groups braved to achieve.

But political matters should not always be interfered by the church. The government has its own authority to decide what it deemed best for its people through proper, humane, and fair legislation, and implementation. In the long term, the RH Bill aims to uplift quality of life. Whilst it is very difficult to separate the church from the matters concerning the state, it is but gracious for the church leaders to respect the freedom of choice of these 82% Filipino Catholics. They can always express their thoughts and opposition against the government, but at the end of the day, it is these concerned families that see what they need and decide according to their conscience.

I Am No Bible Scholar

I am a Catholic and my faith has always been an integral part of my life and the way I build relationships with others. I do not find it strange if the Church leaders, as legitimate representations of God’s teachings, express their opinion of what they believed as righteous and moral. But there is a border to how they should influence believers to follow them. The church leaders should not coerce or intimidate Christians to follow their personal views and understanding of a political issue. 
Direct attack to persons and organizations during the Homily is abysmal since the Eucharist is a celebration of Christ’s life. What they are supposed to do is to continue being good examples of God’s works and words so that Christians would learn through their wisdom and character and decide according to the truth about God’s law that glimmers through the examples of church leaders.

Does that make me a lesser Catholic because I favour the RH Bill? I am no bible scholar so I could not interpret the words of the scripture intelligently with regard to this. I do read the bible and I try to understand it by the heart and so far, I have not come across verses that speak about the sin of planning a family, be it natural or artificial. What I know is God’s blessing of procreation and I understand too that this command was given when there was not enough population on Earth and that the old civilization was not afflicted with so much poverty. 
I do not think God would be pleased to see his people suffering from a cause that could have been prevented. Poverty is one of these causes. To my humble understanding, family planning as an approach to responsible parenthood helps each unit of the society to feel dignified and protected. God wants his people to be treated with dignity and affection. Every one deserves quality of life. With so much poverty plus a jumbo size family, there is a very little chance to attend the need of every child, impossible to give everyone a fair attention and decent care. An institution that is responsible to look after the welfare of its citizens could not just address enough because the root cause is not treated upon. So then, does my understanding of the scripture cut my line to heaven?

Poverty is Not the Only Malady

Poverty is both social and economic condition; which is repairable. To start healing this disease, a collective endeavour must be carried out. Planning a family is a long, healthy, and morally upright decision responsive to that curing process. As to the kind of method to use, it is an individual’s good judgment to make. The RH Bill does not enforce a single method, but it does promote alternatives for the family to choose. When information becomes accessible; and proper education to young people forms part of the system, the discernment to conscientiousness follows naturally.

Whilst it is true that the poor are just victims of poverty, we could not set aside the fact that most big families belong to the poorest sector of the society. These are the ones who could not provide healthy food for their children; who have no capacity to send them to higher education; and who remain uninformed about responsible parenthood. If the couple think that it is wrong to use artificial contraception, the RH Bill allows them to use what they believe does not crack the sensitivity of their faith and belief.

But poverty alone is not too bad the government could resolve. There are more serious culprit inimical to providing quality services to people. The gross negligence to countryside development, disgraceful corruption, misappropriation of funds, the bad mathematics of centralized government, inability of the national policies to provide useful training and employment, are just few to mention. Poor people have practically no access to higher education. How could an out-of-school citizen get a decent-paying job in a discriminatingly prejudicial Manila? 

It is Not Over Population

Population explosion is not the main issue. I support the RH Bill but I absolutely disagree when its supporters insist that overpopulation is a primary reason. Whilst it is true that Manila and most cities in the National Capital Region (NCR) are so densely populated, this area is geographically less than a quarter of the combined land area of the whole archipelago. Travel around the country and its countryside, one would definitely realize that there is more than enough land to scatter the 90 million Filipinos; which are mostly crowding in the highly urbanized metropolis.

The country is endowed with substantial fertile land that grows anything. The potential to become an agricultural tiger should be a priority for government reforms. These lands if used productively and development is evenly distributed across the country, the higher percentage of Pinoys have something to do to improve life rather than stay at home, drink local wine, and wait for the night to come.

The inequity of budget distribution throughout, left most areas horribly underdeveloped. The pork barrel of the senators who are mostly from Luzon is a futile government spending. This budget could have more meaning for rural development and agricultural advancement. People are misguided to the notion that there is better life in the city, so families who are not trained and encouraged to embrace rural life would leave and follow the miserable fate in urban centres.  The problem lies in the government’s failure to provide basic infrastructures like travelable ‘farm-to-market’ roads (not the muddy, bulldozer-finished ones) and technologically-advanced farming equipment.

Walking What You Talk

For the Catholic leaders of CBCP (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines), which seem truly upright to condemn RH Bill, I challenge them to share life in the squatters or to live in the most impoverish shanties in the slums of Manila. I challenge them to go out and eat what the poorest Filipinos eat so they will realize how despicable life has been to these people. Or perhaps adopt all the abandoned and inadequately supported children including those street gangs risking their lives on the streets. Probably, they could build free colleges to provide education to unfortunate children and make for them a better future.

They have been preaching justice and love but have not even understood what injustice and abandonment means. These religious leaders could not understand deeply poverty because they live a pampered life in the church. If they insist to be so righteous in this regard then they must give up first their convenience and solve poverty by themselves instead of barking mad against a hopeful start. “Consistency!How much we need. To walk a measured pace, To live a life of which we speak. Until we see Christ’s face - Anonymous”.

Family planning does not need much research and cross-country analysis to prove that it works. Common sense is enough that every family needs to limit the number of children that they should have, enough so they are fed well, they could get good education, they could live a better shelter. Since most poor couples are naïve on how to control the family size, educating the uninformed is the most righteous and moral thing to do.