‘Pro-life’ solons want RH Law repealed

By XIANNE ARCANGEL, GMA News

Published February 23, 2015 10:43am

(Updated 12:14 p.m.) More than two years after the Reproductive Health Law was passed, a group of 'pro-life' lawmakers have filed a measure seeking to repeal the controversial legislation.

House Bill 5373 principally authored by Buhay party-list Rep. Jose “Lito” Atienza Jr., proposes to repeal all laws, decrees, rules, regulations, and executive orders related to the RH Law.

Aside from Atienza, other co-authors of the bill are Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz, Quezon Rep. Aleta Suarez, La Union Rep. Victor Ortega Surigao del Sur Rep. Philip Pichay, Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Macapagal-Arroyo and Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla.

In the bill’s explanatory note, the lawmakers took RH Law advocates to task for considering the country’s growing population a burden and the cause of poverty.

“They are conveniently forgetting the fact that it is our growing population of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and their billions of dollars in remittances that is keeping our country’s economy afloat,” they said.

The pro-life lawmakers said no less than Pope Francis had admonished and called on all stakeholders to protect families during his visit to Manila last month.

“See in them your country’s greatest treasure. Be sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death,” Suarez quoted Pope Francis as saying during his “Meeting with Families.”

As an alternative of promoting the use of contraceptives to Filipino couples, the lawmakers said the government should be spending money for healthcare services and reinforcing positive Filipino values in order to set a good example to children.

“Instead of teaching them to use contraceptives and to look at pregnancy as a disease and a burden, we should be promoting responsible parenthood and the culture of life,” they said.

The legislators warned that allowing Filipino families access to “massive doses of anti-life programs” would only destroy the country’s future.

The RH law, passed in 2012, gives the government authority to procure condoms and promote artificial birth control methods.

Filipino bishops had opposed the passage of the measure since the Roman Catholic Church only supports natural ways of contraception.

During the 15th Congress, Atienza described the RH bill as “anti-life,” “unconstitutional” and “worse than Martial Law.”

Last year, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the RH Law, otherwise known as 10354, except for certain provisions in the legislation and its implementing rules.

Among the provisions in the law struck down by the court include those in Section 7 obliging private hospitals and those owned by religious groups to refer patients to other facilities that offer reproductive health services, as well as allowing minors to avail of family planning services without parental consent if they have already given birth or suffered a miscarriage. — RSJ, GMA News

Tags: rhlaw, reproductivehealthbill, reproductivehealthlaw, reproductivehealth