Determining truth by surveys

Can we use opinion polls in determining what is right or wrong, what is true or not, what is good or bad or what is lawful or unlawful? Can these issues be determined in a popularity contest? Definitely not; we cannot say that crossing streets anywhere or jaywalking, jueteng or illegal gambling are right and lawful just because a great majority of Pinoys say so based on survey results. Neither can we say that smoking and drinking alcohol in excess are not bad for the health just because a great majority of Pinoys like them as their favorite pastime based on survey results. Nor can we say that government officials past or present are guilty of graft and corruption and other wrongdoings just because public opinion formed by undue publicity says so according to survey results. Or to put it in the extreme, we cannot say that something black is already white just because a great number of people see it so, based on surveys conducted for this purpose.

Yet this method is precisely being used now to convince Congress to pass the RH bill. The bill’s backers are now using survey results allegedly showing high public support for the RH bill as reason enough to enact it into law.

In effect, they are telling Congress and all of us that because of survey results, life does not begin at the fertilization of the ovum or at conception but at the implantation of the fertilized ovum in the uterus so that using contraceptives preventing implantation of a fertilized ovum is not abortion as its sponsors repeatedly contend. They are telling Congress that because of survey results favoring the RH bill, women’s reproductive health rights and couple’s exercise of responsible parenthood in planning the size of the family takes precedence over the right to life so as to allow the use of contraceptives proven to be abortifacients.

They are telling us and Congress that because of survey results, there is no direct link between contraception and abortion even if evidences and the very findings in other countries especially the USA shows that contraception leads to higher abortion rates and that there is a direct link between contraception and abortion as the US Supreme Court openly admits in Casey vs. Planned Parenthood. In other words they are now telling us that because of survey results it is lawful for women to take the life of a helpless and unborn child from the moment of conception in the exercise of their freedom of choice to promote their reproductive health.

They are telling Congress that because of survey results favoring the RH bill, billions of pesos of public funds should be spent to subsidize the purchase and make those dangerous contraceptives available to poor couples so they can exercise responsible parenthood in planning the size of the family and to poor women so they can have freedom of choice in exercising their reproductive health rights which they are deprived of because of lack of money. In other words they are telling Congress through the survey results that government has to spend public funds to purchase those contraceptives so that the problem of poverty can be solved or at least alleviated by reducing the number of victims of the problem, by reducing the number of poor people.

They are also telling Congress that because of survey results favoring the RH bill, promoting the use of hormonal and chemical contraceptives is okay even if they endanger the health of women as they destroy the natural cycles and balances in the women’s body. They are telling Congress and all of us that because of the survey results it is okay to use contraceptives even if it can cause cancer, hardening of the blood vessels and other sickness on women and children.

They are asserting that because of the survey results favoring the RH bill, the government can take over from the parents their primary right and duty to educate their children on human sexuality by requiring it to be taught in classrooms merely in its biological aspect that undervalues the sacredness of sex and disregards the concept that the use of sexual faculties should be always open to life.

It just doesn’t sound and look right that a certain percentage of 1,200 respondents nationwide could tell Congress to pass this bill. Even if these respondents represent a cross section of the population, the number is just too small to be relied upon as duly representative of the entire population. Besides, the questions propounded on the respondents may already be suggestive of the desired answers, not to mention that the results themselves can be subject to differing interpretations.

For example, in the June 3 to 6 poll conducted by the SWS, the results show that 82% of 1,200 respondents nationwide see family planning as a personal choice that should not be interfered with. This can be readily interpreted to mean that when it comes to family planning the government should lay its hands off. So there is really no need to pass the RH bill. Yet in the same survey, 68% believed that the government should subsidize both natural and artificial family planning method and then 73 % also believed that the government should educate couples on the legal methods of planning the family size. The last two responses seem to contradict the first response, yet they are supposed to have been made by the same respondents in the same survey! Besides even if these respondents believed that the government should interfere in those two aspects they could be done even without any RH bill.

All told therefore, surveys should not be used in resolving these issues surrounding the RH bill. The truth and correctness of any proposition are not matters determined by popularity polls. –Jose C. Sison (The Philippine Star)

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