RH bills filed in 15th Congress

This is a bright new day for reproductive health advocates. After years of pushing for the passage of a comprehensive and nationwide reproductive health policy, legislators, principally led by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of the First District of Albay, are optimistic that the 15th Congress will finally pass a reproductive health law.

Along with Lagman’s bill are those filed on the first day of the new Congress, by Representatives Janette L. Garin, M.D., joint sponsors Kaka Bag-ao and Walden Bello, and Rodolfo G. Biazon.

In the Senate, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed S.No. 2378.

Hopes of a successful passage of a law are borne by there being more pro-RH advocates in the new Congress, as opposed to the previous congresses.

What’s more, a vital member of the 15th Congress promises swift action on not necessarily the bill’s passage, but on its being given due course for discussion. Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte, whose successful record as a three-term Quezon City mayor includes promoting positive gender and reproductive health programs, has made clear that the RH bill will be “discussed and hopefully brought to a fruition.”

Belmonte has been quoted as saying, “I don’t know if it (the RH bill) will pass the House, but definitely it will reach a point of being voted on.” Along with the bills on divorce, he promised its consideration for discussion. These bills which he described as “controversial ones that really make life here interesting, should go through the mill . . . Hindi papatayin mo na kaagad sa committee at some early stage.” Belmonte also said it would be difficult for him to reveal his personal position on the two measures although the House will eventually have to vote on them in the plenary. Fair enough.

Representative Lagman expressed confidence of the bill’s passage on account of many of the 132 co-authors of the bills in the 14th Congress having been reelected. He refiled House Bill 96 entitled “Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population and Development” on the first day of the 15th Congress.

Lagman told a reporter of GMA News that during the 14th Congress, the RH bill “reached extensive debates on second reading, unlike in previous congresses where (it) languished at the committee level and sponsorship stage.” The bill, however, was not approved “because of maneuvers from the opposition, lack of quorum, and faltering commitment of the House leadership.”

The congressman emphasized that the RH bill is neither pro-abortion nor anti-life, as detractors keep saying. Its central thrust is for freedom of informed choice, that parents, couples and women should be given the freedom to choose from a menu of modern, natural and artificial family planning methods which are medically safe, legal, accessible, affordable and effective. The Catholic church only approves of the natural family planning method, which Lagman and other RH advocates say is not an effective family planning measure.

In his explanatory note, Lagman said when the first RH bill — HB 8110 or “The Integrated Population and Development Act of 1999” was filed in the 11th Congress, the Philippine population was 75 million. Today, ten years later, the population has leapt to 94.3 million — an annual average increase of almost two million every year in ten years.

Lagman’s House Bill 96, titled “Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population and Development,” reiterates the link between population and development, because, said Lagman, “the issue of population directly affects human development indicators on health, education, food security, employment, mass housing and the environment. “

Lagman said the bill is “rights-based, health-oriented and development driven, and that “neither the State nor the Church can compel the citizens or the faithful to adopt a particular method of family planning.”

In the Senate, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed Senate Bill 2378, which cites that hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine devices, injectables, and other safe and effective family planning products and supplies shall be part of the National Drug Formulary and included in the regular purchase of essential medicines and supplies of all national and local hospitals and other government health units. The DOH shall spearhead the procurement, distribution and usage, and monitoring of these supplies, to LGUs.

The bill makes mandatory age-appropriate reproductive health and sexuality education. Well-trained teachers start teaching sex education among Grade V pupils, the curriculum to be formed by an inter-agency committee and which shall be used for public and private schools, plus the Department of Education shall provide parents with reproductive health education-related materials.

The Santiago bill requires training of barangay health works and other community-based health workers in the promotion of reproductive health, and that they shall receive at last 10 per cent increase in honoraria. It says employers shall respect the reproductive health rights of all their workers, and provide reproductive health services to employees in their health facilities or in partnership with other health campaigns. The DOH shall initiate and sustain a heightened nationwide multi-media campaign to raise the level of public awareness of the protection and promotion of reproductive health and rights.

Only the Lagman bill encourages couples to have only two children. It says that the state shall assist couples, parents and individuals to achieve their desired family size within the context of responsible parenthood for sustainable development “and encourage them to have two children as the ideal family size. Attaining the ideal family size is neither mandatory nor compulsory. No punitive action shall be imposed on parents having more than two children.”

The bill penalizes a public official who, personally or through a subordinate, prohibits or restricts the delivery of legal and medically-safe reproductive health care services, including family planning, or forces, coerces or induces any person to use such service.

According to the senator, “Reproductive health and family planning significantly improves maternal health and lowers maternal morbidity. Having the ability to plan and space children will afford women more employment, educational opportunities, and ultimately, economic empowerment.”

Santiago emphasizes that the bill does not promote abortion. “In fact, this bill is ‘pro-life.’ While it does not amend the penal law on abortion, it ensures that women needing care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and not left to die. The state’s legal enforcement of the abortion prohibition must not inhibit women’s right to access this life-saving medical procedure.”

Notes Santiago: “The Constitution guarantees full respect for human rights. Health is a fundamental human right indispensable for the exercise of other human rights and conducive to living a life in dignity. Passage of this bill is a step towards the attainment of that constitutional guarantee.” –Domini M. Torrevillas (The Philippine Star)

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