Last semester of the academic year, I kept on
following the progress and stages of the controversial issue on the
reproductive health, which is now a law, and its continuous opposition by the
Catholic Church. The church is the staunchest protester against the issue. I
even downloaded the whole text of the then Reproductive Health Bill 4244 and
shared it to my students.
I read the whole text of the bill, and it says
nothing about promoting abortion. In fact the bill is really against abortion.
But what I suspect about in the allegation of promoting abortion is that one of
the contraceptives under the artificial family planning has the abortifacient
effect which the church is referring to. But again, in the final text, which I
now a law, pro-lawmakers have made clear that the contraceptives with abortifacient
effect should not be make available. Instead on contraceptives with
non-abortifacient effect be made available. It also gives directives to the
Department of Health to see to it that there are no contraceptives be given,
made available or distribute which has the said effect.
The second point is this, that those women who ask
for post-abortion help will be assisted by health institutions. It is their
obligation to ensure their physical health because the bill is for the good
health of the citizens. It shows that the law is really humane on these people who
even underwent the illegal process of aborting their own child, and who are on
the verge of dying or when there is danger to their health.
Now, let us tackle the question. Is the RH Law pro-abortion
or not? The answer is a big NO. Where does my answer come from? It comes from
the reading of the whole text of RH Bill 4244 or RH Law 10534.
