RH Bill on Hot Seat

Kill Bill! The church may sound terrifyingly ironical with this as it forbids to kill. But this is what it wants to happen against the controversial Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008 (House Bill No. 5043), better known as the RH Bill. Explicitly, “Kill Bill” is just an expression to mean turn down the plan of passing the bill to become a law. For when we say law, it means any infraction of it is punishable accordingly. What is RH Bill? Ask this question to a news buff and you would hear of words such as family planning, contraceptives, sex education, and so on. But, what really it is means to read entirely the bill to be cognizant on the bases of the adversarial contentions from the government and the religious sectors.

Needless to say, let us start with the definition of term. As defined by the framers of the bill, Reproductive Health refers to the state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. This implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life, that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so, provided that these are not against the law. This further implies that women and men are afforded equal status in matters related to sexual relations and reproduction.

This definition is not representative of the entire bill but instead will only give us salient hint as to what the framers want to advocate. This all boils down to widening every person’s right to informed choice, as implicitly expressed in the constitution and clearly stated in the bill itself.
What could be the impetus of the burgeoning pro-bill supporters, including of course the head of the government and state himself, President Benigno Aguino III, in supporting the passage of this bill?
One of the bill’s guiding principles reads “Since manpower is the principal asset of every country, effective reproductive health care services must be given primacy to ensure the birth and care of healthy children and to promote responsible parenting….” With this anyone would not find it hard to support the bill. Truly, the kind of manpower a country has plays a titanic role in beefing up its culture of quality life.
On the other hand, the religious sectors’ stand against the bill circumvents to accept the use of modern methods of family planning, hence the use of modern contraceptives. Contraceptive paraphernalia will be widely available and accessible in the entire country as soon as the bill flourishes on the basis of how the distribution and information dissemination of the government will work.

In the parlance of obstetrics, there are contraceptives that work as abortifacients. Contextually, conception starts at the fertilization of the egg cell. Contraceptives work by preventing the union of sperm cell and egg cell from becoming a zygote. However, some say that conception starts at the implantation of the embryo in the uterus lining. In this case, contraceptives become abortifacient when they work to remove at least the zygote from the womb. Technically, by considering the preceding illustration, the law on abortion is already impinged.

Furthermore, the reproductive health education is believed by the “anti-bill” advocates to debilitate moral ascendancy of the people, especially the youth, on sex.
Now, will you say yes or no to the bill?
Undoubtedly, the bill promotes reproductive health and population development, a measure that our country needs to counter the heightening problems on poverty. However, what country that will prosper in the end while it is inhabited by divided people? Let conciliatory words and action seal what is best for the country.