• Office of Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman
• 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
• Official Website: http://www.edcellagman.com.ph
• 01 October 2010

           The threat of excommunication against President Benigno Aquino III for endorsing voluntary contraceptive use is an antediluvian method of compelling adherence to Church doctrines.

           The imposition of excommunication contradicts the Church’s principle on free will and defies freedom of informed choice which is the central advocacy of the reproductive health bill.

           If the basis for excommunication is the distribution and use of contraceptives, then the Church will lose its congregation since a great majority of Catholics favor the enactment of an RH law and the government’s funding the procurement and distribution of contraceptives to willing acceptors of family planning.

           Millions of Filipino Catholics will be candidates for excommunication under this policy of the Church even as Ateneo University professors maintain that people can be good Catholics even if they use contraceptives.

           Contraceptives which are “legal, medically-safe and effective” as prescribed in the RH bill are not abortifacients.

           Contraceptives prevent ovulation and/or fertilization so much so that there is no embryo or fetus to be aborted.

           Contrary to the claims of its critics, the RH bill is definitely pro-life because studies conducted by the UNFPA and WHO all conclude that correct and consistent use of contraceptives can reduce maternal deaths by one-third. It is also anti-abortion since research by the Allan Guttmacher Institute shows that contraceptive use reduces abortion rates by 85%.