Not abortion but quality of life

SAN FRANCISCO – It had been cold, rainy and dreary in this city by the bay this weekend. But there is at least good news from home. Both houses of Congress passed the RH bill on third reading. P-Noy’s endorsement of it as an urgent measure, a wise use of his political capital, saw it through. There is still the bicam and possible Supreme Court challenge but the people’s sentiment is finally reflected in the law.

A Facebook friend summarized it well: “it allows an option on the number of children people care to have. It will prevent unwanted children, back alley abortions. The use of condoms will prevent further spread of STD and AIDs. Planned parenthood brings health benefits to women and children. Added benefits are the social and environmental impact of reduced population density, especially in an impoverished country.”

I am however amazed at the amount of disinformation about the measure. I was also appalled at how some congressmen explained their votes against it. We still need to understand the basics of why we urgently need a good population program.

First of all, it isn’t about abortion. If it was, I wouldn’t support it. I strongly believe in the sanctity of life. There is a Psalm in the Bible I read every day and it captures the thought that underlies my belief on why the unborn life is sacred. Psalm 139 verses 14 to 16 expresses the wonder of how we all began. The passage of the RH bill will not change that. Indeed, a good population program empowers women with the knowledge necessary to avoid resorting to abortion.

Ignorance about sexuality and reproductive health is now causing over half a million deaths of our women who have resorted to abortion out of desperation. We are not talking only of single women who sought abortion to protect their social reputation. There are more women who are married but have sought abortion even at the risk of death because they could not bear having another child they cannot afford to raise.

There is no argument that life indeed begins at conception but that doesn’t happen unless sperm unites with the ovum. Until then, both are just strings of genetic information. Contrary to what Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile declared, sperm by itself cannot be considered a viable life. Otherwise, as Sen Miriam Santiago said, all men should be considered murderers for jacking off.

Preventing conception from happening, which is the basis of the population program contemplated in the RH bill does not kill life. Using a condom or taking a contraceptive pill prevents the sperm form uniting with a woman’s ovum. That does not end life because life has not begun. The so called natural family planning method approved by the Church works on the same principle of preventing such meeting of sperm and ovum but less reliably so. That’s why it is also called the Vatican Roulette.

Senators Enrile, Sotto among others expressed uneasiness over the inclusion of the phrase “safe and pleasurable sex” in the bill. But to me that is simple hypocrisy on the part of these macho men. I want to see them swear on a stack of Bibles they have never sought nor experienced sexual pleasure… and if they are typical of the male of the species, not just with their wives.

The point here is simply, we are all human with very human weaknesses. We are talking of urges that are difficult to control even among supposedly celibate priests. Catholicism may frown on having sex for reasons other than procreation but we must deal with reality.

As for the claim of the bishops that the RH bill will promote promiscuity, it would be more accurate to put the blame on the increasing failure of our religious leaders to influence the moral behavior of their flock. The RH bill does not coerce anyone to behave against his beliefs.

The RH bill is about quality of life. It is about giving each life born into this world a good chance to live a life with the dignity that befits one of God’s creations. We see all around us that this is simply not happening. Children are being born and raised under subhuman conditions that should shame the Christianity in us.

Managing a country’s population growth is an economic issue. Our fast growing Asean neighbors have shown us that. Simply, uncontrolled population growth can overtax the limited resources needed to provide all the necessary social services from health care to education. But that is not the principal reason why the RH bill must become a law. Improving the quality of life of more than half of our people mired in poverty is.

The positive economic impact of a well managed population program can only be seen over time. But the RH bill aims for something more urgent… improving the quality of lives now… not ten years from now. It aims to help couples have just the number of children they can afford to bring up in this world. It also aims to have every child born to parents by choice and not just by “accident”.

A family with little means can do a lot better with fewer children than they now have. Fewer children will enable parents to better care and educate them and thus have a better chance of breaking out of poverty. But children who must eke out an existence in our streets from as young as 3 or 4 selling sampaguita strings will most likely remain uneducated, malnourished and condemned to remain in poverty’s vicious grip.

No, population management is not an imposition of the US, the World Bank or the United Nations. It is not an affront to our national sovereignty nor is it an unwanted foreign interference into our affairs. It is a universal concept designed to help jump start development of our economy. The RH bill will not eradicate poverty but it will help alleviate some of its harshness.

I have been a Catholic all my life and my values are strongly influenced by the teachings of Christ. I am afraid that I now see the Catholic Church as imposing more burdens, more rules that go beyond the basic teachings of our Savior. I remember how Christ chastised the Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders of his time, for doing the exact same thing… imposing more rules that puts unnecessary heavy burdens on the people.

Perhaps, the politics within our Church has resulted in “teachings” that are irrelevant to the basic teachings of Christ and to people’s lives. We need to go back to basics and reset the rules that govern us. At the very least, the beliefs of one Church should not burden the rest, specially because many members of this Church no longer conform to its teachings on reproductive health.

Fr. Ruben Tanseco S.J. once wrote in his column at Philippine Star that “the official position, though normative, is not an infallible doctrine. It is not a dogma. The Second Vatican Council teaches us that the final arbiter of moral decision is one’s informed and responsible conscience.”

Fr. Tanseco, who has counseled thousands of troubled Catholic couples and thus has on the ground knowledge of the reality of the human situation, also wrote: “This (natural family planning) method, as the only one supported by the official Church for the last how many decades, has not worked effectively in our country, as far as control of population is concerned.”

Fr. Tanseco continues: “Just to single out one reason, among others: For so many poor, uneducated couples, learning NFP as the only means of family planning is too difficult, cumbersome, and needs much discipline and spirituality. Many are not able to make it. The poor are already deprived of so many things, and to deprive them of love-making when they spontaneously feel like doing so is to make their lives even more miserable.”

Fr. Tanseco says this dissenting opinion is pro-life and pro-quality life, since “each life brought into this world deserves to be raised in a dignified, human way that the parents are capable of, according to God’s design, and not left to a ‘bahala na’ attitude. This responsible, dissenting position is advocated by eminent theologians, like the late Karl Rahner, Bernard Haring, and others.”

As Fr. Tanseco puts it so well, “we are currently facing a very serious situation of over-population. Our percentage of annual population growth is one of the highest in the world. Coupled with our poverty crisis… our over-population problem is a crucial, national emergency situation that needs the active cooperation of all.”

Definition

Family Planning: The art of spacing your children the proper distance apart to keep you on the edge of financial disaster.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco