- Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
- 11 July 2011
- Cell No. 09166406737
- Tel. No. 4155455, 9315497
The relevance of the reproductive health advocacy and the critical immediacy of enacting the RH bill are in focus with the escalation of the world population to seven billion people.
The mitigation of the population growth rate (PGR), although it is not the principal objective of the RH bill, will be the essential consequence of adopting a nationwide and comprehensive policy on reproductive health with voluntary family planning as one of its salient features.
The burgeoning of the population in the face of limited and exhaustible resources if not mitigated will aggravate underdevelopment, exacerbate poverty and further marginalize the disadvantaged sectors.
The promotion of responsible parenthood in relation to the basic right of parents to freely and responsibly determine the number and spacing of their children will facilitate the government’s achievement of sustainable human development.
It is for this reason that the RH bill is rights-based, consistent with the Tehran Declaration on reproductive health rights to which the Philippines was a signatory 43 years ago.
The Catholic Church with its tenet on free will has no reason to demonize the RH bill whose central concept is freedom of informed choice wherein the option is given to parents and couples, more particularly to women who bear the brunt of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, to adopt and have access to the family planning method of their choice which is legal, medically safe and effective.
Out of the seven billion people worldwide, the Philippine accounts for over 94 million or even close to 100 million, making it the world’s 12th most populous country but with a human development index ranking of 97th among 169 countries, a mere one slot higher than Botswana and with Sri Lanka placing six ranks higher at 91.