What you should know about The Reproductive Health Bill

The Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008 also known as the RH Bill seeks to provide universal access to information and services to both natural and modern family planning methods, which are medically safe and legally permissible. The premise of the RH Bill is informed choice and the freedom to decide on a method of family planning based on information that is comprehensive, accurate, and respectful of one’s personal convictions and religious beliefs.

Honorary Janette L. Garin, M.D. is Deputy Majority Leader and Representative of the 1st District of Iloilo. A staunch advocate of women’s rights and reproductive health, Representative Garin talks to HerWord and highlights the important provisions of the bill and reasons why now, more than ever, we need to have the RH Bill passed.

Why is the RH Bill relevant to every Filipina and not just those who do not have ready access to health care?

The RH Bill is not just for the welfare of those women who have no access to affordable reproductive health services. A number of local surveys reveal that one of the major impediments to family planning is the lack of accurate information and education among women and couples. Though a considerable number of women have access to and can readily afford reproductive health and family planning services and commodities, they still have difficulty making informed decisions and successfully planning the number of children that they want because they either lack or are misinformed on reproductive health and family planning.

The RH Bill seeks to break such barriers by ensuring that women and couples are provided adequate information. Among others, the proposed policy mandates a nationwide information and education program to develop a sexuality-education curriculum for young Filipinos. It will also require couples applying for marriage licenses to undergo a family planning seminar.

How will the RH Bill empower women to take control over their reproductive health and sexuality?

Among the major reproductive health issues in the Philippines are the high maternal deaths and the unwanted pregnancies that continue to exist. The bulk of these cases are in the underprivileged sector of our society where accurate information and accessible services on reproductive health care are still elusive. More often than not, it is the poor women who die because of pregnancy-related complications and even child-birth because they cannot afford or do not have access at all to quality health care services. It is the poor women who have more children than they desire because they do not use any family planning method.

If passed, the Reproductive Health Care bill will ensure that women are empowered by providing them with relevant information on safe pregnancies and child delivery. In addition, the proposed policy also seeks to make women knowledgeable about the various family planning methods available in order for them to plan the spacing [between births], the number of children they want to have, and have a healthy and satisfying sex life.

How will the RH Bill impact national development in terms of population management and better allocation of government resource allocation?

One of the incessant problems of our country is that limited resources are being allocated to the delivery of social services. Besides the fact that a chunk of the national budget is devoted to debt servicing, our scarce resources simply cannot keep up with our rapid population growth. While the fast-growing population is not the cause of poverty in the country, it most definitely exacerbates it, as it impedes economic development in many ways. The rapid population growth in a country such as ours, where poverty is wide-spread and the budget of the government already stretched, would mean more dependents and lesser capacity of the government to absorb new entrants to the labor force every year. The latest data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) states that for every one productive person, there are two to three dependents that he or she must take care of.

In the household levels, data from the National Demographic and Health Survey shows that the poverty incidence is higher in families with larger family size. This is evidence that the increase in family size would mean lower savings to the household, because they simply have more mouths to feed. What should be noted in this case is that the family size is actually bigger than what majority of Filipino couples would want. This is seen in the consistent gap between the desired number of children and the actual number of children a couple have.

In a macro-economic perspective, addressing our country’s rapid population growth is, therefore, one of the sustainable interventions that the government must undertake to ensure consistent economic development, decrease poverty and improve delivery of social services to the people.

The RH Bill has been languishing in legislative debate for the last 20 years, what it different now in terms of the RH Bill having a chance of being passed?

The RH Bill has truly undergone exhaustive debates for a number of Congresses already. It is only this Congress however, where the bill has reached plenary deliberations in the House of Representatives. What should be different now is that more legislators are now aware of the content and true intentions of the bill as compared before when they perceived providing modern methods of family planning as the only purpose of the proposed law. The heightened awareness is seen in the huge increase in the number of legislators who signed as co-authors of the RH Bill in the 14th Congress.

With the elections coming up, is there an even more urgent need now to pass the bill?

With the elections coming up, there is a serious threat that the RH bill might lose some of its supporters. However, I believe that now, more than ever, is the time to pass this policy. The debates on this issue have already been exhausted. We keep on arguing about the same set of issues every Congress. It is time for us legislators to show where we stand, and I sincerely hope that the Philippine Congress heeds the call of the majority of the Filipinos and pass the Reproductive Health Care Bill.

NOTE: The 14th Congress broke for recess last October 16, 2009 without the RH Bill being passed.

What can we, as ordinary citizens, do to aid the passage of the RH Bill?

As common citizens, it is important to participate in policy-making as much you can. You can do this by making sure that your voice is heard and your opinions are considered by your policymakers. One way is to write to your district representatives and to some leaders of Congress. Ask them to support the RH bill and work for its immediate enactment. Your letters will validate survey results that consistently show that 9 out of 10 Filipinos are clamoring for the passage of a reproductive health and population development policy as shown consistently by various survey results. You can also go to: www.petitiononline.com/rhan2008/petition.html and sign the online for the immediate passage of the Reproductive Health Bill into law.

Please address some of the allegations about the RH Bill, namely:



That it promotes abortion.

The reproductive health bill does not promote abortion. In fact, one of the primary intentions of the bill is to prevent abortions by providing information and services to women, couples and young people to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Majority of women who undergo abortion in the Filipinas are already married and have children. This reflects the failure of many women and couples to plan their families or space their pregnancies.

In addition, the provision on the MANAGEMENT OF POST-ABORTION COMPLICATIONS does not mean that the bill espouses abortion. There are cases wherein women experience complications from abortion, but are not admitted by hospitals when it uncovers that they attempted abortions. The provision merely guarantees that the right of women to health services is protected even if they commit illegal abortions. No woman should be denied their right to life.

That it advocates sex education in schools and thus, encourages promiscuity.

Providing sexuality education does not mean that the passage of the RH bill would lead to promiscuity among the youth. With the technology available to us today, the youth is constantly bombarded with inaccurate information about sex from mass media. As a result, more and more of the youth engage in early sexual initiations and other risky sexual behaviors. This leads to the rise of teenage pregnancies. There is a serious and urgent need to address this issue and we can only start doing so if we learn to accept that depriving the youth of correct information on reproductive health will not stop them from being promiscuous.

The RH bill advocates for responsible reproductive health and sexuality education that will inculcate values, but at the same time provide the youth with correct information on reproductive health. Doing so will empower the youth to make informed and responsible decisions in the future.

That it is anti-life and goes against Catholic beliefs.

The RH bill is not anti-life. We even say that it is pro-quality of life because it seeks to prevent deaths of mothers, abortion and unwanted pregnancies. In addition, the bill also aims to slow down population growth rate in the country to enable the government to allocate more resources for the delivery of services to the people.

I believe that it is not going against the beliefs of the Catholics, because no part of this RH Bill says that couples and women will be coerced to use contraceptives. Filipino couples will still be free to plan their families based on their religious convictions when the bill is passed. The RH Bill merely promotes responsible parenthood by widening choices and providing more information for them to come up with informed decisions.

We respect the stand of the Catholic Church on the issue of Reproductive Health. However, it is not fair to deny Filipino couples their right to decide freely and responsibly on the number of their children, and the right of women to be safe from deaths due to pregnancy-related complications and child birth.

There are some men who still tend to be indifferent about reproductive health, leaving all the child-bearing responsibilities to the women, how can we get more men to support the RH Bill?

To effect change in the culture, we must aim for behavior change communication (BCC) interventions targeting the male population. The lack of male participation in family planning in the Philippines is rooted in the “macho” culture in the Philippines. Most men refuse to undergo vasectomy because they fear that they would not be able to perform in bed anymore if they do so. Some do not care about family planning at all which leaves the women assuming the responsibility of family planning. In some cases, men’s disregard for family planning results to women giving birth to more children than their actual desired number.

The men should be made to understand that family planning is a shared responsibility. More importantly, the men should learn more about pregnancy; know the danger signs that they should take note of during pregnancy and the effects of closely-spaced births on a woman’s body.

The Magna Carta of Women, which has been recently passed, has a provision that guarantees a woman’s right to health through proper information and access to services, how does this impact the RH Bill?

The passage of Magna Carta of Women is another validation that we are on the right track in pushing for the RH bill. The rights guaranteed in the Magna Carta of Women are the very rights that the RH bill is based upon.

Though the Magna Carta of Women has already been passed, there is still a need to enact the Reproductive Health bill and ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to fund reproductive health services and commodities and that a strong and comprehensive reproductive health and population development program is installed.

Janette L. Garin is currently serving as Deputy House Majority Floor Leader. She is the Representative of the 1st District of Iloilo and former provincial board member of Leyte. She is a physician and a member of Lakas CMD.

Ana Santos is a freelance journalist and columnist. She is a staunch women’s rights activist and writes about gender issues and relationships in her weekly newspaper column as well as other magazines. She has also written about women and children of armed conflict in Mindanao for the foreign news wires. Ana’s work may be viewed on is a freelance journalist and columnist. She is a staunch women’s rights activist and writes about gender issues and relationships in her weekly newspaper column as well as other magazines. She has also written about women and children of armed conflict in Mindanao for the foreign news wires. Ana’s work may be viewed on www.anasantoswrites.com