The Church and the State
Encouraging news for RH/PopDev advocates...
Reproductive health bill tries to address Church concerns
By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
Last updated 11:20pm (Mla time) 08/26/2007
MANILA, Philippines--There’s some bad news and good news for the Catholic Church and pro-life advocates.
An administration lawmaker has resurrected a piece of a legislation previously criticized for allegedly trying to control population growth in the country.
Mindful of the dispproving views of the Catholic hierarchy, Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin said her Reproductive Health Care Act, omitted contentious issues that led to the demise of similar bills in the 13th Congress.
Gone was the provision which encouraged couples to stop at two children in exchange for a government scholarship and other benefits, according to the lawmaker.
Garin’s bill made optional sex education and the provision of artificial family planning methods such as the use of pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and Depo Provera injectables. Many of these techniques were described as abortifacients by pro-life advocates.
“I hope this (new bill) will now be acceptable to the Church,” Garin told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) in an interview. “We excluded the contentious provisions so there should be no problems.”
Garin, a physician, said her bill was centered on educating the public on reproductive health and allowing couples to choose between natural and artificial family planning methods.
“The point here is to educate people on what method is most suitable for them,” she said.
The information-dissemination approach was not exactly new in the protracted debate between pro-life and pro-choice advocates.
In the government’s previous “Ligtas Buntis” program, the Department of Health went around the country to educate the public on reproductive health. But government health workers were criticized for allegedly selling only the idea of artificial methods.
“That’s because they’re easier to teach than the natural method,” one former health worker told the Inquirer newspaper.
Garin initiated the debate on an effective reproductive health measure by delivering a five-page privilege speech.
“My dear colleagues, I am very much aware of the differing views on reproductive health,” she said. “However, I believe it is the responsibility of Congress to discuss and debate the matter in plenary. Only through a comprehensive and deliberate discussion can we determine the truth, and achieve a consensus on such an urgent matter for our people.”
The lawmaker cited several studies which drew a correlation between poverty and family size, an old formula consistently debunked by the Church and pro-life advocates.
During interpellation, one male lawmaker suggested that Congress do some “preparatory work” to deal with “stumbling blocks” to the new measure. He proposed a series of dialogues with the Catholic Church and President Macapagal-Arroyo to ensure that the bill would be passed this time.
He expressed fears that Ms Arroyo, an avowedly devout Catholic, would eventually succumb to pressure from the Church.
Garin shot down the proposal, maintaining that the House of Representatives was independent from the executive branch.
REBEL WITHOUT A CLUE
Sex, lies and the Catholic Church
By Patricia Evangelista
Inquirer
Last updated 02:35am (Mla time) 08/26/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- There was an old woman of great virtue, she had 26 children and didn’t know what to do. She dressed them and schooled them and fed them their bread, bellowed at them soundly and put them to bed.
In a newspaper article, Christine Herrera reported that Gloria Junio first gave birth at 15 and popped out a bouncing Junio baby little more than once a year. She was, between births, pregnant for the majority of 20 years, alongside some of her daughters. Three children died young, one child after falling off the dinner table. She has forgotten some names, is uncertain who is still living, and now has a grand total of 96 known grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
This year, the country’s population hit the astounding total of 88 million, and is expected to reach 94 million in 2010. Gloria Junio’s story is just one of many. Population estimates from the Philippine Minimum National Social Data show that this country’s population is a population of young people. With an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent, the ballooning birthrate renders null any of the much-trumpeted economic gains claimed by the government. The need to address the issue of overpopulation seems ridiculously obvious.
Just recently, in Olongapo City, councilor John Carlos de los Reyes was disturbed by the Reproductive Health Code’s policy statement, a portion of which reads that “Unmet family planning needs due to shortage of supplies may contribute to the looming surge in the city’s population in the near future.” He claims that “We are poor not because we are many, but because only a few wittingly or unwittingly deprive our kababayan of opportunities to prosper,” as if a few million more mouths to feed will make it easier to spread around “opportunities to prosper.”
In 2003, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines successfully blocked legislation that would have authorized the use of national funds for condoms and other contraceptive supplies. In 2006, the government backed off from its trial run of a sex education program in two areas of Metro Manila. The bishops objected that the introduction of sex education into public schools would encourage teenagers to try premarital sex rather than remain abstinent.
The argument is interesting. A teenager’s choice to have sex is not made because a teacher dangles a condom in front of students and runs down the colorful menu of possible sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Blame it on raging hormones, on television, on the alignment of the stars, or simply on choice. At the risk of excommunication, it has to be said: People do have sex before marriage, and have done so long before MTV and the World Wide Web. They will continue to do so long after this generation goes geriatric. To preach abstinence in a vacuum is not only ineffective, it is irresponsible.
The 2003 National and Demographic and Health Survey shows that the problem revolves around lack of information and access to family planning services. Sex education is not sexy; when done correctly, it is clinical, scientific and brutally honest. It explains what can happen after the wham, bam, and thank you ma’am, and what to do to prevent repercussions if the choice is to be made. Sources also say that nurses in government health clinics in Manila teach that condoms have holes in them, a myth that has also been articulated by Vatican spokesmen.
It would be wonderful if all conversations about birds and bees and what happens when watering pots meet flowers can happen between parents and children. That is rarely the case in a country where most of the parents, themselves poor and without access to correct sex education, cannot reliably transmit information. Information about sex comes from whispered conversations between friends, and it is easier to say yes to the boy who promises eternal love if there is no mention of STDs or condoms. Even with media taking up the responsibility of educating the public, the average Pinoy teenager cannot afford to buy condoms, much less the latest issue of Cosmopolitan.
Studies conducted by the UP Population Institute and the Alan Guttmacher Institute states that 473,400 cases of induced abortion were recorded in 2000. The Department of Health has put complications related to abortion as the fourth leading cause of maternal deaths in the country. Ninety-one percent of the recorded cases are of married women, and it is reasonable to assume that there are thousands more cases of young girls who bleed in dark rooms because of fear and ignorance, and more cases of fetuses found in the college toilets. Perhaps with better education programs, and greater access to contraception, none of these would have been necessary.
A bill (introduced in the 13th Congress) “providing for reproductive health care structures and appropriating funds” still sits in the back burner. According to Rep. Fergenel Biron of the fourth district of Iloilo, many of the representatives who initially supported the bill pulled out in fear of a Catholic backlash.
There are several concessions that must be made by a modern democratic country. Foremost is the right of an individual to choices he believes are beneficial to himself. It is that right that protects a leftist from being tortured because of his ideology, the same right that enshrines the value of the ballot box, and the same right that permits the publication of this column today. For the Catholic Church to claim it is immoral for a gay man to copulate with another is fair, but when the government tosses a homosexual man into jail because of that claim is to violate the principle of pluralism by which the government stands. The same goes for a man’s, or, in most cases, a woman’s, sovereignty over her body—it is her temple, not the Church’s.
That the Church continues to campaign against contraception should not be held against the priests, it is their right. It is the government that must take responsibility for allowing that Catholic lobby to decide against the welfare of the people. At the moment, the DOH has put reproductive health and population issues at “low priority,” while a P180-million budget for artificial family planning is still being delayed.
The saying goes that in a democracy, the voice of the people is the voice of God. Vox Populi, Vox Dei. According to a United Nations survey, in the Philippines, two out of five women who want to use contraceptives don’t have access. The 2006 Family Planning Survey reveals that the unmet needs for contraception remain high, with one in six women wanting but not able to practice family planning. The 2003 National Demographic and Health Survey shows that the problem of overpopulation revolves around lack of information and access to family planning services.
In a situation where the voice from above clashes against the voice of the people, even God has to learn how to compromise.
Reproductive health bill tries to address Church concerns
By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
Last updated 11:20pm (Mla time) 08/26/2007
MANILA, Philippines--There’s some bad news and good news for the Catholic Church and pro-life advocates.
An administration lawmaker has resurrected a piece of a legislation previously criticized for allegedly trying to control population growth in the country.
Mindful of the dispproving views of the Catholic hierarchy, Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin said her Reproductive Health Care Act, omitted contentious issues that led to the demise of similar bills in the 13th Congress.
Gone was the provision which encouraged couples to stop at two children in exchange for a government scholarship and other benefits, according to the lawmaker.
Garin’s bill made optional sex education and the provision of artificial family planning methods such as the use of pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and Depo Provera injectables. Many of these techniques were described as abortifacients by pro-life advocates.
“I hope this (new bill) will now be acceptable to the Church,” Garin told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) in an interview. “We excluded the contentious provisions so there should be no problems.”
Garin, a physician, said her bill was centered on educating the public on reproductive health and allowing couples to choose between natural and artificial family planning methods.
“The point here is to educate people on what method is most suitable for them,” she said.
The information-dissemination approach was not exactly new in the protracted debate between pro-life and pro-choice advocates.
In the government’s previous “Ligtas Buntis” program, the Department of Health went around the country to educate the public on reproductive health. But government health workers were criticized for allegedly selling only the idea of artificial methods.
“That’s because they’re easier to teach than the natural method,” one former health worker told the Inquirer newspaper.
Garin initiated the debate on an effective reproductive health measure by delivering a five-page privilege speech.
“My dear colleagues, I am very much aware of the differing views on reproductive health,” she said. “However, I believe it is the responsibility of Congress to discuss and debate the matter in plenary. Only through a comprehensive and deliberate discussion can we determine the truth, and achieve a consensus on such an urgent matter for our people.”
The lawmaker cited several studies which drew a correlation between poverty and family size, an old formula consistently debunked by the Church and pro-life advocates.
During interpellation, one male lawmaker suggested that Congress do some “preparatory work” to deal with “stumbling blocks” to the new measure. He proposed a series of dialogues with the Catholic Church and President Macapagal-Arroyo to ensure that the bill would be passed this time.
He expressed fears that Ms Arroyo, an avowedly devout Catholic, would eventually succumb to pressure from the Church.
Garin shot down the proposal, maintaining that the House of Representatives was independent from the executive branch.
REBEL WITHOUT A CLUE
Sex, lies and the Catholic Church
By Patricia Evangelista
Inquirer
Last updated 02:35am (Mla time) 08/26/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- There was an old woman of great virtue, she had 26 children and didn’t know what to do. She dressed them and schooled them and fed them their bread, bellowed at them soundly and put them to bed.
In a newspaper article, Christine Herrera reported that Gloria Junio first gave birth at 15 and popped out a bouncing Junio baby little more than once a year. She was, between births, pregnant for the majority of 20 years, alongside some of her daughters. Three children died young, one child after falling off the dinner table. She has forgotten some names, is uncertain who is still living, and now has a grand total of 96 known grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
This year, the country’s population hit the astounding total of 88 million, and is expected to reach 94 million in 2010. Gloria Junio’s story is just one of many. Population estimates from the Philippine Minimum National Social Data show that this country’s population is a population of young people. With an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent, the ballooning birthrate renders null any of the much-trumpeted economic gains claimed by the government. The need to address the issue of overpopulation seems ridiculously obvious.
Just recently, in Olongapo City, councilor John Carlos de los Reyes was disturbed by the Reproductive Health Code’s policy statement, a portion of which reads that “Unmet family planning needs due to shortage of supplies may contribute to the looming surge in the city’s population in the near future.” He claims that “We are poor not because we are many, but because only a few wittingly or unwittingly deprive our kababayan of opportunities to prosper,” as if a few million more mouths to feed will make it easier to spread around “opportunities to prosper.”
In 2003, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines successfully blocked legislation that would have authorized the use of national funds for condoms and other contraceptive supplies. In 2006, the government backed off from its trial run of a sex education program in two areas of Metro Manila. The bishops objected that the introduction of sex education into public schools would encourage teenagers to try premarital sex rather than remain abstinent.
The argument is interesting. A teenager’s choice to have sex is not made because a teacher dangles a condom in front of students and runs down the colorful menu of possible sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Blame it on raging hormones, on television, on the alignment of the stars, or simply on choice. At the risk of excommunication, it has to be said: People do have sex before marriage, and have done so long before MTV and the World Wide Web. They will continue to do so long after this generation goes geriatric. To preach abstinence in a vacuum is not only ineffective, it is irresponsible.
The 2003 National and Demographic and Health Survey shows that the problem revolves around lack of information and access to family planning services. Sex education is not sexy; when done correctly, it is clinical, scientific and brutally honest. It explains what can happen after the wham, bam, and thank you ma’am, and what to do to prevent repercussions if the choice is to be made. Sources also say that nurses in government health clinics in Manila teach that condoms have holes in them, a myth that has also been articulated by Vatican spokesmen.
It would be wonderful if all conversations about birds and bees and what happens when watering pots meet flowers can happen between parents and children. That is rarely the case in a country where most of the parents, themselves poor and without access to correct sex education, cannot reliably transmit information. Information about sex comes from whispered conversations between friends, and it is easier to say yes to the boy who promises eternal love if there is no mention of STDs or condoms. Even with media taking up the responsibility of educating the public, the average Pinoy teenager cannot afford to buy condoms, much less the latest issue of Cosmopolitan.
Studies conducted by the UP Population Institute and the Alan Guttmacher Institute states that 473,400 cases of induced abortion were recorded in 2000. The Department of Health has put complications related to abortion as the fourth leading cause of maternal deaths in the country. Ninety-one percent of the recorded cases are of married women, and it is reasonable to assume that there are thousands more cases of young girls who bleed in dark rooms because of fear and ignorance, and more cases of fetuses found in the college toilets. Perhaps with better education programs, and greater access to contraception, none of these would have been necessary.
A bill (introduced in the 13th Congress) “providing for reproductive health care structures and appropriating funds” still sits in the back burner. According to Rep. Fergenel Biron of the fourth district of Iloilo, many of the representatives who initially supported the bill pulled out in fear of a Catholic backlash.
There are several concessions that must be made by a modern democratic country. Foremost is the right of an individual to choices he believes are beneficial to himself. It is that right that protects a leftist from being tortured because of his ideology, the same right that enshrines the value of the ballot box, and the same right that permits the publication of this column today. For the Catholic Church to claim it is immoral for a gay man to copulate with another is fair, but when the government tosses a homosexual man into jail because of that claim is to violate the principle of pluralism by which the government stands. The same goes for a man’s, or, in most cases, a woman’s, sovereignty over her body—it is her temple, not the Church’s.
That the Church continues to campaign against contraception should not be held against the priests, it is their right. It is the government that must take responsibility for allowing that Catholic lobby to decide against the welfare of the people. At the moment, the DOH has put reproductive health and population issues at “low priority,” while a P180-million budget for artificial family planning is still being delayed.
The saying goes that in a democracy, the voice of the people is the voice of God. Vox Populi, Vox Dei. According to a United Nations survey, in the Philippines, two out of five women who want to use contraceptives don’t have access. The 2006 Family Planning Survey reveals that the unmet needs for contraception remain high, with one in six women wanting but not able to practice family planning. The 2003 National Demographic and Health Survey shows that the problem of overpopulation revolves around lack of information and access to family planning services.
In a situation where the voice from above clashes against the voice of the people, even God has to learn how to compromise.
more articles on the PhilMADE site.
posted by PhilMADE @ 11:15 PM
1 Comments:
My name is Jennifer Murphy and i would like to show you my personal experience with Depo-Provera.
I am 41 years old. Have been on Depo for at least 10 years now. (started so long ago, can't remember) Pills had me lying in the floor crying. They had taken Norplant off the market, and the idea of glass under my skin spooked me. I'm now over 40, so weight gain can't all be blamed on Depo, but I know it's responsible for about 10 lbs worth. No periods in a decade. Can you top that??? No bleeding, no PMS, no cramps, no surprise pregnancies. Miracle drug, as far as I'm concerned. I am now level headed and not a jumpy bag of hormones every month. No mood swings. I refuse to take calcium, as I have had a kidney stone in the past, so going for a dexascan later this month. You MUST watch your bone density. Long term, depo can affect bone density and it's not 100% reversible. Posters here are fussing about doctors hiding the truth of side effects, but most of what's posted here is not listed as a side affect of Depo, so the doctors aren't going to mention them. Some of what's listed here sounds l
I have experienced some of these side effects-
Slight weight gain - 5-10 lbs. Extremeties swell with heat.
I hope this information will be useful to others,
Jennifer Murphy
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