RH bills set for consolidation

THE controversial six pending reproductive health (RH) bills in the House of Representatives have been referred to a technical working group (TWG) for consolidation, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said.

Belmonte disclosed that this developed after the public hearing on the six proposed RH measures conducted by the House Committee on Population and Family Relations on Wednesday.

The House Speaker was referring to the six proposed RH bills providing for a national policy on reproductive health, responsible parenthood and population development (including contraceptives and pills) authored by Rep. Janette Garin of the First District of Iloilo, Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, Rep. Kaka Bag-ao of Akbayan party-list, Rep. Rodolfo Biazon of the Lone District of Muntinlupa, Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela party-list and Rep. Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco of the Second District of Iloilo.

The TWG, Belmonte said, will be different from the one set up by the Palace and Catholic Church leaders as a result of the said parties’ dialogue also this week.

“As I have said before, what we are trying to do here is go on with the process and complete it by putting the RH into a [plenary] vote. We do not want it killed off in some levels,” Belmonte said during a press conference on Thursday.

The Quezon City fourth district representative believes that the 283 congressmen would have something to say about the RH bill, but are just quiet for now.

“I don’t like to [flex] muscle at anyone. I would like to give them a chance to vote,” Belmonte added.

During Wednesday’s hearing, the debate on where life starts dominated the discussions because anti-RH lawmakers and groups alike were stressing that life starts at fertilization (meeting of sperm and egg cell) and as such, contraceptives and pills provided for under the pending RH bills could be abortifacients and are hazardous to women.

Garin, one of the authors of the six RH bills, stressed that nobody can determine where life of a fetus starts because the start of life in one occasion is not always the same as the other one, considering that there are mothers who get impregnated but cannot actually proceed to have a full-term pregnancy because it could be fatal for the mother and the baby in the womb.

“Determining it [start of life] is complicated. In the case of the blighted ovum, the OB has to ease that out. Otherwise it will be very fatal for the mother,” Garin, who is an obstetrician/gynecologist by profession, pointed out.

“God made life so unique so that we cannot just meddle on life. Nobody can actually define the start of life,” she added.

She raised the argument after Rep. Pablo Garcia of the Third District of Cebu sought clarification from the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) representative in the hearing if indeed the PMA issued a statement agreeing that life starts at fertilization which is the meeting of the sperm and egg cell.

PMA’s representative Dr. Santiago del Rosario belied the report, saying that the PMA does not have a position on the start of life but only recommendation to the RH bill.

Defining the start of life, Garin said, would also automatically disallow invitro fertilization for that matter.

“There are lots of things in this world that we cannot explain and life is one of those things. We are just humans. We are not like
God. We cannot pretend to be God and say we know the start of life,” Garin said.
Garcia who staunchly opposes the RH bill, was unfazed by Garin’s claims.

“Regardless of what would the doctors say, the RH bill should not be passed because its provisions contravene the Constitutional provision which states that the state should equally protect the life of the mother and the unborn child from the moment of conception,” Garcia pointed out.

Rep. Anthony Golez Jr. of the Lone District of Bacolod City has earlier said that half of the artificial family planning methods in the reproductive health could be illegal if the state will decide to adopt the idea that life begins at fertilization, not at implantation. –Llanesca T. Panti, Reporter, Manila Times