RH bill won’t favor one family planning method’

MANILA, Philippines –  Malacañang yesterday reiterated that the Responsible Parenthood bill, the administration’s version of the Reproductive Health bill, will not favor one kind of family planning method over the other.

“The RP bill means that we will not favor one (method) over the other,” said deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte.

Proponents of the RH bill have criticized President Aquino for deferring inclusion of the measure in the agenda of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meet on Feb. 28.

Palace officials said the inclusion of the RH bill in the LEDAC agenda had been deferred because the government still has one final dialogue with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

“As I’ve said, we’re committed with the dialogue and it is prudent for us to finish first before taking any further action on the matter,” Valte said.

There were reports that priests from the Sanctuario de San Jose in Greenhills have threatened to deny communion to supporters of the RH bill.

“What they will do with their flock is beyond the ambit of government. It’s between the church and its members. The CBCP has its official stand with regard to the RH bill,” Valte said.

Aquino, interviewed at the inauguration of new medical equipment at the state-run East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City, described the RP bill as a “reorientation” of the RH bill.

He said that instead of promoting a specific kind of family planning, the bill stipulates that the public be provided a full range of information on family planning methods.

“We really believe that it will be best left to the discretion and decision of the parents themselves,” Aquino said. –-Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star)
with Evelyn Macairan