The Reproductive Health Bill (RH Bill) is one hell of a beast. The Philippines’ Roman Catholic Church literally sees it as such — a beast straight out of hell that will undermine everything that it stands for. It has, today, come down to the vote: Will Philippine Congress approve or reject the bill? It is therefore ultimately (as with most things of consequence for that matter) political.
As with most things political, the epicentre of the politicking needs to be politically correct in order for the right personalities to be on board. The RH Bill has now been made politically-correct beyond recognition. The Bill is now, supposedly about “about health, rights, [and] choices.”
But is it really?
Back in the old days, there was really just one overarching issue that ready-access to artificial contraception really sought to address: population. The short of it is quite simple, really:
The Philippines is over-populated.
We have committed to supporting a 100-million-strong portfolio of humanity despite an inherent inability to generate enough economic output to sustain these numbers in a manner that meets established global standards of human development. This simple reality ties back to my definition of poverty:
Our poverty stems from an inherent inability to honour commitments we have locked ourselves into.
Every child born is a commitment we need to honour. Our commitment to every child born is to raise her so that she develops into a productive adult that can contribute to the economy. People who are not prepared to honour that commitment should not have children lest the children they bear become mere burdens to the lot already crowding and laying waste to this wretched nation.
So whilst ready-access to contraception (which made direct sense in the context of national poverty) has since been re-branded to “reproductive health” (which muddles the whole point), the true essence of the much-needed social re-engineering effort has gone from the real — stemming the increase in numbers of a people renowned for their inability to feed themselves — to the nebulous — “health, rights, and choices” — after all the emo activists and legislators took it all over and articulated it in their peachy slogans, taglines, and now its ultimate form: the flawed construct we call the “RH Bill”.
And we wonder why Da Pinoy story never gets told — because we are a people who never fail to exhibit our talent for losing the plot.
The whole “debate” around “reproductive health” now misses the point — that we are all personally responsible for our future fortunes. Unfortunately, Filipinos are a people not exactly renowned for a strong ethic of personal responsibility.
It is only when we understand that we are all ultimately personally responsible for our own fortunes that we begin to become aware of how many aspects of our culture contribute to propagating a culture of poverty. We are a society imprisoned in a mindset that is grounded on the notions that we cannot influence our own destinies, that employment is owed to us by Government, and that those who have more have in some way deprived us of opportunity simply by being “more fortunate”. We think that good fortune is granted to us by “God’s graces” and that bad fortune is “God’s will”.
Before there can be “health, rights, and choices” there needs to be enough wealth to underpin all of those. In order to have enough wealth to get around you have to both (1) live within your means and (2) create more wealth to sustain increased consumption. Filipinos have demonstrated a consistent inability to do the latter: create wealth indigenously even in the best of circumstances. Therefore, the choice is clear: Filipinos must live within their means. In the context of population it means that our numbers need to be controlled so that we don’t outstrip our naturally-stunted abilities to feed and employ our lot.
Is it really about “reproductive health”? Think again. History has shown that well-meaning activist rhetoric and, more so, agenda-driven politics does not necessarily equate to the right thinking.
I’m a person who’s fond of rehash…
I’ve commented this already in this blog about this RH Bill…
http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2011/05/rh-bill-debate-pacman-not-kod-by-lagman-but-beaten-on-points/comment-page-1/#comment-4333
benign0: “(3) As far as contraception is concerned, Filipinos already practice what they feel is right, so there is no need for legislation to support these practices.”
For me, this is the best argument against this RH bill.
Global warming was rebranded to climate change then to climate crisis so as to make it sound not too political.
Seems to me it is the same with Reproductive Health Bill, which sounds as if antiseptic is involved, being rebranded to Responsible Parenthood Bill which sounds as if everybody is in a playground just playing around.
When this legislation was introduced, hilariously, I was thinking that those who are practicing family planning are committing something that might be illegal. Some sort of a legislation has to be passed in order to make family planning legal.
He he he, of course, I was flat-out wrong.
Heh, I might be wrong on the illegal thing but there is this “freedom of choice” issue that will be resolved if the RH Bill is passed according to Lagman. (Alas, there is something that is not right and that is not necessarily illegal as I have suspected all along.)
Does it mean that when that bill is passed, there will be a referendum as to what will be the majority’s choice of birth control pill?
But then, the way those proponents of the bill are explaining, in order for the RH Bill to be easily (and at no cost) to everybody including those grade five pupils, provided with the bills are some mandates like compelling employers “to provide free reproductive health care services, supplies, devices and surgical procedures (including vasectomy and ligation) to its employees” and the bill subjects employees “to both imprisonment and/or fine, for every time that” the employee fails to comply with the requirement. (I might not be updated, nevertheless, this is what in Lagman’s mind when he crafted the bill.)
BTW, just read the Section 12 of the bill.
Me? I thought it is an advertisement of a new course being offered by a university.
Don’t forget that the bill will also “penalize any person who maliciously engaged in disinformation about the intent or provisions of this Act.”
So, you anti RH Bill, you fanatics, your days are numbered!
Hmm, condom country people feel free from std it seem. Why 19 million a year is recorded to be infected of std in the US of A? is this data a product of make-believe?
I cant speak intelligently about those numbers you mention. But 19m seems to me very high on a population of what, 600m?
All I know is how to prevent acquiring any STD and that is to have safe sex.
My just conquered new partner can tell me anything including that she is still a virgin. But must I beleive her words? Wow, dont call me naieve and ignorant. And if I and she insist on having careless unsafe sex then I will send her to an hospital and do a STD-check. That is not romantic but I rather stay a few more years alive in good health then have to cure an STD or worse AIDS/HIV.
I label myself as D&D-free (D = Drugs; D = disease) and I am very happy, glad & willingly to do any STD-test if in case any current or future partner doesnt beleive my words.
I am responsible for my own body and also responsible for my partner´s body. I see it as a “crime” to knowingly and deliberately give my partner any disease like STD or worse AIDS/HIV by having unsafe sex.
Killing is to extinguish a life. May I ask if there is a provision in the Bill that says “ABORTION”?
@tito
What made you think that there is a word “abortion” in that bill? That will be a kiss of death for the bill they’re promoting.
Those abortion advocates wouldnot like to be labeled as “pro-abortion”. They’re “pro-choice”.
But then, if you want RH Bill to have a correlation with abortion, according to Guttmacher reports, 54% of women having abortions used birth control at the time of their abortion.
More of them at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
TROLL.
You need to look at the bigger picture. Just an advice.