Go forth and multiply... responsibly

"Iloilo Representative Janette Garin, a physician, said her bill was centered on educating the public on reproductive health and allowing couples to choose between natural and artificial family planning methods."

Now, what can be wrong with educating the public and allowing them to choose? Really.

Prudence MD invites us to share our views on The State of Reproductive Health Care in the Philippines.

Here's mine. I have nothing against those who are fighting the Bill, especially the Catholic Church. What I have against are the implications of this resistance to our nation.

1. Only 82.27% percent of Filipinos are Catholics. What about the other 17.73% who can actually make use of the artificial family planning methods?
   

2. Are Filipinos stupid that they can’t decide for themselves when given a choice between artificial and natural family planning method (NFP)?
   

3. Aren’t we shortchanging Filipinos in general when the Reproductive Health offers only NFP methods?
   

4. What happened to free will?
   

One of the many things that I have picked up from the Doctor to the Barrios Book series of Dr. Juan Flavier is his belief in INFORMED CHOICE. Meaning, offer several information/option to a patient and let him/her choose. I mean, if we limit the choices to natural methods of family planning, where is the choice in that?

5. I thought that it was eons ago when the State and the Church separated? Are we seeing a comeback of Father Damaso?
   

What ticked me off the most is the fact that our President GMA can’t even separate herself from the Church. Remember her recent State of the Nation Address where she insisted on natural methods? Was she afraid to lose the Church's support? Well, she there's not much of it to begin with. At least, the Former President Fidel Ramos had the balls to make a stand (even if it is against the Church and he could lose its support).

Where and when does the State’s independence start and Church’s influence end? In fact, Rep. Garin revised this Bill, taking into consideration the Catholic Church.

6. Natural family planning methods are the least effective of all the methods of contraception as proven by several studies. Does the Catholic Church even read these?

On a personal note, I am highly frustrated about the opposition that this Bill is getting. I see mothers in the barrio who are gravida (number of pregnancies) 14 or higher and these are not isolated cases.

Does the church even realize what 14 pregnancies can do to a woman, to the child and most especially to this country who can barely support its people?

If using a pill to prevent fertilization is sinful, let me ask you this: is it not equally sinful to bring a child to this world whom you cannot even feed, clothe much less, send to school?

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Photo from here.

This is a contribution to The Blog Rounds 18 at Prudence MD: The State of Reproductive Health in the Philippines. Read more!