Sen. Pia spells it out for RH critics: 'Abortion is a crime'

MANILA, Philippines - To accommodate Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III's misgivings about the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, Senator Pia Cayetano on Thursday amended the bill to include a specific provision that declares that abortion is a crime.

“To put the issue to rest and allay fears that the RH bill will promote abortion,” the sponsor of the bill introduced subsection (j) in Section 3: “Abortion is a criminal act in accordance with existing laws.”

The line came along with 12 other amendments introduced by Cayetano.

Cayetano's list of amendments followed on the heels of an earlier set of suggestions from Sen. Ralph Recto, who interpellated Sotto after the last part of his turno en contra speech Wednesday night. Among others, Recto wanted amended the penal provisions on LGU chiefs deemed "violators," noting that local governments already have a grave financial burden in terms of basic health care, without having to worry about the new fiscal impositions from enforcing the RH bill, let alone jail terms. Recto's wife, Vilma Santos, is governor Batangas province.

Addressing concerns that the bill promotes population control, especially of the poor, Cayetano renamed the bill from “An act providing for a national policy on reproductive health and population and development” to “An act providing for a national policy on reproductive health and responsible parenthood.”

In response to Sotto’s opposition of having contraceptives categorized as “essential medicines,” Cayetano deleted the objected phrase and introduced the concept of the Philippine National Drug Formulary System. The title of Section 9 thus now reads: The Philippine National Drug Formulary System (PNDFS) and Family Planning Supplies. The list of contraceptives in the section were not removed but the tasks of PNDFS was defined to include “selecting drugs, including family planning supplies, that will be included or removed from the essential drugs list (EDL) in accordance with existing practice.”

On the issue of public awareness, which is now Section 15 (previously Section 16) of the bill, Cayetano expanded its coverage to include maternal health and nutrition, as well as “family planning information and services, adolescent and youth reproductive health, guidance and counseling and other elements of reproductive health case under Section 4 (o).” It also specifies periodic review of material for public dissemination.

Cayetano also changed the title of Section 6, from Provision of Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care to Health Care Facilities, and ensured healthcare service to isolated and depressed areas with the addition of the phrase “through house-to-house visits or mobile health care clinics as needed.”

To reflect that Filipinos are kind and empathetic, and that Filipino tradition tend to “reach out and extend genuine care and concern for our countrymen in need, (and) more so for women who are pregnant and in need of special care,” Cayetano re-introduced subsection (l) in Section 3: “All complications arising from pregnancy, labor, and delivery shall be treated in a humane and compassionate manner.”

Cayetano also deleted the entire subsection (i) of Section 4 (The definition of terms) defining an “indigent.”

The other amendments concerned minor changes like the year, NGOs instead of non-government organizations, and punctuation marks.

source: interaksyon.com

Anti-RH solons still won’t agree to give contraceptives only to poorest families

After a meeting with House leaders on Wednesday, lawmakers opposing the reproductive health (RH) bill still refused to accept a version of the measure that would give contraceptives only to the poorest families in the country.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said he would not accept any version of the RH bill, or House Bill 4244, unless the provision on the promotion of artificial birth control methods is deleted.

“We believe this should be taken out. The promotion of modern family planning methods is against the doctrine of the Catholic Church,” Rodriguez said after a closed-door meeting with House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Belmonte sat down with RH critics on Wednesday afternoon to present possible amendments to the measure.

The House Speaker presented the proposal to amend the RH bill to target the government's provision of artificial contraceptives only to the poorest families in the country, as determined by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Rodriguez, however, said poor families should still be “protected from artificial contraceptives.”

“We cannot accept that contraceptives are essential medicines because pregnancy is never a disease. Besides, the provision of these contraceptives is being done now by non-governmental organizations, so why should the State come and coerce these people?” he said.

The RH bill, one of President Benigno Aquino III’s priority legislations, promotes the use of both natural and artificial methods of family planning. It is being opposed by the Roman Catholic Church, which promotes only natural forms of family planning.

The measure has yet to hurdle second reading in both chambers of Congress.

Due to ‘religious belief’

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, who was also present during the closed-door meeting, likewise admitted that some RH critics were still not convinced by a compromise version of the measure.

“Siyempre, for the hardliner, ayaw pa rin nila. Totally, talagang ayaw. Religious belief nila iyon e,” Gonzales said in a separate interview.

He added that the House leadership held the meeting to push the bill forward, despite the upcoming budget deliberations next week.

“Realistically, hindi naman talaga mate-take up ang RH ngayon e. Ang gusto lang ni Speaker mayroon maging basis ang usapan. Kung walang panibagong i-offer sa kanila na version, wala ka ring pag-uusapan,” he said.

House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, for his part, suggested that the RH bill be entirely junked, and that the funds for contraceptives be incorporated to the budget allocation for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

“Why don’t we set aside money for CCT to buy contraceptives so we don’t need a new bill? Nagiging religious war ang issue e. Position ng bishops and tenets ng Catholic Church ang nagiging usapan kaya humahaba,” he said after attending the closed door meeting.

Suarez was one of the co-authors of the RH bill, but he withdrew his support for the bill last July.— BM, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com