Reproductive Health bill won't allow abortion - Cayetano

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Pia Cayetano yesterday defended a provision in the Reproductive Health (RH) bill that some critics claimed would effectively legalize abortion in the country.

“The intent of the RH bill is to uphold the Constitution and in no way tolerate or allow abortion to come in through the back road or behind the scene,” said Cayetano, principal sponsor of Senate Bill 2865, or the proposed ‘National Reproductive Health Act of 2011.’

Cayetano was reacting to the issues raised by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III in pointing out provisions in the proposed law that would in a way approve abortion.

Enrile said over dzBB radio yesterday that he is ready to debate anew this week over the provisions of the bill, including those that he described as “deception” since RH bill is disguised as a health measure.

“I am tracing history where the laws started so that the public may know. What is baffling here is, I am wondering why the press – both print and media – are not reporting on these issues as they should, and in the same way as they report on anomalies (in government),” Enrile said. Enrile suggested the interest is not that much or there were attempts to control the release of information through the media to prevent a thorough discussion on the issues.

“You know this RH bill, in my impression, it’s a deception,” Enrile said.  –With Helen Flores

“They are projecting it as a health bill. If it’s a health bill, it should discuss sickness, and cure. What are the medicinal values of condom, IUV, and birth control pills? What are those injectibles, other than safe, legal, effective family planning products and supplies? If this is a health bill, why are these terminologies in this bill?” he asked.

As far as Enrile is concerned, he believes that no country that adopted such laws on controlling population was able to deal with the problem of an aging population and/or economic growth.

“Tell me, which country in the world had implemented a similar measure and succeeded? The answer to poverty is not population control but investments and creation of jobs,” Enrile said.

“Those are the solutions. Not tinkering with the work of God. You create investments, you create jobs,” he added.

Enrile noted that Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States and even Mexico did not gain their perceived goals despite having similar provisions in their respective countries.

Citing Japan as an example, Enrile said the Japanese economy is in a precarious situation because of an ageing population.

“What is the experience of Germany – they are being Arabized. In France, it’s the same thing,” he said.

Enrile said the real purpose is to control the population through birth control not disguising it as a health bill.

Enrile and other senators were pointing out the provisions of the bill, particularly paragraphs (i) and (j), which read: 

“Section 3, (i) While this Act does not amend the penal law on abortion, the government shall ensure that all women needing care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner.

“Section 3, (j) Each family shall have the right to determine its ideal family size, Provided, however, that the State shall equip each parent with the necessary information to all aspects of family life, including reproductive health, in order to make that determination.”

Sotto expressed his belief during interpellations last week that some groups might take advantage of the provisions to introduce products that technically prevent conception.

“To me, they are pushing for this bill because they will inculcate in us that certain means of abortion are medically safe procedures, feasible, and will eventually be considered legal,” he said.

If enacted into law, Sotto argued this might mean that if a certain family wants only two children but the mother will become pregnant, the State shall equip that parent with the means to abort the child.

Cayetano, on the other hand, said there is nothing in the provisions of the proposal that says abortion will be an option.

“That is absurd, that is not a logical conclusion,” she said.

“We (sponsors of the bill) made it very clear that it is not… it is very clear. So let us not read into the bill what is not in the bill,” Cayetano said.

Pro-life groups, on the other hand, urged international organizations to stop supplying lawmakers what they called “outdated statistics” to influence the government’s reproductive health policy.

“Questioning the data peddled by pro-RH groups is far from belittling the problem of maternal deaths. The issue at hand is the pro-RH lobby’s emotional and exclusive use of ‘11 maternal deaths a day’ to scare lawmakers into spending billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money for its contraception and sterilization agenda,” the group Filipinos For Life (F4L) said in a statement.

F4L said pro-RH groups have long attributed the statistic to foreign entities like the Guttmacher Institute and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), but have apparently switched to data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) that said new studies showed a substantial decline in maternal mortality since 1980.

The group said lawmakers should have been informed ahead of floor debates that the numbers have changed significantly.

“Thanks to poor research by the RH lobby, they were caught using old data,” the F4L said.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, for his part, said both sides are studying very hard to defend their positions.

“This RH bill, the vote there would be a close vote, it would be… it could go either way because everyone is listening to the arguments… the debates are very intelligent so far,” Arroyo said.

“They (senators) have spoken they have really researched about the subject. And the nice part about it is that there is no reference at all to religious considerations, moral questions. It’s all on the need to control the population…and I think this will be a very good (debate)… everybody is interested,” he said. –With Helen Flores