Office of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman

Independent-Albay

0918-9120137 09166406737

23 July 2012

The President’s renewed and categorical endorsement of the enactment of the RH and responsible parenthood bill truly complements his determination to solve the backlogs in education and ills in health.

The President is fully aware that the population problem impacts adversely on major human development indicators like health, education, employment, food security, mass housing and the environment.

RH advocates share the President’s view that an RH law is the antidote against the country’s relapsing to shortages in teachers, school buildings, textbooks and desks and the instrument to help reduce maternal mortality and enhance women’s health.

The President is cognizant that no development agenda will succeed without the government addressing simultaneously and positively the population issue.

The RH bill does not provide for any compulsion because the core the measure is freedom of informed choice wherein women and couples are empowered to freely and responsibly decide the number and spacing of their children.

The RH bill is not a population control measure because it has no demographic target.

The eventual deceleration of the population growth rate is the beneficent result of contraception by choice.

The bill is not pro-abortion. In fact, it is against abortion because the correct and consistent use of legal, medically safe and truly effective family planning methods reduces abortion rates by as much as 85%.

The RH bill repeatedly provides that abortion is illegal and it is neither a form of contraception nor a legal family planning method.