RH Bill – the rationale beneath the underneath

The House Bill No. 5043 or more commonly known as the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008 is a very litigious issue that we generally hear nowadays. Filipinos of any age bracket is aware of the Bill’s effects and efficiency thus creating a captivating fad in the country. The Bill is extremely debatable for there are sections contained in it which are logically erroneous. Due to the reason that a large percentage of the Philippine population is not in favor of it, the bill may not be ratified to become a law.

One major flaw about this bill is that there is no bias between natural family planning and artificial family planning. While the church is highly encouraging natural family planning, the government will encourage family planning with no clear distinction whether it is artificial or natural. If this is the case, people will be more prone to do sexual intercourse even outside the context of marriage because anyway there are methods of contraception which prevent unwanted pregnancies. Skeptics argue more based on the people’s potential behavioral response to the bill. The vagueness of the bill’s section about individuals could then without restraint decide the number of children that they could have means that contraceptives could be sold to any individual regardless of his/her age. Given that condoms, birth control pills will be displayed in the market with the government’s consent, any individual will have an access to these materials. Furthermore, the right to use of these materials will no longer be regulated because it is out of the government’s control.

On a little aspect of the moral basis, there is nothing wrong with contraception or the use of contraceptives. The problem is that a lot of people faultily employ the terms contraception and abortion interchangeably. In science dictionaries circulated around the globe, contraception is generally defined as a prevention of conception. Contraception is from the root words contra (against) and conception (Formation of a viable zygote by the union of the male sperm and female ovum). Abortion is defined as the induced termination of a pregnancy with destruction of the embryo or fetus. Notice that there is a clear difference between the two terms. Nothing in the bill mentioned about the promotion of abortion, as several skeptics put an argument of the matter.

Contraceptives will limit population growth and thus provide sustainable development. What the government fails to realize is that the number of inhabitants do not cause poverty. China has the largest population in the world, but economists name it a “financial juggernaut.” The real problem is we lack the means of improving our human resources. The country’s national budget is not properly allocated and the country’s resources are not equitably distributed. The fact that a lot of people live below the poverty line is also rooted from the very reason that we Filipinos lack the initiative to work hard and obtain the highest efficiency of our skills. Therefore, reducing the country’s population is not a one ticket lottery victory that would guarantee a nation’s development.

The rationale behind the RH Bill is highly commendable. The government is just giving the Filipinos some options to weigh upon before performing such acts which would determine the quality and quantity of their lives. There are many good aspects to the bill. It would benefit the Filipinos especially women in terms of protection from sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS. However, there are also a number of questionable details. The chief reason why many people oppose it is due to its vagueness. Some sections are not clearly phrased and some terms are not clearly defined. Had the bill been revised, there is a thick chance that it would be supported by the majority and become a law.C