The current hot topic today is the RH bill. While I don’t agree with the bill 100% and there are parts of it that I think should be changed, as a whole I think it is time we put forth a law that will aide and protect our right to choose.
Now there are arguments against the bill and here are just some of them:
1. Our country is not overpopulated – We have 90 million people living in our country. True, our population may not be as dense as Singapore, Macau, etc but those are developed countries. Ours is not. They have an economy that can support their population. But even those countries have resorted to some sort of population control. The Singaporean government saw the rapid population rise as a threat to living standards. Population is a resource it has to be managed. We need to be able to not just support our population but provide an environment wherein it can thrive and thrive well.
Someone said that God’s gift to us is our population and that our biggest earners are the OFWs who go abroad and bring back dollars. Our OFWs are our modern day heroes but I would rather we have a country wherein our people are not forced to leave in order to support their families. OFWs leave our country precisely because they can’t find adequate jobs here that will support their needs. Do you really think that most of them would like to go abroad and leave their families behind? No! I would bet that most of them would rather stay here if they can find work that pays them well. A lot of families have been broken because of the distance that separates them. Spouses forced to find comfort with another person out of loneliness.
2. Having a lot of children is not bad – True! Having several children is good. In fact I think you should have as much children as you can comfortably support financially, emotionally as well as spiritually.
From my own personal experience, most of the people I know who are generally middle class, the average number of children they have is around 2 to 4. I barely know anyone from my generation who has more than 4 kids. Why? Because they know that their resources can only support as much. They have that understanding. They know that having kids does not only mean putting food on the table but also providing quality education, a good home, adequate healthcare, clothes on their back, etc.
Generally educated people have this understanding. Sadly our citizens who live below the poverty line are not blessed to have been educated this way. That’s not their fault. It was their circumstances that led to that. This is the segment of society that you see a lot of families with more kids. Why? Because they don’t know better. Also because they’ve been led to believe that having more kids increases their chances to get out of poverty because they will eventually have more family members that can work to help them out of poverty. That’s wrong. A lot of these children will be uneducated, left to fend for themselves on the streets.
So while it’s true having a lot of children is not bad. It should be based on how many children can you comfortably support.
3. RH Bill is promoting abortion – This is simply not true. In fact let me quote a section of the RH bill
“While nothing in this Act changes the law on abortion, as abortion remains a crime and is punishable, the government shall ensure that women seeking care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner.”
The RH bill does not change the fact that abortion is illegal and that it remains a crime. However it states that if someone who had an abortion needs medical treatment post-abortion, that person should be given adequate healthcare.
In the same manner that when a person is shot while committing a crime, it does not mean that he should not be brought to the hospital and given proper medical treatment. He/she still deserves to be helped.
Some people also say that contraceptives are tantamount to abortion. This is an argument that I have trouble understanding. Is using a condom same as abortion? I don’t think so. A condom is a preventive device. How can you abort something that has not happened?
If this is the case then we can argue that natural family planning is also tantamount to abortion. Why? Because you’re choosing the days to have sex, with every intention not to conceive. So you’re still actively preventing the creation of life.
4. Sex Education in school is bad – This is one argument that honestly makes me shake my head. Some people even go as far as saying that sex education in classroom is tantamount to bringing pornography to kids.
Look when people buy stuff they get a users manual with it. In fact it is recommended that you go through the users manual and familiarize yourself with how that thing works. It’s the same with our bodies.
I think there comes a time wherein children should be taught about their bodies and how things work. This should be done in and educational manner with materials based on science and fact. Not in beliefs.
People giggle and laugh when you mention penis and vagina. Why? Because they were given the impression that saying these words are bad. When in fact these are the scientific terms used to describe a man and a woman’s reproductive organ. We were taught as kids that saying these words are taboo. We were made ignorant because of outdated views.
If you taught kids the proper parts and functions of their bodies this would lead to less experimentation and less questions and curiosity.
We can’t be a nation based on religion. I say this because I know that our country or world for that matter is a very diverse world. We have different beliefs and different ideas of God and spirituality. We cannot let religion define policies that will govern a nation that is so diverse. This is a recipe for disaster.
Laws and policies crafted and enacted by the government should be gender, race, and religion neutral. We can’t have laws or not have laws for that matter that will be biased or prejudicial to any of these factors. We should have laws that put the welfare of the entire country first.
Morals and values should always be taken into consideration and there are common values and morals that are intrinsic to all people regardless of race and religion. You shall not kill, steal, cheat, etc are common to all people regardless of religion. Those common values should be upheld and enforced.
From my own personal understanding, the current RH bill in no way promotes abortion or degrades the sanctity of life. In fact I feel that as a whole it helps promote a better quality of life by providing resources necessary in order to educate people about reproductive health.
I am a Catholic. I believe in God. I was also taught that God said we should be good stewards of the resources that he has blessed us with. People are also a resource and we should be good stewards of our population. We should know that at our current situation we couldn’t support a population as huge as ours. Therefore we should manage it.
