Pro-Life?

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines intends to dialogue with senators one on one in hopes of finding pro-life lawmakers who would help block the reproductive health bill in Congress, a CBCP official said Sunday.


Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Family Life, said representatives of the Catholic leadership also planned to talk to congressmen individually.


“Now that we will no longer attend the hearings, we will dialogue individually with the senators. We hope and pray that we can find pro-life and pro-family senators,” Castro said in a telephone interview.
Anti-reproductive health bill congressmen have been instrumental in delaying House approval of the measure.


Castro and other representatives of the Catholic hierarchy on Thursday walked out of a Senate technical working group meeting on the chamber’s version of the population management measure after their input was purportedly ignored.


The bill requires hospitals to purchase artificial contraceptives that bishops say is against Catholic teaching. The CBCP is in favor of natural family planning methods that call for couples to forego sex when the women has her fertile period.


The Senate health committee, meanwhile, intends to sponsor the reproductive health bill on the floor within two weeks before Congress takes its first break for the year.


Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said Sunday he would release a committee report on the controversial measure this week so he could sponsor it on the floor before the recess.


Congress adjourns on March 7 and comes back on April 17.


“We have to pass a law as this issue has been debated in the past three Congresses,” Biazon said.


He reiterated that he would try to invite back members of the CBCP to participate in the current bid of his committee to come up with a “substitute” bill reconciling the different measures filed in the Senate.


Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, for his part, made it clear that the technical working group was “not the Senate.”


“That’s only a designated group,” Enrile said Sunday over radio station dzBB.


He said it would be the health committee that would look into the measure, after which it would be brought to the floor for debate by the senators.


Asked what his stand was on the reproductive health bill, Enrile said he had always been pro-life. He also said he would only support the artificial method of family planning “as long as it will not destroy life.”



(By Norman Bordadora, Christine AvendañoPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 07:37:00 02/23/2009)


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Nu'ng first year ako, nag-attend ako ng isang talk ng professor ko tungkol du'n sa kalokohang polisiya ng lungsod ng Maynila tungkol sa family planning, na kung saan ipinagbabawal sa mga city health centers na mamahagi ng mga artificial contraceptives. (Pro-life daw kasi ang drama ng nakaluklok na alkalde noon na ngayon ay nagmamarunong na sa DENR.)

Kalunos-lunos ang naging kalagayan ng mga kababaihang taga-Maynila dahil sa pakikialam ni "Mayor Floral". Ipinakita sa talk na 'yun na kahit ayaw na mag-anak ng mga kababayan natin, wala silang magawa dahil nga sa kakulangan ng tamang edukasyong sekswal at mabisang contraceptives. May isa ngang babae doon na mayroon nang 11 anak at ngayon ay di niya malaman kung paano niya bubuhayin ang mga ito. Mas lalong nakababahala dahil bata pa ang inang ito, maaari pang magbuntis at madagdagan ang inaalala niya.

Ang nais kasi ng mga naturang pro-life ekek na 'to (sa pangunguna ng Simbahan) ay pigilin na lamang ng mga mag-asawa ang kanilang mga sarili sa pagsisiping sa mga araw na maari silang magbuntis para di na daw mamatay ang mga bata (read: sperm cells at egg cells) sa pamamagitan ng mga artificial contraceptives. Ang di nila alam di mabisa ang paraang ito. Pati ba mga mag-asawa ngayon ay bawal nang mag-sex? Mas lalong malalapit sa tukso ng pangangaliwa at pagtataksil ang mga esposo nya'n. Siguro naman ayaw itong mangyari ng mga dakila nating 'moralista'.

Isa pang argumento laban sa malayang pamamahagi ng artificial contraceptives ay ang inaasahan nilang magiging paglobo ng mga taong sexually-active kahit di pa kasal, na isang malaking kasalanan para sa Simbahan. Sa pananaw kasi nila, 'pag binigyan sila ng mga condom, IUD at ipa ba, mababawasan ang "takot" ng mga tao sa sex dahil mapoproteksyunan nga sila sa STD, AIDS at iba pang sakit. Nakakatawang isipin na mas pabor ang "pro-life groups" na ito na mamatay sa AIDS ang mga kababayan natin.

Isa pang bagay na tinututulan sa nasabing batas ay ang sex education sa mga mag-aaral na Pinoy. Paniwala kasi ng pro-life group ay di nararapat turuan ang mga kabataan tungkol sa sex dahil mas lalo daw darami ang mga makikiapid at magpi-premarital sex. Di nila mabukasan ang kanilang isipan na sa panahon ngayon na mas lalong mabilis ang daloy ng impormasyon, mas makakabuti na sa paaralan matutuhan ang mga bagay na ito kaysa sa kung saan-saan at sa kung kani-kanino. Proper information and state intervention is what they need to, at least, prevent teenage pregancy if not really prevent them from the sin of fornication. And with our population problems right now, teenage moms are what we need the least.

So ngayon ang katanungan na lamang natitira ay pro-life ba talaga sila? :P