Congress urged to vote on Reproductive Health bill

MANILA, Philippines - Supporters of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill urged Congress yesterday to vote on the bill after President Aquino endorsed the measure in his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday.

“The President’s endorsement of responsible parenthood in his SONA is a strong message for our legislators to act on the life-saving measure which has been pending in Congress for 11 years,” Rom Dongeto, executive director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc., said in a statement.

Dongeto said the responsible parenthood mentioned by Aquino in his SONA is equivalent to the reproductive health and responsible parenthood measures pending in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

“The situation of maternal mortality and teenage pregnancy is worsening in our country. The RH bill seeks to provide a national policy on reproductive health, which includes universal access to family planning information and services and age-appropriate adolescent reproductive health and sexuality education,” he said.

According to the Family Health Survey report, maternal mortality in the country increased to an alarming 221 deaths out of 100,000 live births in 2011 from 162 out of 100,000 live births in 2006.

The 2011 United Nations Population Fund report shows that the number of teenage pregnancies in the country has surged to 70 percent in the last decade, Dongeto said.

“We call on the authors and other supportive legislators to exert more effort for the House to advance the vote on the RH bill,” Dongeto said.

The group EnGenderRights also hailed the President for endorsing the RH bill.

“The members of Congress should heed his (Aquino’s) call and immediately pass a comprehensive RH bill into law,” said EnGenderRights executive director Clara Rita Padilla.

Pangasinan fifth district Rep. Kimi Cojuangco, one of the authors of the controversial RH bill, said she is delighted that the President virtually endorsed the measure in his SONA when he asked the public to practice responsible parenthood.

“As you know both houses of Congress would not have moved without his lead,” said Cojuangco, daughter-in-law of Aquino’s uncle business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte clarified that the Aquino administration has always been supportive of the RH bill wherein inputs from various sectors were considered, including the need to respect religious beliefs and couples’ choices based on conscience.

Valte, when asked if President Aquino did endorse the RH bill in his SONA, said what the President mentioned was a reiteration of his position since the campaign.

“First, the President is against abortion. This is a reiteration of the President’s position that he has, time and again, enunciated even from the campaign when he was running for president. Second, the President is in favor of giving couples the right to choose how best to manage their families so that in the end their welfare and that of their children are best served,” Valte said. – With Aurea Calica, Eva Visperas, Evelyn Macairan, Marvin Sy