- Office of Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman
- 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
- Official Website: http://www.edcellagman.com.ph
- 08 March 2011
“The start of the sponsorship and eventual plenary debates on the RH bill in the House of Representatives is one small step for RH advocates but one giant step for Filipino women,” announced a jubilant Rep. Edcel C. Lagman.
The House Minority Leader and Albay Representative is the principal author of House Bill 4244 or the “Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011” which was sponsored on March 8, 2011, the centenary of International Women’s Day.
In his sponsorship speech, Lagman enumerated the following reasons why the country needs an RH law:
1. It will (a) protect and promote the basic right of parents to freely and responsibly plan the number and spacing of their children because all forms of legal, medically-safe and truly effective family planning methods will be made available; (b) enhance the right to health as it improves maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition, and reduces maternal, infant and child mortality; and (c) effectuate the people’s right to sustainable human development.
2. It will definitely help lower the incidence of abortion by preventing unplanned, mistimed and unwanted pregnancies – the very pregnancies which are terminated through abortion. There is an inverse relationship between contraception and abortion as studies conducted by the Guttmacher Institute reveal that correct and regular use of contraceptives can reduce abortion rates by a staggering 85%.
3. It will enhance the ability of the Philippines to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), whose common denominator is reproductive health and family planning. Virtually all the MDGs, but especially the goals which pledge elimination of gender-based discrimination; decrease in infant deaths; safe motherhood; and the prevention of the spread of HIV and AIDS, are closely related to reproductive health and family planning.
4. It will buttress the country’s anti-poverty agenda because without a clear policy on RH, government’s anti-poverty strategies will continue to be undermined by a ballooning population as an inordinately huge population growth rate aggravates existing poverty.
5. The promotion of reproductive health is cost effective. It is much cheaper than the mega projects of government which have much lesser beneficiaries and riddled with corruption. The improvement of maternal and infant health and reduction of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity also generates multi-billion savings for the government in terms of reduced expenses for maternal and infant medical care which could be channeled to education and other basic services.
6. The RH bill goes beyond family planning. RH is all encompassing. Aside from family planning information and services, its expansive coverage includes, among others, maternal, infant and child health and nutrition, including breastfeeding; prevention of HIV-AIDS and other STDs; elimination of violence against women; youth RH and sexuality education; and male responsibility and participation in reproductive health.
7. The RH bill is constitutional. It maintains unconditional fealty to Section 12 of Article II on State Policies which pertinently provides: “It (the State) shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.” The overriding purpose of this provision is to preempt the Congress and the Supreme Court from legalizing abortion. House Bill No. 4244 is indubitably against abortion. It unequivocally provides that “nothing in this Act changes the law against abortion”. Contraceptives are not banned by the Constitution. This is so because contraceptives like pills, injectables, condoms and IUDs are not abortifacients.
Lagman asked his colleagues to support the passage of the RH bill “so that every Filipino child will be born wanted and the miracle of life will not mean death for 11 Filipino mothers daily.”
He underscored that an RH law “will give premium to life and make every woman and child truly count.”