RH bill: Contraceptives not dangerous nor cause promiscuity

This column continues that of last Saturday, on facts and fallacies pertaining to the Reproductive Health Bill (HB 5043) — whether contraceptives are dangerous, and sex education promotes sexuality.

On contraceptives being harmful, Likhaan, a women NGO strongly supporting the passage of the bill, cites facts and figures backed by scientific and medical studies, says contraceptive drugs and devices are among the Model List of Essential Medicines listed and recommended for countries’ use by the World Health Organization “because they satisfy the priority health care needs through the most efficacious, safest and most cost-effective way. The oral contraceptive pills, injectable, copper-T IUD, and condom, are in this list.”

Like all drugs, Likhaan says, contraceptives also have their respective side-effects and contraindications. “However, the possible risks of health and harm associated with contraceptive use are very slim, compared to other everyday activities, and lower than the risks of an actual pregnancy and everyday activities. In the US, the risk of dying per year from riding a car is 1 in 5,900, while from using pills, 1 in 200,000; from vasectomy, 1 in 1 million; and from using IUD, 1 in 10 million. In contrast, the risk of dying from a pregnancy is 1 in 10,000.”

With regard to cancer, the benefits of oral contraception outweigh the risks for the majority of women. Oral contraceptives reduce the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer by 50 percent or more, while slightly increasing the risk for cervical cancer and premenopausal cancer. Compared to other reproductive and lifestyle factors that affect breast cancer risk, however, the increase in risk associated with the pill is very small.

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Now, does sex education promote promiscuity? Likhaan’s answer: “A global review of studies on sexual behavior shows that sex education improves awareness of risk, knowledge of risk reduction strategies, increase self-effectiveness and intention to practice safer sex, and delays rather than hastens the onset of sexual activity.”

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The findings of the Third Quarter 2008 Social Weather Survey (SWS) on family planning shows that Filipinos approve of family planning and want a law requiring the distribution of contraceptives by the government. It comes as no surprise that certain sectors, primarily Catholic church prelates and pro-life advocates, are disputing the moral rightness of the SWS findings.

The survey, commissioned by The Forum for Family Planning and Development (The Forum), showed that 68 percent of Filipinos agree that there should be a law that requires government to distribute legal contraceptives like condoms, IUDs and pills to people who want to avail of it, against 15 percent who disagreed, and 16 percent who were undecided on the question.

The same survey said 50 percent disagreed that using legal contraceptives like condoms, IUDs and pills, can be considered as abortion, as against 33 percent, with 15 percent undecided.

As to the question whether youth would become promiscuous if sex education would be included in the school curriculum, 54 percent disagreed, as against 25 percent with 19 percent undecided.

Ben de Leon, The Forum president, said of the survey results, “It is undeniable that the Filipino people are the ones demanding information and services on reproductive health and family planning. We hope that with this survey result, our legislators in the House of Representatives won’t have any qualms on passing the Reproductive Health bill which would benefit millions of people, if not thousands of couples, in the whole country. The survey is echoing the voice of the true constituency of Congress, the Filipino people, and not of a single sector trying to control as to what our legislators should enact.”

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The principal author of HB 5043 on “Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development,” Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, said opinion polls for the past two decades “have been telling policymakers that Filipinos approve of family planning and want a law requiring the distribution of contraceptives by the government.”

The latest SWS survey, conducted on September 24-27, brings forth the loud and clear message, said Lagman, that “Filipinos want to plan their families, approve of contraceptive use, and they want government to help them be responsible parents.”

The SWS survey, he added, “echoes surveys conducted by Pulse Asia in 2001, 2004 and 2007 which consistently show that Filipinos believe in the importance of family planning and would like to have the information and access to do so responsibly.”

He emphasized that the latest survey results “strengthens the resolve of the 113 co-authors of HB 5043 and improves the chances of the bill’s approval by the Lower House.”

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Mahar Mangahas issued a statement saying that SWS asked items that were FFPD-initiated items, “as a public service” independently of the items commissioned by the FFPD. The results both showed “very strong support for government action on reproductive health.”

The findings, said Mangahas, are not at all unexpected. A 1991 survey of social attitudes towards FP interest groups done by SWS for the Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development found that Filipinos “do not feel strongly restricted from using family planning methods, either by the rules of their religion, or by the teaching they received in school, or by the advice given by their physicians.”

“The people are not sheep,” he said. “Cross-tabulations of the results of both the FFPD-commissioned and the SWS-initiated items show that Filipino opinion on RH is roughly the same for Catholics and non-Catholics, the same for regular (weekly and up) and irregular churchgoers, and same for the great many who trust and the few who distrust the Catholic church.”

He referred to a statement of Fr. John J. Carrol, S.J., of the Institute of Church and Social Issues, a discussant of the 1991 SWS study, which said, “Although some church officials like to refer to themselves as pastors, in this case, the people are not sheep.”

The reactions to the SWS survey findings are hot and many. The RH bill has drawn concerned academicians — from the non-sectarian University of the Philippines, and the Catholic Ateneo de Manila University, to issue statements of support for the bill.

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