RH bill .... your CHOICE!!!

RH DOES …

1. Protect the health & lives of mothers

The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that complications arise in 15% of pregnancies, serious enough to hospitalize or kill women. From the 2 million plus live births alone, some 300,000 maternal complications occur yearly. This is 7 times the DOH’s annual count for TB, 19 times for heart diseases, and 20 times for malaria in women. As a result, more than 11 women die needlessly each day.
Adequate number of skilled birth attendants and prompt referral to hospitals with emergency obstetric care are proven life-saving solutions to maternal complications. For women who wish to stop childbearing, family planning (FP) is the best preventive measure. All 3 interventions are part of RH.

2. Save babies

Proper birth spacing reduces infant deaths. The WHO says at least 2 years should pass between a birth and the next pregnancy. In our country, the infant mortality rate of those with less than 2 years birth interval is twice those with 3. The more effective and user-friendly the FP method used, the greater the chances of the next child to survive.

3. Respond to the majority who want smaller families

Couples and women nowadays want smaller families. When surveyed about their ideal number of children, women in their 40s want slightly more than 3, but those in their teens and early 20s want just slightly more than 2.
Moreover, couples end up with families larger than what they desire. On average, Filipino women want close to 2 children but end up with 3. This gap between desired and actual family size is present in all social classes and regions, but is biggest among those who are poor.

4. Promote equity for poor families

RH indicators show severe inequities between the rich and poor. For example, 94% of women in the richest quintile have a skilled attendant at birth compared to only 26% in the poorest. The richest have 3 times higher tubal ligation rates compared to the poorest. This equity gap in tubal ligation partly explains why the wealthy hardly exceed their planned number of children, while the poorest get an extra 2. Infant deaths among the poorest are almost 3 times compared to the richest, which partly explains why the poor plan for more children. An RH law will promote equity in health through stronger public health services accessible to poor families.

5. Prevent induced abortions

Unintended pregnancies precede almost all induced abortions. Of all unintended pregnancies, 68% occur in women without any FP method, and 24% happen to those using traditional FP like withdrawal or calendar-abstinence.
If all those who want to space or stop childbearing would use modern FP, abortions would fall by some 500,000—close to 90% of the estimated total. In our country where abortion is strictly criminalized, and where 90,000 women are hospitalized yearly for complications, it would be reckless and heartless not to ensure prevention through FP.

6. Support and deploy more public midwives, nurses and doctors

RH health services are needed wherever people are establishing their families. For example, a report by the MDG Task Force points out the need for 1 fulltime midwife to attend to every 100 to 200 annual live births. Other health staff are needed for the millions who need prenatal and postpartum care, infant care and family planning. Investing in these core public health staff will serve the basic needs of many communities.

7. Guarantee funding for & equal access to health facilities

RH will need and therefore support many levels of health facilities. These range from barangay health stations, for basic prenatal, infant and FP care; health centers, for safe birthing, more difficult RH services like IUD insertions, and management of sexually transmitted infections; and hospitals, for emergency obstetric and newborn care and surgical contraception. Strong RH facilities will be the backbone of a strong and fairly distributed public health facility system.

8. Give accurate & positive sexuality education to young people

Currently, most young people enter relationships and even married life without the benefit of systematic inputs by any of our social institutions. As a result of just one faulty sexual decision, many young women and men can lose their future, their health and sometimes their lives. We insist on young voters’ education for an activity that occurs once every 3 years, but leave our young people with little preparation to cope with major life events like puberty and sexual maturation.

9. Reduce cancer deaths

Delaying sex, avoiding multiple partners or using condoms prevent genital warts or HPV infections that cause cervical cancers. Self breast exams and Pap smears can detect early signs of cancers which can be cured if treated early. All these are part of RH education and care. Contraceptives do not heighten cancer risks; combined pills actually reduce the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancers.

10. Save money that can be used for even more social spending

Ensuring modern FP for all who need it would increase spending from P1.9 B to P4.0 B, but the medical costs for unintended pregnancies would fall from P3.5 B to P0.6 B,
resulting in a net savings of P0.8 B.
There is evidence that families with fewer children do spend more for health and education.

← Authors’ Amendments to HB4244

Current Status and Roadmap of the Bill →

 

 

here's Anti-RH bill reasons...

 

 

 

9 REASONS WHY I OPPOSE THE RH BILL (HB 5043): IN SIMPLE LANGUAGE

by Redentor A. de la Rosa

1. The RH bill promotes artificial contraceptives which are abortifacients, meaning, they cause abortion.

According to a unanimous response of medical experts (including doctors from Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic) at an eight day hearing of the US Senate, human life begins at fertilization, that is, when the sperm penetrates the egg.[1][2] Contraceptives, like pills[3] and IUD’[4] often work by ejecting a newly fertilized ovum or a newly formed human being.[5]

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The Philippine Medical Association (PMA), the biggest organization of medical practitioners in the Philippines, through its specialty society the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society represented by its President Dr. Sylvia Carnero, pronounced during a consultative meeting with the CBCP that “life begins at fertilization”.[6]

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Faculty of Medicine of the University of Santo Tomas, the Philippine Nurses Association (with at least 368,589 members), the Bioethics Society of the Philippines, Catholic Physicians’ Guild of the Philippines stated that “the antiabortion stance of the bill is contradicted by the promotion of contraceptive agents (IUD and hormonal contraceptives) which actually act after fertilization and are potentially abortifacient agents.”[7]

2. Contraceptives are dangerous to health.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2007 reported that the pill causes cancer, giving it the highest level of carcinogenicity, the same as cigarettes and asbestos.[8] It also causes stroke,[9] and significantly increases the risk of heart attacks.[10]

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In 2005, the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization concluded that oral contraceptives cause breast, liver and cervical cancer.[11]

3. The RH bill demands a share of budget from the government to purchase harmful and deadly contraceptive devices from American multi-national firms, hence, benefiting only the U.S. while cutting budgets for education, food, and many other high priority medical needs.

4. Experience from other countries show that promotion of contraceptives encourages and tolerates sexual promiscuity, which leads to destruction of families, increase HIV cases, increase illegitimate and fatherless children, youth deviancy, more single mothers, and increase teenage pregnancies leading to increase abortion.[12][13]

According to the studies of Nobel prize winner, George Akerlof, promotion of contraceptives bring about the downgrading of marriage, more extramarital sex, more fatherless children, and more single mothers.[14]

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According to the “best evidence” in the world, concluded Harvard Director for AIDS Prevention, Edward C. Green. Availability of condoms makes people take wilder sexual risks, thus worsening the spread of the disease.[15]

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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.[16][17]

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"The Guttmacher Institute's own study in 2003 showed simultaneous increases both abortion rates and contraceptive use in the United States, Cuba, Denmark, Netherlands, Singapore, and South Korea."[18]

5. The Bill wants to use taxpayers’ money to finance the selfish and immoral behavior of others. It wanted to allocate money to make artificial contraceptives available for the personal immoral practices of unmarried individuals including teenagers.[19] The government has the duty to provide for the necessary needs of the people but not for their inordinate sexual desires.

6. It wants mandatory sex education taught in elementary and secondary schools without parents’ consent. Sex education promoters themselves state that it has led to more teenage pregnancies and illegitimacy.[20] Experience from other countries show that sex education liberalizes teenagers’ behavior regarding sex, introducing them to a promiscuous lifestyle, which leads to more teenage pregnancies and teenage abortions. The New York Civil Liberties Union said: “Every scientific study that has been done shows that sex education is correlated to, nothing else but, systematically increased use of contraception.”[21]

7. There is an alternative way of slowing down population growth.

Artificial Family planning (AFP) is not the only solution to high population growth rate. Any congressman can craft a Reproductive Health Bill which will extensively promote Natural Family Planning (NFP) only nationwide. We have not yet tried this solution, why not do it? An RH Bill which advocates AFP will be very expensive for the government, but an RH Bill which will advocate NFP only will be cheaper.
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The Population Growth Rate in the Philippines (PGR) is already steadily decreasing during the past two decades even without the RH bill. In 2009, the PGR is 1.96%.[22] Promotion of artificial contraceptives, based on the experience of other countries, actually is more than 100% effective in lowering population growth because they have lead to negative population growth. However, we don’t need to achieve 100 percent success (PGR = 0% or TFR = 2) in curbing population growth. To have a stable and sustainable population we will be needing 50-60 percent success rate (PGR of 0.8% – 1%), and this level can easily be achieved through comprehensive promotion of natural family planning alone, that is, even without promoting artificial contraceptives. In fact, studies in the early 90s have shown that NFP could be effective up to 98 percent.[23][24][25]

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An RH Bill promoting NFP alone will not prohibit those who choose to use artificial contraceptives. They are still free to purchase them from private pharmacies, but no further government fund will be used to make artificial contraceptives free or cheaper for them. Full government assistance will only be available through NFP services. Hospital based family planning, like IUD, vasectomy, ligation, may still be available in public hospitals, and people may avail them at the same lower price as compared to private hospitals but not for free.

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Second, in achieving its purpose of lowering population growth, NFP will promote the moral values of love, respect, chastity, discipline, self control and cooperation, thus, making Philippines a better place to live in.

8. The RH bill ignores the root cause of poverty which is corruption, and, rather, diverts the blame to the poor who are, in fact, merely the victims. With the abundance of natural resources in the Philippines, correct governance and good economic policies are more than enough to solve poverty in the Philippines.
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9. In opposing the RH bill, Catholics are not forcing anyone not to use artificial contraceptives. In fact, at present, without the RH bill, many people are freely using contraceptives. On the other hand, the RH bill, if passed, will force, under penalty of imprisonment or fines, all Catholic employers, medical practitioners, spouses, and parents to give contraceptives and contraceptive services to their employees, patients, and children, hence, suppressing legitimate religious freedom and spousal and parental consent.[26