THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL has returned to the tables of discourse recently after Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III announced his bid for the Pressidency. Aquino’s detractors wanted to ruin his image of being the candidate of the widest popular support base by bringing in an issue designed to throw a wedge between his Catholic supporters and the Catholic Church hierarchy, and even revived an outright lie: that the RH Bill is seeking to legalize abortion. I don’t remember seeing among the 10 commandments an item equating contraception to abortion, but I remember very clearly that the Eighth Commandment prohibits lying.
Earlier, Rep, Risa Hontiveros, my candidate for a Senate seat in the May 2010 elections, took pains to explain why nothing in the RH Bill legalizes abotion which is murder.
In an interview with the staff of the Manila Bulletin, specifically of its students-oriented section, Rep. Hontiveros said:
“This bill is not about abortion but about RH, information, products and services whether natural or modern, it is a matter of intellectual honesty.
“There’s a provision there that says 'nothing in this Act amends the Revised Penal Code (RPC) under which abortion is a crime and punishable.' Ganon ka-categorical. Under RPC, abortion is a crime and there are penalties and sanctions. And those will be untouched by our bill when it becomes a law.”
She says more to put the issue in a broaded context. And for her other statements, hereunder is the pertinent excerpt from that inerview
(Full text of interview is on http://www.mb.com/articles/199772/rep-risa-hontiverosbaraquel.)
Bulletin: With all the criticisms about the Reproductive Health bill, what frustrates you the most? Is it the fact that some say it’s anti-life?
Rep. Risa: What’s more frustrating for me is what they’re saying that this will legalize abortion. All it takes to know is that this bill is not about abortion but about RH, information, products and services whether natural or modern, it is a matter of intellectual honesty.There’s a provision there that says nothing in this Act amends the Revised Penal Code (RPC) under which abortion is a crime and punishable. Ganon ka-categorical. Under RPC, abortion is a crime and there are penalties and sanctions. And those will be untouched by our bill when it becomes a law.O yung insistence nila na age appropriate adolescent RH education will lead to teen promiscuity. That flies in the face of the experience in other countries, documented. That with an RH education policy and program in the schools, partnering the parents in the homes, in the families, the onset of sexual relations among teens is delayed and multiple partners are discouraged, greater monogamy is observed among young people and certainly yung incidence of HIV, AIDS and other sexual diseases is on the decline. So how can that be negative?
Bulletin: Sinasapawan niyo raw yung right as a Catholic citizen?
Rep. Risa: Ay ang sarap nun! I am Catholic by the way. And I want an RH law and I think government should spend for family planning. I think this is a political issue and the party should include RH in their platform.Yung isang maganda pang side benefit pag naging batas na itong RH bill, is I think we will contribute to breaking the myth of the Catholic vote. Kasi di ba turo ng obispo natin that free will is a grace from God. One of the aims of the Catholic education is the formation of conscience. So pagkatapos nila i-form yung conscience natin bakit ayaw nilang gamiting natin ng malaya?Ultimately it is a secular issue, it’s a matter of public policy, it should be for all Filipinos. Not just Catholics. People of whatever faith or people of no faith. If they say they’re agnostic or atheistic, the law should serve them. Hindi dapat magdikta ang simbahan o estado.
blog posted. 09-23-09
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