RH bill needed to cut abortions

Once again Tuesday last week, it was made painfully clear to me why we need to have reproductive health information and family planning options readily available from responsible channels to prevent tragedies. My wife was riding with a friend when her friend’s driver got a cell phone call that got him very troubled. My wife noticed his face turn ashen with concern and she asked him to stop in a safe portion of EDSA going towards Mall of Asia.

My wife asked him what the problem was and the driver said it was an emergency call from his wife. It seems she was bleeding profusely and didn’t know what to do. The driver explained that they have been having a long running argument about his wife’s plan to abort a two or three month old fetus she was carrying. The driver said he argued against abortion but his wife was insistent.

The driver’s wife was despondent. She didn’t want to be pregnant again because it would keep her from working and helping out with the expenses. She also didn’t relish the hard work of looking after a baby again after the last ones. She had been in conversation with some friends who recommended she take a pill that will cause her to abort. She bought the pill for P200 (said to be widely available at the vicinity of Quiapo Church) and took it without telling her husband. Now she is bleeding and didn’t know what to do.

So they proceeded to the driver’s home and my wife accompanied the driver and his wife to the emergency room of a major hospital. They took an ultrasound image and found out that luckily, the fetus was not harmed.

The doctor gave some prescriptions and instructions to stop the bleeding and save the fetus. My wife counseled the driver’s wife on the evils of abortion and why resorting to it is a grievous sin. For now, it seems, the driver’s wife had been convinced to save the baby.

That was not my wife’s first personal encounter with an abortion case. Many years ago, a close relative of hers died while having an abortion performed by one of those quacks who make a good living doing that sort of thing. It was the story of young love bearing fruit she knew she wasn’t supposed to have. It was a total tragedy… such a waste of young life.

But looking back, if she only had better sex education or if the religious education she got from the Church was more effective, she may not have found herself in that predicament. She lost her life because she didn’t know any better.

The driver’s wife was luckier than my wife’s relative who became one of the half a million women who died that year due to abortion. These women didn’t want to become pregnant but because they did, resorted to abortion to deal with unwanted pregnancies. Curiously, most of those women were married to the men who got them pregnant. They just didn’t want any more children because they can no longer afford to have them.

Possibly because Church leaders have no idea of how sexuality affects our lives in the secular world (ok, this is just a polite assumption), they are sticking to a strict rule on what can and cannot be done. I, for one, am against abortion. I believe life begins at conception and I even have doubts about the use of IUDs because it prevents a fertilized egg from taking root in the mother’s womb.

But there are many more things couples can do to prevent sperm from uniting with an egg. The use of condoms, natural family planning, pills other than morning after pills, vasectomy and tubal ligation should be made available to prevent such heart breaking tragedies. Of course abstinence should be included in the list as well. But the Church should take the lead in convincing young people with raging hormones on that one.

It seems to me that providing information on the options available that will enable a woman to make a wise decision that impacts on her health should be an obligation of our public health workers. Saving women from certain death or other serious medical consequences of resorting to abortion is a worthwhile objective of any public health program.

I think our people know this need too which is why a number of prominent supporters of the RH bill were elected in the last elections. Contrary to what some bishops are saying, this is a sign of maturity. In fact surveys showed that over 80 per cent of our people believe in family planning and making information on family planning methods readily available specially to the poor who need such information most.

I know our bishops will never believe it but that RH bill may prove to be the most effective pro life measure ever. It will save the lives of babies and their mothers. Half a million would-be mothers now die due to abortion… that’s a carnage in any language. –By Boo Chanco (The Philippine Star)