...The first time I heard about RH bill, I totally ignore it thinking that it is not relevant for a young student like me. But recently because of the many debates on television and news about the RH Bill I realize that it is involve me and all the Filipinos even those who are not born yet. I am Pro RH bill thought I have limited knowledge about it because I think that it’s about time that we do something about the exploding population in the Philippines because I believe that it is one of the main reason why many Filipinos suffers from poverty. I think that controlling our population will help to ease poverty in our country. I always see parents who have many children and sometime they can’t fully support their family’s needs especially on foods and education. Because of that there are so many children and adults that are malnourished and some don’t have proper shelter so they live on streets and under bridges. there are also many students drops out in school and join gangs and do illegal activities like taking drugs and do petty crimes, some drops out because there parents cant support their education so they married early and make the mistake there parents did. Some of these parents abandon their children or give them away to their relatives because they can’t raise them anymore but they continue on having more children because they don’t know anything about family planning. So I believe that the government should teach them family planning even using artificial method even many...
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...RH Bill Reproductive Health Bill: Killing Lives, Killing Minds. These will be the effects of the Bill in the lives of the people. Upon reading the content of the Bill, we have decided that we are anti-RH Bill. The Bill is not the answer of the outraging primary problems of our country. This Bill will only be dehumanizing the Phillipine society in a way that it helps lose the sense of responsibility of each individual to others and even to his/herself. It has flaws that can lead to violations of human rights and freedom of conscience. It can bring a lot of bad changes to the lives of the people especially how they will live in this altered society. When this Bill will be implemented, contraceptives will be legalized and be given free to the citizens in this nation. Every student with their young age will be taught sex education as early as Grade Five. Finally, other methods of artificial contraceptions will be introduced to the public regardless of educational attainment and be legalized that can cause high percentage of sexually transmitted cases and other diseases. These contraceptions will not decrease the cases of STD and other diseases, instead, it will continously rise. Do you think these are good implications of the aims of the Reproductive Helath Bill? When does life begin? Life begins upon fertilization, thus we are bound to protect and save the life of the unborn. With the legalization of contraceptives, this prevents the implantation of an embryo in the mother's...
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...RH BILL IN THE PHILIPPINES : AGREE OR DISAGREE? By RONALD ALLEN B. CASEÑAS JOSEFINA T. PERLADO Study and Thinking Skills in English TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................1 What is RH Bill? ...................................................................................................................... 2 RH Bill Surveys..............................................................................................................................3 PROS of the bill......................................................................................................................4 CONS of the bill.........................................................................................................................5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................6 Sources and References …………………………………………………………………………..7 INTRODUCTION In has been a national debate in the Philippines whether or not the government should approve the RH bill which aims to ensure a universal access to all the methods and facts about birth control as well as maternal awareness. Aside from this bill that Senator Meriam Defensor Santiago have made there is another bill that shares the same goal and was proposed by Albay’s 1st district Representative Edcel Lagman which is...
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...The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10354), informally known as the Reproductive Health Law or RH Law, is a law in the Philippines, which guarantees universal access to methods on contraception, fertility control, sexual education, and maternal care. While there is general agreement about its provisions on maternal and child health, there is great debate on its mandate that the Philippine government and the private sector will fund and undertake widespread distribution of family planning devices such as condoms, birth control pills, and IUDs, as the government continues to disseminate information on their use through all health care centers. Passage of the legislation was controversial and highly divisive, with experts, academics, religious institutions, and major political figures declaring their support or opposition while it was pending in the legislature. Heated debates and rallies both supporting and opposing the RH Bill took place nationwide. The Supreme Court delayed implementation of the law in March 2013 in response to challenges. On April 8, 2014, the Court ruled that the law was "not unconstitutional" but struck down eight provisions partially or in full.[ Criticism[edit] Opponents of the bill argue that: People's freedom to access contraceptives is not restricted by any opposing law, being available in family planning NGOs, stores, etc. The country is not a welfare state: taxpayer's money should not be used...
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...Rh Bill TOPIC: National Technology Policy Initiatives MAIN ISSUE STATEMENT: Are you in favour of the legalization of Reproductive Health bill in the Philippines? The Reproductive Health Bill, known as the RH Bill, are Philippine bills aiming to guarantee universal access to methods and information on contraception, fertility control, sexual education, and maternal care. The bills have become the center of a contentious national debate. There are presently two bills with the same goals: House Bill No. 4244 or An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and For Other Purposes introduced by Albay 1st district Representative Edcel Lagman, and Senate Bill No. 2378 or An Act Providing For a National Policy on Reproductive Health and Population and Development introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago. THESIS OR CONVICTION: Yes, COUNTER ARGUMENT: No, because SUPPORTING ARGUMENTS 1. No, because Philip Nitschke, MD, Director and Founder of Exit International, commented in his June 5, 2009 interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez titled "Euthanasia Sets Sail" that appeared in the National Review Online: "Over time the Hippocratic Oath has been modified on a number of occasions as some of its tenets became less and less acceptable. References to women not studying medicine and doctors not breaking the skin have been deleted. The much-quoted reference to 'do no harm' is also in need of explanation. Does...
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...world and maybe even why our country tops the list of the poorest countries in the world. In response to it, some members of the government last July of the year 2010 proposed House Bill No. 96 otherwise known as the Reproductive Health Bill. What are the contents of this bill that it has been the source of debates until today? Why does the church and some activists earnestly disagree with it if will help lessen the growing population of the country? What is the Reproductive Health Bill or RH Bill? The RH Bill is a bill that allows the usage of mechanical and chemical barriers such as pills, condoms and IUDs (intrauterine devices). Moreover, this bill strictly states that sex education should be taught to students starting from the third grade. Thus, it requires and allows every doctor to give barriers and perform medical processes. Any doctor who will refuse to do such acts will be charged fifty thousand pesos. In accordance to the Family Planning Survey in 2006, 2.6 million Filipinas would like to plan their families but they lack information and access to do so. 44% of the pregnancies in the poorest quintile are unwanted and some of the poorest Filipinas are still having an average of six children. These have been some of the reasons noted by Congressman Edcel C. Lagman for proposing such a bill. But is it not that the policy makers should understand and respect our side of Catholics who respect the preservation and protection of human life? Natural Family Planning is still...
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...Filipinos being born every day, the Philippines is the 12th most populous country in the world. The country which has the approximate size of the state of Arizona at 116,000 square miles, has an estimated present population of 94 million and could possibly be at 154,000,000 in the year 2050 if the current annual population growth is maintained at about 2.0%. The Reproductive Health bill, or popularly known as RH bill, is Philippine Bill aiming to guarantee universal access to methods and information on birth control and maternal care. It is a way of helping people to be more advance, well prepared, and to widen up each and every individuals mind setting about our society nowadays. The bill mandates the government to “promote, without bias, all effective natural and modern methods of family planning that are medically safe and legal”. Although abortion is recognized as illegal and punishable by law, the bill states that “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”. The bill calls for a “multi-dimensional approach” integrates a component of family planning and responsible parenthood into all government anti-poverty programs. Age-appropriate reproductive health and sexuality education is required from grade five to fourth year high school using “life-skills and other approaches”. The new law passed after acrimonious debates in the Philippine Congress...
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...Amending the proposed reproductive health bill The reproductive health bill is being passed through the senate and the congress to be finalized and to be legalized. It is all about the reproductive health and population management. It deals more on population control in the country. The bill is strongly recognize by the government and almost ready to be proclaim as one of the bill of the country. But, there are some objections from religious preference that hinders the proclamation specially the roman catholic church of the country. The CBCP strongly disagree on some contents of the RH bill as it goes on the final decision of the legislative body of the government. The reproductive bill aims to control massive increase in population in the country and reduce its effects to the people. Due to irresponsible family planning being practice by most Filipinos, it contribute a lot in the contribution to population explosion then triggers the shortages in the needs of the people. One of the best solutions the government is trying to impose is the RH bill that provides benefits to the people including the unborn. The government can easily give and satisfy the needs of the people and promote their welfare through it. Programs of the different government agencies may surely be enjoyed by the citizen. Programs like information and access to natural and modern family planning, maternal, infant and child health and nutrition, reproductive health of the youth and adolescent and health prevention...
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...time birth control was introduced to history was in the 1900’s. Population had increased rapidly. Margaret Sanger, a nurse, believed that the poor needed to control the size of their families. In 1916, Sanger established the first birth control clinic and in 1917, founded the National Birth Control League. Although widespread use of birth control is visible throughout the world, particularly in Europe and the United States, where birth control methods are legally available, not everyone is in favor of contraception. The Roman Catholic Church forbids artificial methods of birth control, upholding the belief that sexual love in marriage should never be separated from the chance of conception. RESEARCH LITERATURE The Reproductive Health Bill has two goals: to promote responsible parenthood through the use of birth control methods, and to assure widespread access to medically-safe, legal, and quality reproductive health care and relevant information. It stands upon the assumption that many Filipino women die of childbirth and abortion...
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...10/23/2011 ARGUMENTS IN RH BILL The Reproductive health bill or RH bill is a comprehensive law in the Philippines that promotes birth control and maternal the bill has been introduced as early as the year 2000 by Albany Representative Excel Lagan but the bill has not been implemented nor approved in the congress and in the senate. The bill is designed to control the population in the country by promoting family planning methods and contraceptives using condoms, pills and other devices that will be distributed to the public they will also disseminate information in various communities and municipalities. There are thousands of people opposing such bill including then on, the academe, some political people and the church are against the bill. Through this concept there are various arguments that arises the contra has been debating for years and they are arguing about its effect. As of this year of 2011 the implementation of such law has not been allowed, the final debate and the implementation or abolition of the law is expected to be reviewed within the year of and hopefully it will be finalized by 2012 to make the necessary resolution if such law is worthy to be included in the Philippines. It is true that most Filipinos are in favor of family, there are bills that also promote such family planning method like Senate bill 2378 by Miriam Defense Santiago and it is almost the same system, but there are differences in RH bill and these differences creates so much arguments...
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...RH BILL On the first business day of the year, a couple filed in the Supreme Court a suit against the newly signed Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, which mandates the State to provide the poor with reproductive health (RH) services, including access to contraceptives, and sex education to schoolchildren. Lawyers James Imbong and wife Lovely-Ann, who filed the suit on behalf of their two children and the Magnificat Child Development Center Inc., asked the high tribunal to stop the implementation of Republic Act No. 10354, saying it was unconstitutional. The Imbongs claimed the law also “mocks the nation’s Filipino culture—noble and lofty in its values and holdings on life, motherhood and family.” It was the first petition filed against the RH law barely two weeks after President Aquino quietly signed it into law following heated debates in Congress and protests by the Catholic Church. Grounds for appeal In a petition for certiorari and prohibition, the petitioners cited two grounds for their appeal: The RH law “introduces policies that negate and frustrate the foundational ideals and aspirations of the sovereign Filipino,” and it “cannot be implemented without exceeding the boundaries of government action, as established in the Constitution.” Imbong was accompanied and assisted by his mother, lawyer Jo Aurea Imbong, in filing the petition in the high court. His mother, a lawyer of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)...
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...I HAVE been following the debates on the RH Bill not just in the recent House sessions but practically since its start. In the process, because of what I have said and written (where I have not joined the attack dogs against the RH Bill), I have been called a Judas by a high-ranking cleric, I am considered a heretic in a wealthy barangay where some members have urged that I should leave the Church (which is insane), and one of those who regularly hears my Mass in the Ateneo Chapel in Rockwell came to me disturbed by my position. I feel therefore that I owe some explanation to those who listen to me or read my writings. * First, let me start by saying that I adhere to the teaching of the Church on artificial contraception even if I am aware that the teaching on the subject is not considered infallible doctrine by those who know more theology than I do. Moreover, I am still considered a Catholic and Jesuit in good standing by my superiors, critics notwithstanding! * Second (very important for me as a student of the Constitution and of church-state relations), I am very much aware of the fact that we live in a pluralist society where various religious groups have differing beliefs about the morality of artificial contraception. But freedom of religion means more than just the freedom to believe. It also means the freedom to act or not to act according to what one believes. Hence, the state should not prevent people from practicing responsible parenthood according to their...
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...The Catholic Church has emphasized that the rejection of the RH bill is not about a Roman Catholic verdict but a reflection of the “fundamental ideals and aspirations of the Filipino people” (Sison 2011). The Church’s position is anchored on her disagreement with the proposal's anti-life stance and problematic attitudes towards issues that affect religious expression. Christianity insists that artificial birth control methods are offensive to life because these tend to suppress the formation of life, particularly in the womb of the mother. In traditional Catholic positions, devices or means that directly hinder the development of life is offensive to life—hence, immoral. In reproductive health language, abortion cases reflect “unmet needs for contraception” which, if used, could have prevented unwanted pregnancies. While the RH framework identifies contraception as a necessary solution in the equation, the Church finds it problematic. It is in this perspective that the fundamental proposals in the bill are deemed immoral. The Church has gathered its forces to show its resistance to the proposal. The resistance has reverberated in many local churches in different parts of the archipelago. The local resistance offered by the Roman Catholic Church is now shared by the evangelical churches, and Islamic believers. These church communities in the country have used every means possible to disarm the threat provided by this proposal. In response to this...
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...of natural resources and unmanageable health problems. So, how can we address this problem? A very good model to this is the most controversial "Reproductive Health Bill". House Bill No. 5043 - An act providing for a national policy on reproductive health, responsible parenthood, population development and for other purposes. This act shall be known as the "Reproductive Health and Development Act of 2008". This bill aims to promote responsible parenthood, properly conceptualized birth spacing and respect for life in consonance with the internationally recognized human rights standard. It also guarantees universal access to medically safe, legal, affordable, and quality reproductive health care services either on modern or natural methods, devices, and supplies all for the promotion of gender equality and woman empowerment. It does not only aim to mold citizens but to also prevent reproductive tract infections such as HIV, AIDS and STD. If people will acquire pertinent information on what RH Bill is all about then misconceptions will be addressed and they will realize that this bill is not anti-life but a pro-life mandate. We can never achieve prosperity if our population is rapidly increasing as our natural resources are diminishing leaving behind sickly population unfit to work efficiently. With the RH Bill, we can raise healthier, God-fearing and responsible citizens of our country. Healthy parents surely give rise to healthy offspring and healthy families are building blocks...
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...A GUIDE TO ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL This matrix has been prepared by a group of Catholics who feel that a systematic comparison of the arguments for and against the reproductive health (RH) bill may still serve some purpose at this juncture. It may help to bring the debate from the emotional temper which has characterized it thus far, to a more rational temper in which both sides attempt to comprehend each other’s perspectives. It is hoped that this presentation will allow each side to view the other’s argumentation as the legitimate offering of reasons in good faith which ought to characterize a democratic process of deliberation. Such a process must be valued equally by all who are committed to living together in a democracy, be they Catholic or non-Catholic, pro- or anti-contraception. Questions in the final column are provided to aid further reflection, with a view to clarifying positions and, perhaps, to building compromises that are morally and politically acceptable to both sides. Eleanor R. Dionisio ISSUE ANTI-RH BILL PRO-RH BILL QUESTIONS I. LEGISLATION OF AN RH-BILL Necessity of RH Bill 1. Overpopulation 1. Overpopulation is not the problem. The problems are government corruption and the unequal distribution of wealth and resources. 1. Managing population growth is not the sole solution to poverty but is part of the solution. Are overpopulation and graft and corruption mutually exclusive issues? Or ought they to be addressed...
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