Reproductive Health

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s population is expected to balloon to 95.8 million this year, the Commission on Population (PopCom) said. The National Statistics Office has not yet released the results of the census conducted in May 2010 but the population for the past year was estimated at 94.01 million.

Last Tuesday was the Holy Innocents Day, when King Herod ordered the killing of all the children in Bethlehem because the Magi did not return to him to inform him where the Messiah was in Bethlehem. The poor innocent little children of Bethlehem became the first Martyrs who died in the name of our Lord…

WE WELCOME the recent announcement that Malacañang and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines have agreed to launch a “universally acceptable” information campaign on reproductive health (RH), following earlier reports that the CBCP and the Philippine Medical Association (PMA), the biggest group of physicians in the country, share the same view on the beginning…

MANILA, Philippines – The European Union (EU) hopes the House of Representatives and the Senate will approve the Reproductive Health (RH) bill despite lawmakers’ pronouncements that the measure is not among the priority legislations in 2011.

MANILA, Philippines – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in 2010 focused its attention on two main advocacies — the May 10 national elections and the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

REP. Edcel Lagman of the First District of Albay on Sunday criticized the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), saying that the history of Christianity is purportedly “engulfed” with terrorism and is not about reproductive health. Lagman, who authored one of the six reproductive health (RH) bills pending in Congress, made…

MANILA, Philippines – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in 2010 focused its attention on two main advocacies — the May 10 national elections and the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE MANILA, Philippines―With the impending passage of the reproductive health (RH) bill, “unpeace in the womb” is one of the most “glaring” threats Filipinos face this coming new year, the president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Saturday.

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga, Philippines—Protect the family. This message rang out in Pampanga on Christmas Day when Archbishop Paciano Aniceto dwelt on the dangers posed by the reproductive health (RH) bill in his pastoral statement that was read in 92 parishes during Misa de Gallo.

TOKYO – East Asia’s booming economies have for years been the envy of the world, but a shortfall in one crucial area — babies — threatens to render yesterday’s tigers toothless.

It’s not surprising surveys that purport that many Filipinos find contraceptives acceptable (or that imply that contraceptives should be used for population control) are being used to promote the RH bill. Two problems quickly come to mind when it comes to the use of such surveys to determine state policy: reference framework issues and governance…

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican on Tuesday sought to clarify the pope’s controversial comments about condoms and HIV, saying he by no means suggested condom use could be condoned as a means of avoiding pregnancy.

NAVAL, Biliran, Philippines – Although it is considered still a priority, the House of Representatives is not rushing up the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill now pending with Congress.

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.

Deliberations on the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill are still not among the priority agenda of the upper chamber next year, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday.

Church leaders have softened their position with respect to the information drive the government is planning to launch as part of its measures to promote President Aquino’s policy on responsible parenthood that would include both natural and artificial family planning methods, Malacañang implied yesterday.

Advocates of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill in the House of Representatives yesterday suffered a big setback even as the P200-million budget for the purchase of condoms and contraceptives was removed from the budget.

THE Aquino government and the Catholic Church on Wednesday have agreed to provide the public “full information” on the methods of family planning, both natural and artificial.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) last week recognized an electronics firm, a cement and aggregates manufacturer, and the country’s only copper smelter and refinery for having the best family welfare program (FWP) in the country that effectively reduced absenteeism among their workers and promoted productivity and industrial peace in their workplaces.

REPRODUCTIVE health is now the focus of much talk as Congress starts hearings on RH bills. This article scans through the many arguments (pros and cons) of the debate. The sources cited below can be found easily via an Internet search.

MANILA, Philippines –  Life begins at fertilization. Having agreed to this principle with the Catholic church, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) has asked the Department of Health (DOH) for an inventory of contraceptives used in its family planning program on fears that some may contain abortifacients.  

THE Philippine Medical Association (PMA), the umbrella organization of medical doctors in the country, over the weekend urged the Department of Health (DOH) to study the possibility that certain “abortifacients” may be present in some inventories of the department’s family planning program.

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Department of Health (DoH) has included in its strategies in achieving the Reproductive Health (RH) policy by 2015 the training of traditional birth attendants or the “hilot” to become part of the professional medical teams assigned in the rural areas.

THE Catholic Church and the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) have found a common ground to oppose the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill pending before Congress.

MANILA, Philippines—Health Secretary Enrique Ona is pleased with the results of the recent Pulse Asia survey showing that seven out of 10 Filipinos were in favor of using contraceptives.

I would like to appeal to the bright boys at the Palace to already make a pronouncement this early on whether or not President Benigno Simeon Aquino is inclined to uphold Proclamation No. 1841 issued by his predecessor on July 21, 2009.

Cut in family health budget non-negotiable MANILA, Philippines—Senators Tuesday served notice to their counterparts in the House of Representatives that they would not enter into a compromise on the decision to reduce the Department of Health’s budget for contraceptives by P872 million.

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) have agreed that life begins during fertilization, thus the need to protect unborn babies in the reproductive health bill.

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives will fight for the restoration of the P880-million fund for the purchase of contraceptives in the proposed P1.645-trillion national budget for 2010, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.

Catholic Church officials on Monday held a “consultative meeting” with the country’s largest organization of doctors regarding the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill currently pending in Congress.