Government to promote both artificial, natural birth control

MANILA, Philippines – Health Secretary Enrique Ona yesterday said the Department of Health (DOH) would equally promote both the natural and artificial methods of family planning.

“It’s hard to discuss it in the context of pregnancy alone. It should be in the whole gamut of being a parent in the context of responsible parenthood,” Ona said in press briefing, even as he reserved comment on the brewing war between President Aquino and the Catholic Church over contraceptives.

The Church is upset over Mr. Aquino’s pronouncement that he would support couples who want to use contraceptives to limit the size of their families.

According to Ona, the DOH’s budget for reproductive health for 2011 is P931 million and this involves the procurement of contraceptives, information campaigns and other advocacies.

Ona added that it is important for couples to know that there are options available for them in spacing pregnancies.

Aside from promoting family planning, the DOH is also advocating the use of condoms to curb the rise of HIV/AIDS cases in the country.

GMA wants compromise

Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo called for a formula that could finally allow the government to enact a reproductive health law that reconciles the conflicting positions of the Catholic Church and pro-choice advocates, particularly on the issue of birth control.

Mrs. Arroyo issued the call in a chance interview as a major rift between President Aquino and Church leaders is developing over his vocal support for the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill pending in Congress.

She cited the case of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law that was enacted after consolidating and reconciling the best provisions of different bills.

“There must be a formulation – if you look hard enough – that will satisfy, that can address the most basic concerns of most significant sectors. That is what I would like to look for,” Mrs. Arroyo told reporters.

“When I decided to run for Congress I said I will pursue as congresswoman the priority initiatives I pursued when I was president and among them was promotion of gender equity,” she said.

She said she was proud that under her administration, the country’s Millennium Development Goals status on gender equity graduated from “low” in 2003 to “high” in 2005.

Mrs. Arroyo said she would look into issues on teenage maternal mortality with the increasing incidence of teenage pregnancies.

House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman meanwhile backed President Aquino’s stand supporting the long-pending RH Bill in Congress and said the opposition of the Catholic Church on the measure can easily be overcome.

“I’m very positive and optimistic that together, the executive and the legislative departments will adequately surmount the opposition of the Church because at no time in the course of congressional history is the RH Bill having a very good chance (of passage),” Lagman said in a press conference.

“The Church can continue on its mission to save souls but the State must pursue unhampered a program which reduces maternal and infant mortality in the secular realm,” he said.

He said the support of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. is also a big boost to achieve better reproductive health in the country.

Deputy Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said he believes Mr. Aquino would remain steadfast in his position and would not give in to the Catholic Church.

“It’s the freedom of informed choice that is at stake here, neither the Church nor the State can force a particular family to pick a particular family planning method. I think the Church should understand that no one is being compelled here,” Suarez said.

Lagman said political leaders should not be afraid of voicing their support for the RH Bill as surveys in the past 20 years have consistently showed the electorate supported candidates who have a clear platform on reproductive health.

He said there is need for a comprehensive, rights-based, health-oriented and development-driven reproductive health law because “there is definitely more to family planning than pills and condoms, because RH saves lives.”

He clarified that House Bill 96 on Reproductive Health and Population and Development is primarily a health measure. “It will promote maternal and infant health even as it will help prevent the deaths of thousands of mothers and babies annually,” he said.

He said in the Philippines, 11 mothers die daily and the lifetime risk of maternal death in the country is 1 in 140, compared to 1 in 8,000 for women in developed countries. RH advocates maintain that universal access to reproductive health information and services will help improve overall health and reduce poverty.

“Studies by the WHO, UNDP and UNFPA confirm that correct and consistent use of contraceptives will prevent one-third of all maternal deaths,” Lagman said. He also stressed that virtually all or 98 percent of maternal deaths happen in developing countries like the Philippines.

In its State of the World’s Children Report way back in 1992, the Unicef also asserted that “family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race.”

Lagman explained that family planning would have a direct effect on maternal mortality by reducing the number of high-risk pregnancies. “Family planning will help women who are at a higher risk of maternal death avoid unplanned pregnancies,” he said.

He said the RH bill will also most definitely help lower the incidence of abortion by preventing unplanned, mistimed and unwanted pregnancies which are the ones being terminated through induced abortion. Moreover, he said that research by the Allan Guttmacher Institute shows that contraceptive use reduces abortion rates by 85 percent.

PCEC calls for options

The Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) yesterday encouraged the Aquino administration to provide married couples with options that would not lead to abortion.

PCEC national director Bishop Efraim Tendero issued the statement after President Aquino announced that the government, upon request, would hand out contraceptives to poor couples.

“We also support programs that will help make us good stewards of population growth. We are encouraging President Aquino and other government officials to offer married couples various birth control methods that are non-abortive in nature so that they can decide more wisely what is best for themselves,” Tendero said.

He, however, declined to state categorically if the PCEC is supporting the Aquino administration’s plan.

But he did say in the statement, “We believe that life begins at conception. Unborn babies, at whatever stage of pregnancy, should be preserved and protected. Termination of this life is sinful and offensive to God. But preventing pregnancy or conception is not abortion for no life has yet been conceived and there is nothing to be terminated.”

In the statement titled: “Evangelical Guidelines on the Issue of Population Control,” the PCEC also said that they abide by the government’s programs and policies that would improve the people’s quality of life, which should include good governance and faithful stewardship of our resources.

On the part of the Church, the religious organization believes that it should give counseling to married couples where they would be taught responsible parenthood, family planning and different means of birth control.

The Church should also sponsor programs that will promote godly and wise stewardship of their families. Providing for the material needs of one’s family is not only an urgent economic issue, it is also a serious spiritual concern, the council said.

“If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever,” it said.

The PCEC said that it was concerned with the alarming growth of the country’s population that would take a toll on resources.

Meanwhile, an official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) warned the Aquino government that there could be civil disobedience if the RH Bill would be implemented.

CBCP Public Affairs Committee chairman Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez yesterday said that civil disobedience might be the last resort of those who believe that they should protect the sanctity of life.

“I have not yet formally called for a civil disobedience but that goes without saying that if there is a provision of the law wherein if it becomes a law, it would be against the teachings of the Church, we cannot obey them,” Iniguez said.

But he clarified that their concept of civil disobedience does not encourage people to turn their back on their responsibility     to pay taxes. –-Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) with Paolo Romero, Evelyn Macairan