Church’s stand on reproductive bill uncompromising

MANILA, Oct. 5, 2008—The Catholic Church’s position on the Reproductive Health bill is absolute, said an official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

CBCP spokesperson Msgr. Pedro Quitorio III said there’s no way that the Church will soften its position against the controversial bill currently pending in Congress.

“As of now, the stand of the CBCP on the RH bill is absolute. There’s no way to compromise,” he said in a forum in Intramuros, Manila.

Quitorio, however, admitted that they haven’t come up with a plan yet on what their next move will be in the event the bill is approved in Congress.

“The leadership hasn’t thought of what will happen afterwards. I can just surmise that if it gets approved, the CBCP will definitely do something,” he said.

At present, he said, they are concentrating on lobbying against the bill because of its anti-life provisions.

On Thursday, it was reported that the number of legislators in favor of the Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood, and Population Development Act of 2008 or House Bill (HB) 5043 climbed to 108 from 103, only 12 votes shy of approval in the House of Representatives. The bill needs 120 votes to be approved on second reading.

On the other hand, CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Family and Life head and Pampanga Archbishop Paciano Aniceto said he is not in the least bothered by the development as he expressed confidence that the lawmakers would eventually make the right decision in the final voting.

“This is not a statistical contest. Above all our strategy here is a prayerful campaign. We will pray for the whole church that they will ask for divine assistance and we also pray for our legislators. They are men and women who are educated and they have their own conscience. This is also a test of maturity for our legislators,” he said.

The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) also joined the Catholic Church’s voice in opposing the bill.

"We stand by the Church as she respectfully signified her strong objection to the contraceptive program the Bill promotes, considering the practices which it shall engender," CEAP said in a statement posted on their website (www.ceap.org.ph).

"Both Sacred Scripture and Reason proposed that the best form of birth regulation is self-discipline," it added.

Instead of allotting P2 billion from taxpayer’s money for the purchase of contraceptives, the CEAP has urged lawmakers to use the money for education, livelihood and basic public services.

The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) is the biggest organized group of Catholic schools in the country, with about 1,252 member schools. (CBCPNews)

CBCP SLAMS DOH CONDOMS PLAN

PRESS STATEMENT

30 August 2008

CBCP SLAMS DOH CONDOMS PLAN

Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, Archbishop of San Fernando Pampanga and Chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), today took to task the Department of Health for saying it will begin distributing condoms for general use, allegedly to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The full text of the statement follows:

We are constrained to express grave concern over the press statement attributed to Undersecretary of Health Mario Villaverde that the Department of Health will now promote the nationwide use of condoms, allegedly as a means to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

That decision, if such a decision has in fact been made, appears to us as completely irresponsible and imprudent. It is dangerous to public health, offensive to the common good and should be revoked. The mere timing of the announcement provokes legitimate questions about the real motives of the Department.

The decision ironically coincides with a recently published statement by David and Lucile Packard Foundation, one of the leading foreign promoters of population control in the Philippines, complaining that the Philippine government had not been buying contraceptives.

It also coincides with the well orchestrated campaign by a certain bloc to push the proposed reproductive health legislation in Congress which violates on its face the Constitution, the moral principles and religious beliefs of majority of Filipinos.

We are inclined to view this as an underhanded way of subverting our strong moral and constitutional objection to the proposed legislation, and confronting the nation with a fait accompli bereft of any moral or constitutional basis.

We recognize fully the need to protect our communities from the possible spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) from various sources. Despite the small number of registered HIV/AIDS cases (about 3,000), this should be a priority for the Department.

But in order to succeed, we must strike at the root of the epidemic by promoting responsible sexual behavior among adults, instead of simply trying to promote what is dishonestly and irresponsibly called “safe sex”. We must encourage men and women to live morally upright lives, and to practice marital fidelity and chastity within and outside marriage, instead of telling them that risky sexual behavior is acceptable, provided they wear a condom to protect them and their “partners” from HIV/AIDS.

Not a single scientific literature claims that the condom is 100% effective or “safe,” whether as a contraceptive or as a prophylactic. Indeed, among serodiscordant couples, the condom might be able to reduce the risk of contamination of the seronegative spouse, but it could never eliminate it.

According to the scientific literature, the rate of failure of all brands of condoms is high. But this information is generally excluded from the usual propaganda about “safe sex”. This tends to create the kind of risky sexual behavior, which increases the chances of contracting and transmitting the disease.

It is the duty of the DOH never to propose for general public use any prophylactic that could increase the incidence of the disease it is supposed to prevent. It is, therefore, irresponsible, imprudent, and dangerous for the Department to declare that the use of the condom, without any change in unhealthy sexual behavior, will prevent seropositive cases from transmitting HIV/AIDS to their seronegative spouses.

And it is certainly manipulative and deceitful of the Department to require or recommend to all seronegative males the use of the condom as a “health measure” when the real purpose, it appears, is to please the foreign donors to the illegal population control program and push the latex shell as a state-mandated contraceptive.