Why we should all support Reproductive Health (RH) bill in the Philippines. It is pro-life, pro-women, pro-poor and pro-progress. This is not abortion, it is a lie to equate RH to abortion. In fact, RH bill can help minimize the many illegal, immoral and tragic abortions happening nationwide every year!



I am disappointed by the delaying, obstructionist and other tactics of the anti-RH politicians in our House of Representatives and the Senate in the Philippines. These are some of the reasons why we should strongly and decisively support the RH bill in the Philippines NOW:

1. RH Bill is pro-life---The United Nations, World Health Organization, the Philippines' Department of Health and others have repeatedly said that the lives and health of numerous women and children are endangered by lack of adequate informations and options regarding family planning and reproductive health needs. Let us allow people not only access to life, but better quality of life too.\

The UN Population Fund, in a separate statement, said the Philippines was unlikely to achieve its millennium development goal of reducing maternal deaths by three quarters and providing universal access to reproductive health by 2015. It said it had “extensively studied” the proposed RH law which once passed could “vastly improve health and quality of life” in a country where a third of the population live on less than a dollar a day.

(Image below from lizashut.blogspot.com)





2. RH Bill is pro-women---I strongly believe that women should have the right to control their destiny, to have options regarding reproductive health based on their individual conscience and cultural/religious beliefs. Women should have the right to choose when to give birth and how many kids they want.



3. RH Bill is pro-poor---It is tragic that majority of people in our Philippine society do not have access to reproductive health options, services and informations just because they are poor, thus we have the phenomenon of the poor becoming increasingly and almost perpetually in the bondage of economic poverty with more kids than they could support and educate.

Responsible parenthood or family planning is beneficial to all people, let us allow the RH bill to give everyone in our society equal access to reproductive health. 


(Image below from amocielo.com)






(Image below sourced from spot.ph)

Support Reproductive Health (RH) Bill & Senator Pia Cayetano! Philippine Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile shoots down move to tackle RH bill.

My Comments:

I believe the RH Bill in the Philippines is pro-women, pro-poor, pro-life and supports the needs of Philippine socio-economic development.

Let us strongly support the RH Bill and the enlightened senators such as Pia Cayetano, Miriam Defensor Santiago and others who courageously champion this legislation for family planning in the Philippines.

(Photograph of the progressive and courageous Senator Pia Cayetano from misternow.deviantart.com)




(The controversial Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who is not supporting the much-needed RH Bill)



Here below is a disturbing news report today by GMA 7:

Enrile shoots down move by Pia Cayetano to tackle RH bill

November 13, 2012 4:29pm

 

— Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News

 

A move to advance the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill in the Senate was immediately shot down — by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile himself — on Tuesday afternoon, further damping hopes on its immediate passage.
 
During the day's session, RH bill co-sponsor Sen. Pia Cayetano asked that the two-year-old bill be tackled for at least 30 minutes before they go on to other priority measures, like the sin tax bill and the proposed budget for 2013.
 
"I have stated before that I fully support the prioritization of the sin tax bill and the budget, but I would also like to put on record that the RH bill has been pending for almost two years and what I would like to request our colleagues is that we find time to also finish this measure," she told her colleagues on the floor.
 
The RH measure is in the period of amendments in the Senate, after which senators can vote to pass it on second reading.
 
But Cayetano said since there are only a few senators who will be seeking amendments, they would only need less than an hour to tackle the controversial measure.
 
The three senators who manifested their intention to seek amendments are Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III, and Senator Ralph Recto.
 
Enrile, however, said Cayetano should not complain if a bill is not being tackled.
 
"I have also a bill here that has been pending for 10 years and I am waiting for it to be discussed in this chamber,” Enrile told Cayetano. “I never complained and I don't think there is anyone who can compel any senator to jump simply because they want him to jump."
 
"I'm ready to defend my position in any debate here so I hope that they will understand that I'm not ready yet to propose an amendment," he added.
 
But when Cayetano asked him when he will be ready, he said: "I do not know, madam senator, when I'm ready."
 
Upon hearing this, Cayetano said she is ready to do what it takes to pass the measure. "I think it is also my right as a sponsor to defend this bill, which a lot of people are waiting for," she said.
 
Enrile, however, said he was not afraid of what she may do.
 
"I'm ready for any remedy that the gentle lady would like to take if you want to put into a vote [or] that I be censured or be kicked out as Senate president or I be outvoted so be it," he said.