Senator Pia Cayetano alerts the public in disagreement with the critics of the reproductive health bill on all the false claims regarding what the bill states. It also includes the alleged means of promoting abortion.
The senator, who is the chairwoman of the committee on health and demography has also arranged hearings on the pressing issues regarding the RH bill. It includes the version of the RH bill that was filed by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
Up to date statements were also received by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago that was handed by President Ninoy Aquino who also supports the bill. A term that Malacanang have formulated for the Republic Health Bill is called the Responsible Parenthood.
Senator Miriam Defensor- Santiago showed a great deal of optimism for the support from President Noynoy Aquino which in hope would increase the possibility of the bill being passed into law under the administration of the president.
Senator Pia Cayetano responded with, “I laud P-Noy for having the conviction and courage required of a true leader to support a measure that is vital to save the lives of women, the unborn and the newborn”
However, she wants the public to be informed that they should not believe all things they hear about from the side who are against it because it is very misleading, especially when the information comes from its critics.
She utters, “Contrary to the misinformation campaign being spread by some, the reproductive healthy bill pending in the Senate does not allow abortion and will not force any contraceptive method on anyone”
Furthermore, she also stated that “The measure will respect the moral conviction and religious beliefs of all, but at the same time, protect the unborn child by providing health services for the pregnant mother and likewise save the lives of mothers from dying at childbirth,”
The United Nations have estimated that 11 mothers die each day from complications of childbirth, according to Senator Pia Cayetano. As mentioned in the bill, people will not be forced to use contraceptive. Its availability will just be for everybody and they would still have the choice whether to utilize it or not.
Aside from this, if the bill is passed it would expand the still in progress program of the government of supplementing contraceptives to the poor couples who cannot buy them.
Here are some of the statements the government officials say about the Bill:
Senator Lacson: “he is against abortion but favors a population management program that follows moral standards”
Vice President Jejomar Binay: “opposes abortion but said women must be given the freedom to plan their pregnancies.”
Cardinal Jose Sanchez said: “If there are bills contradictory to the Catholic teachings, I would go to these congressmen on by one to enlighten them with the Catholic teachings and they would easily agree with me. And as friends, they would find it hard to go against the bishop”
These are some of the stands of our local government officials in help for you guys to decide which side you would be on.
REFERENCE:
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=679002&publicationSubCategoryId=63
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Arguments of the Church
To balance it out, here are some of the arguments presented by the church why they are extremely against the bill.
1. The RH bill contraceptives that cause abortion…
- A unanimous response from the medical experts that include doctors from Harvard Medical School and the May Clinic during the 8th day hearing of the US Senate, a life begins at fertilization, this is when a sperm starts to penetrate the egg. Contraceptives hinder this from happening.
PMA (The Philippines Medical Association), considered the biggest organization of medical practitioners in the country, by way of its distinct society the Philippines Obstretrical and Gynecological Society got Dr.Sylvia Carnero to be its represented president and mentions “life begins at fertilization” at a consultation meeting with the CBCP.
2. Contraceptives endangers health…
- A report was submitted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2007 that contraceptive pills causes cancer due to its high level of carcinogenicity, the same component that is found in cigarettes and asbestos. Aside from this, they claim that is it also one of the sources for stroke as it relatively make the chances of getting heart attacks high.
3. Budget complications…
- The bill demands a budget to obtain free “harmful and deadly” contraceptives from the American multi-national businesses that benefits only the U.S while the budgets for more important causes like the education and food are going to be given less budget for.
4. Promotion of sexual promiscuity leads to…
- RH bill tolerates and promotes sexual promiscuity because of the use of contraceptives. This results in destruction of families, the increase reports of HIV cases, as well as the illegitimate and fatherless children, youth deviancy, more of the single mothers in our country, and increase the number of teenage pregnancies leading to the increase of abortion.
Nobel prize winner, Geroge Akerlof states that “promotion of contraceptives bring about the downgrading of marriage, more extramarital sex, more fatherless children, and more single mothers.” This is due to the chances of men taking an advantage of this privilege. Same goes for the Harvard Director for AIDS prevention, Edward C. Green. Making the condoms available make it easier for people to take greater sexual risks, making the spread of the disease worse.
Another study by Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer goes…
“Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer, Director of AIDS-Free Philippines, said that in 1987, Thailand had 112 AIDS cases, more or less the same number as the Philippines (135). By the year 2003, there were around 750,000 cases in Thailand, where there was an intense campaign for the "100% Condom Use Program", while there were only 1,935 cases in the Philippines, whose population is around 30% greater than Thailand's.”
One more study that makes it all the more reasonable why the bill should not be implemented was the one done in 2003. The results presented that there was a continuous increase of abortion rates and contraceptive use in the US, Cuba, Denmark, Netherlands, Singpaore and South Korea.
1. The RH bill contraceptives that cause abortion…
- A unanimous response from the medical experts that include doctors from Harvard Medical School and the May Clinic during the 8th day hearing of the US Senate, a life begins at fertilization, this is when a sperm starts to penetrate the egg. Contraceptives hinder this from happening.
PMA (The Philippines Medical Association), considered the biggest organization of medical practitioners in the country, by way of its distinct society the Philippines Obstretrical and Gynecological Society got Dr.Sylvia Carnero to be its represented president and mentions “life begins at fertilization” at a consultation meeting with the CBCP.
2. Contraceptives endangers health…
- A report was submitted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2007 that contraceptive pills causes cancer due to its high level of carcinogenicity, the same component that is found in cigarettes and asbestos. Aside from this, they claim that is it also one of the sources for stroke as it relatively make the chances of getting heart attacks high.
3. Budget complications…
- The bill demands a budget to obtain free “harmful and deadly” contraceptives from the American multi-national businesses that benefits only the U.S while the budgets for more important causes like the education and food are going to be given less budget for.
4. Promotion of sexual promiscuity leads to…
- RH bill tolerates and promotes sexual promiscuity because of the use of contraceptives. This results in destruction of families, the increase reports of HIV cases, as well as the illegitimate and fatherless children, youth deviancy, more of the single mothers in our country, and increase the number of teenage pregnancies leading to the increase of abortion.
Nobel prize winner, Geroge Akerlof states that “promotion of contraceptives bring about the downgrading of marriage, more extramarital sex, more fatherless children, and more single mothers.” This is due to the chances of men taking an advantage of this privilege. Same goes for the Harvard Director for AIDS prevention, Edward C. Green. Making the condoms available make it easier for people to take greater sexual risks, making the spread of the disease worse.
Another study by Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer goes…
“Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer, Director of AIDS-Free Philippines, said that in 1987, Thailand had 112 AIDS cases, more or less the same number as the Philippines (135). By the year 2003, there were around 750,000 cases in Thailand, where there was an intense campaign for the "100% Condom Use Program", while there were only 1,935 cases in the Philippines, whose population is around 30% greater than Thailand's.”
One more study that makes it all the more reasonable why the bill should not be implemented was the one done in 2003. The results presented that there was a continuous increase of abortion rates and contraceptive use in the US, Cuba, Denmark, Netherlands, Singpaore and South Korea.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
The continuation of the previous blog.
4. Promote Equity for poor families
- The RH indicator presents the intense inequities between the people who are rich and poor. An example mentioned was, 94% of women belonging to the upper class have a skilled and good attendant at birth comparing to the 26% from the people who in the lower class. This gap is what explains the reason why the people who are wealthy barely go beyond the number of children they planned to have and while the poor people go beyond the number of children they are capable to have.
5. Prevent induced abortions
- Unpremeditated pregnancies come before almost all the induced abortions. Among all these unwanted pregnancies, 68% happen to women without knowing anything about the family method, and 24% happened to the people using tradition family planning like the withdrawal or calendar abstinence. If modern family planning is used by the people who are willing to give it time or put a stop on wrong timing child bearing, the abortion rate would fall by more or less 500,000- that is clost to 90% of the estimated total.
6. Support and deploy more public midwives, nurses and doctors.
- The health service of the RH bill is demanded for people who are attempting to have a family. For example, a report by the MDG Task Force stresses on the need for having a fulltime midwife to attend to every 100 to 200 annual live births. While other healthy staff will be needed to attend to the millions who need before birth and after birth care, the baby care and of course, family planning. To invest in the center concerns of public health staff, the fundamental needs of many people will be served.
7. Guarantee funding for and equal access to health facilities
- When the bill is passed there will be a lot of support that RH will need for the many hospitals. It includes all health facilities in the barangays for the basic prenatal, baby and family planning care.
8.Give accurate and positive sexuality education to young people.
- There are a great number of young people who enter relationship, as well as marriage even without the being aware of its responsibilities. It then results to jeopardizing their future, health and sometimes their own life. RH bills prepares and gives more awareness to people who its effects.
9. Reduce cancer deaths
- With delaying sex and avoiding different partners or utilizing condoms they help avert genital warts or HPV. People must know that contraceptive does not increase the chances of getting cancer, when these pills are combines it actually reduces the chance of endometrial and ovarian cancers.
10. Save money that can be used for even more social spending.
- Being certain that modern use of family planning for all who needs it would rise up the spending from php1.9 B to php4.0 B, and the medical expenditure costs for unwanted pregnancies would be lowered to 3B to .6B, making a net saving of .8B.
“SPEND MORE FOR THE HEALTH AND EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE”
Reference:
http://www.likhaan.org/content/ten-good-reasons-pass-rh-bill-now
http://www.doh.gov.ph/files/phs2005.pdf
http://www.who.int/making_pregnancy_safer/documents/birth_spacing.pdf
http://www.measuredhs.com/countries/metadata.cfm?surv_id=298&ctry_id=34&SrvyTp=ctry&cn=Philippines
4. Promote Equity for poor families
- The RH indicator presents the intense inequities between the people who are rich and poor. An example mentioned was, 94% of women belonging to the upper class have a skilled and good attendant at birth comparing to the 26% from the people who in the lower class. This gap is what explains the reason why the people who are wealthy barely go beyond the number of children they planned to have and while the poor people go beyond the number of children they are capable to have.
5. Prevent induced abortions
- Unpremeditated pregnancies come before almost all the induced abortions. Among all these unwanted pregnancies, 68% happen to women without knowing anything about the family method, and 24% happened to the people using tradition family planning like the withdrawal or calendar abstinence. If modern family planning is used by the people who are willing to give it time or put a stop on wrong timing child bearing, the abortion rate would fall by more or less 500,000- that is clost to 90% of the estimated total.
6. Support and deploy more public midwives, nurses and doctors.
- The health service of the RH bill is demanded for people who are attempting to have a family. For example, a report by the MDG Task Force stresses on the need for having a fulltime midwife to attend to every 100 to 200 annual live births. While other healthy staff will be needed to attend to the millions who need before birth and after birth care, the baby care and of course, family planning. To invest in the center concerns of public health staff, the fundamental needs of many people will be served.
7. Guarantee funding for and equal access to health facilities
- When the bill is passed there will be a lot of support that RH will need for the many hospitals. It includes all health facilities in the barangays for the basic prenatal, baby and family planning care.
8.Give accurate and positive sexuality education to young people.
- There are a great number of young people who enter relationship, as well as marriage even without the being aware of its responsibilities. It then results to jeopardizing their future, health and sometimes their own life. RH bills prepares and gives more awareness to people who its effects.
9. Reduce cancer deaths
- With delaying sex and avoiding different partners or utilizing condoms they help avert genital warts or HPV. People must know that contraceptive does not increase the chances of getting cancer, when these pills are combines it actually reduces the chance of endometrial and ovarian cancers.
10. Save money that can be used for even more social spending.
- Being certain that modern use of family planning for all who needs it would rise up the spending from php1.9 B to php4.0 B, and the medical expenditure costs for unwanted pregnancies would be lowered to 3B to .6B, making a net saving of .8B.
Reference:
http://www.likhaan.org/content/ten-good-reasons-pass-rh-bill-now
http://www.doh.gov.ph/files/phs2005.pdf
http://www.who.int/making_pregnancy_safer/documents/birth_spacing.pdf
http://www.measuredhs.com/countries/metadata.cfm?surv_id=298&ctry_id=34&SrvyTp=ctry&cn=Philippines
Going with the flow of being a pro
The people for the implementation of the RH bill in our country stress on the fact that the Philippines have a lot of rooms for improvement and this is the one room that needs to be given a little more priority on. A BIG and INTENSE reality check is what the people working in the government needs to remind and show its people. Only then the Filipinos can work as a country and realize that our beloved country is broken, that is why drastic changes and bills like this must be implemented.
According to the Ikhaan- Center for Women’s Health Incorporation there are ten good reasons why the RH Bill must be approved. The reasons are the following:
1. Protect the health and lives of mothers
- Our WHO (World Health Organization) calculates the difficulties that raises up in 15% of pregnancies, which results are severe enough to get these women hospitalized or killed. There are 2 million plus live births day and 300,000 maternal complications happen yearly. Which makes it 7 times the DOH’s annual count for the arousing disease of TB (Tuberculosis), 19 times for the people who have heart diseases, and 20 times for the people who have malaria (only for the women). The result? More than 11 needlessly women die every day. For women to be saved from maternal complications family planning is one of the best preventative measures.
2. Save babies
- Going through the normal way of giving birth reduces the death of infants. WHO utters that at least 2 years should be the time lapse between the birth and the coming pregnancy. One will notice that in our country this advice is not really follwed. They follow with also mentioning that “the infant mortality rate of those with less than 2 years birth interval is twice as compared to those with 3” If the RH bill will become a law, practicing the family method advices will be more effective and will result to less chances of the next newborn baby to die.
3. Respond to the majority who want smaller families
- According to WHO couples and women in this generation hearts having small families. They were surveyed about their ideal number of kids and the results show that women in their 40s want to have kids above 3, but those in their teens and early 20s want just more than 2. Furthermore, couples end up having a family that is larger than what they have expected. While on the average Filipino women desires having children close to 2 but ends up with 3. The gap between the wanted and the actual number of family members are showed in all the social classes and regions, however, one will notice that the biggest is among those who are in poverty.
As for the seven other reasons for the side of people for the RH bill, it will be definitely here on my next blog. HANG ON!
According to the Ikhaan- Center for Women’s Health Incorporation there are ten good reasons why the RH Bill must be approved. The reasons are the following:
1. Protect the health and lives of mothers
- Our WHO (World Health Organization) calculates the difficulties that raises up in 15% of pregnancies, which results are severe enough to get these women hospitalized or killed. There are 2 million plus live births day and 300,000 maternal complications happen yearly. Which makes it 7 times the DOH’s annual count for the arousing disease of TB (Tuberculosis), 19 times for the people who have heart diseases, and 20 times for the people who have malaria (only for the women). The result? More than 11 needlessly women die every day. For women to be saved from maternal complications family planning is one of the best preventative measures.
2. Save babies
- Going through the normal way of giving birth reduces the death of infants. WHO utters that at least 2 years should be the time lapse between the birth and the coming pregnancy. One will notice that in our country this advice is not really follwed. They follow with also mentioning that “the infant mortality rate of those with less than 2 years birth interval is twice as compared to those with 3” If the RH bill will become a law, practicing the family method advices will be more effective and will result to less chances of the next newborn baby to die.
3. Respond to the majority who want smaller families
- According to WHO couples and women in this generation hearts having small families. They were surveyed about their ideal number of kids and the results show that women in their 40s want to have kids above 3, but those in their teens and early 20s want just more than 2. Furthermore, couples end up having a family that is larger than what they have expected. While on the average Filipino women desires having children close to 2 but ends up with 3. The gap between the wanted and the actual number of family members are showed in all the social classes and regions, however, one will notice that the biggest is among those who are in poverty.
As for the seven other reasons for the side of people for the RH bill, it will be definitely here on my next blog. HANG ON!
Monday, May 30, 2011
An introduction to the RH bill
In has been a national debate in the Philippines whether or not the government should approve the RH bill which aims to ensure a universal access to all the methods and facts about birth control as well as maternal awareness. Aside from this bill that Senator Meriam Defensor Santiago have made there is another bill that shares the same goal and was proposed by Albay’s 1st district Representative Edcel Lagmanwhich is the House Bill No. 4244 also known as the Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and For Other Purposes.
One of the major reasons why the bill is not yet implemented in the country is because of the Filipino taxpayers and the private sector that will get affected. They will be one of the sources for funds on this bill, the people who will undergo the distribution of all the family planning tools like the birth control pills or the intrauterine device (a form of birth control). While the government works to distribute all information on the contraceptives use through all the public and private hospitals in the country. The people who will be required to participate in this bill will come from all the public and private companies, as well as the public and private elementary and high school institutions for them to know how overpopulation can be controlled.
When the government and church is in conflict, anything the both sides do will be very scandalous which makes the bill one of the most controversial issues in the country. Even when experts in the top universities have analyzed the pros and cons of this bill and the religious institutions giving all the reasons why this bill should never be implemented, it will still be a fight for the people supporting this bill to be approved.
According to former President Fidel V. Ramos to the new representative of the church, Saranggani Representative Manny Pacquiao he should help the public understand the both sides first. And Manny Pacquiao refutes by saying that choosing to side with the bishops was his way of expressing his freedom of choice and expression. I mentioned this in this blog because I think getting an opinion from someone very influential will help the readers figure out which side they would like to take on as well as for myself.
In the upcoming posts there will be a much more detailed entry about the pros first on this issue. I will be presenting the arguments and reasons from the people supporting the bill and move on to the arguments and reasons from the people against the bill. If ability and connections allow me too, I will surely share some interesting pieces of information I found if there are any hidden reasons or agendas from both sides why this bill has been prolonged for so long. My blogsite will be like a weighing scale and it will be up to the readers whether they will be for and against the bill. As for me, I have yet to figure that out.
REFERENCE:
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