Faith, sex, and population growth

By Leilani Chavez, abs-cbnNEWS.com

Posted at 10/06/2010 1:02 AM | Updated as of 10/06/2010 10:36 PM

Pro-life advocate sees doom, gloom over reproductive health bills

MANILA, Philippines - Poor couples will only suffer if the reproductive health
(RH) bills that have been filed in the House of Representatives are approved and
enacted into law, a pro-life advocate said.

Eric Manalang of Pro-Life Philippines Foundation Inc. believes that the measures
disregard the opinion of a majority of the Filipinos.

He claimed that the measures will also "kill" the poor sector, which accounts for 85%
of the nation's total population.

Six bills relating to reproductive health have been filed in the lower house. All the
bills push for better access to safe, legal, and effective means of ensuring reproductive
health, safeguarding women's rights, and reducing the maternal mortality rate in the
country.

Manalang does not believe that a large population causes poverty. He said a nation's
population can raise the country's production value.

He also pointed out that a large population boosts domestic consumption.

The problem, he said, is that the government has been implementing policies that do
not maximize the nation's resources.

"The Philippines is the richest country in this part of the world, maybe the whole
world. Why has we not been able to maximize our resources? We have wrong policies
implemented wrongly for a long period of time," he told ANC's Headstart on
Tuesday.

"We are an agriculture country into follow the series of economy and replace imports.
We should increase where our land is blessed by God, with so many seeds and plants
and mountains," he added.

Cultural, political impacts

Aside from its "anti-poor" impacts, the reproductive health bills will have a cultural
impact in the country, Manalang said.

"Once you start a contraceptive mentality culture, people go overboard," he said.

Manalang added that the current bills in the lower House are "loaded" with anti-life
provisions that are allegedly influenced by the United States.
"It is initiated by US, a form of aggression, [a] form of changing our beliefs. At the
end of the day, it is an affront of sovereignty. Everything the US wants to impose is
anti-Christian," he said.

"Maliwanag [na ito] ay isang puno na napakaraming bungang masama. Isang bunga
dyan ay tungkol sa sekswalidad and effectively, removing the concept to Filipinos. Its
really very strong, its part of the sexual education component," he added.

'Agents of abortion'

Manalang also claimed that some pills and condoms are "agents of abortion" as they
contain chemicals that kill either sperm cells or human eggs.

"There are condoms that have in them lubrication that kills sperm. It's not as simple as
having lubrication," he said.

Manalang is also opposing the "withdrawal method," wherein a man pulls out his
penis from the woman's vagina before ejaculation. He said the practice is
unacceptable and violates laws set in the Bible.

"We are not technical, we are moral. More than just technical, its moral, on what
should be done for humanity. If we are looking at the point of view of moral or else
you'd end up filling ourselves, this world will end up to the way it was before man
came," he added.

Robbing conscience

Manalang also believes that the RH bills "rob" the Filipino conscience and shake the
nation's moral foundation.

He said it is not too late for President Benigno Aquino III to pull out his support for
artificial contraception.

"I think the President needed not just a conscience but an informed conscience. Let's
sit down and let's go to this process into the educating their conscience on the moral
basis of population," he offered.

"It is not the content but the way it is being presented such that there is a robbing of
our conscience. A country needs a conscience that is informed," he added.

"Reproductive health is anything but for reproduction or for health. Anytime a woman
puts on a chemical or a mechanical thing inside her body, that is not healthy. What
we're proposing and promoting, is that we use all natural family planning," he said.

Manalang said the the government should not be blinded by results of surveys, which
he claimed were made with "agenda" against the Church.

He said the Aquino should "watch out" and tread carefully because the Church will
not hesitate to launch a civil disobedience campaign against the reproductive health
bills.
"If our beliefs are threatened as Catholic Christians, do you think there will be no
revolt?," he said. "Listen not above faith but within faith. Democracy is the majority
and its the majority, its the Catholics, Christians, and the Muslims [who are against
the bill]." - Wi

by Dignitarian on Sat, 10/09/2010 - 17:12

The major reasons are as follows:

1. AS EMPLOYERS, we do not want to be compelled to provide free reproductive

health care services, supplies, devices and surgical procedures (i.e., laced vaccines,
vasectomy and ligation) to our employees, and subjected to imprisonment and/or a
fine, when we fail to comply. (Section 17 states that employers shall provide free
delivery of reproductive health care services, supplies and devices to all workers
particularly women workers. (Definition of Reproductive Health and Rights Section
4, paragraph g, Section 21, Paragraph c and Section 22 on Penalties)

2. AS HEALTH CARE SERVICE PROVIDERS, we do not want imprisonment

and/or a fine, if we fail to provide reproductive health care services such as giving
information on family planning methods and providing services that are against our
conscience, like vaccination, ligation and vasectomy, regardless of the patient's civil
status, gender, religion or age ( Section 21 on Prohibited Acts, Letter a, Paragraphs 1
to 5 and Section 22 on Penalties)

3. AS SPOUSES, we do not agree to undergo vaccination, ligation or vasectomy

without our consent or knowledge. (Section 21 on Prohibited Acts, Letter a,
Paragraph 2)

4. AS PARENTS, we do not agree that our children ages 10 to 17 be taught their

sexual rights and the means to have a satisfying and "safe" sex life in their school
curriculum. (Section 12 on Reproductive Health Education and Section 4 Definition
of Family Planning and Productive Health, Paragraph b, c and d)

5. AS CITIZENS, we do not want to be subjected to imprisonment and/or pay a fine,

for expressing an opinion against any provision of this law, if such expression of
opinion is interpreted as constituting "malicious disinformation" ( Section 21 on
Prohibited Acts, Paragraph f and Section 22 on Penalties)

6. We also oppose other provisions such as losing our parental authority over a minor
child who was raped and found pregnant (Section 21, a, no.3)

7. We also do not agree to the provision which reclassifies contraceptives as essential

medicines (Section 10) and appropriating limited government funds to reproductive
services instead of basic services (Section 23)

Thus, they urge congress to immediately stop deliberations on the bill and stop
wasting taxpayers money.