Sponsorship Speech on House Bill 5043

“An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development”
(delivered by REP. EDCEL C. LAGMAN on 16 September 2008)

House Bill No. 5043 or “An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development” should unite us, not divide us.

We are all confronted by common problems spawned by an inordinately huge population which we must collectively address, like:

• High maternal and infant mortality;
• Escalating incidence of abortions;
  
• Growing number of malnourished and stunted children;
  
• Increasing proportion of children of school-age who are out of school;
  
• Serious social costs of labor migration;
  
• Dearth of local employment;
  
• Scarcity of food supply;
  
• Inadequate mass housing; and
  
• Despoliation of the environment.

We must open our minds to the import and merits of the Reproductive Health Bill and reject contrived criticisms, expose barefaced lies, refute malicious innuendoes, and resist menacing threats.

We must not fear to legislate because it is courage which is the handmaiden of a good and vital law.

This bill is not solely about pills, condoms and IUDs. Neither is it about sex, morality or religion no matter how desperately its oppositors claim it is.

It does not legalize abortion nor does it seek the legalization of abortifacients.

The bill is rights-based and does not have a demographic target. It is even a misnomer to call it a “birth control” measure.

There is no bias for or against natural or modern family planning methods because both will be promoted with equal vigor to truly assure freedom of informed choice.

The bill is principally about rights, health and sustainable human development. The bill is fully transparent. There is no hidden agenda. There are no caveats.

RH is a basic human right

Reproductive health is a fundamental human right and was affirmed as such in the Proclamation of Tehran (paragraph 16), International Conference on Human Rights forty years ago in 1968. Consequently, the bill seeks to create an enabling environment that will protect and promote the right of individuals and couples to make informed decisions when it comes to planning their families.

Verily, the heart and soul of the bill is freedom of informed choice. Neither the State nor the Church has the authority to impose its preference or will on the citizens or the faithful.

The bill also echoes the Statement of Support of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) that the State shall respect informed choice, and couples and individuals have the right to “choose the methods that they will use to exercise Responsible Parenthood in accordance with their religious and ethical values and cultural background, subject to conformity with universally recognized international human rights.”

From the basic human right to reproductive health stems many other fundamental rights:

• RH is about the right of mothers and children to good health.
  
• RH is about the right of women not to die from childbirth or pregnancy-related causes.
  
• RH is about the right of children to improved quality child care and better development outcomes.
  
• RH is about the right of parents to have the prospect of investing more on the health and education for their children.
  
• RH is about the right of women for more income generating activities and educational opportunities as they are liberated from unremitting pregnancies.
  
• RH is about the right of women to avoid making the unbearably painful decision of having an abortion because they and their husbands simply cannot afford to raise another child.
  
• RH is about everyone’s basic human right to exercise reproductive self-determination.
  
• RH is about people-centered development that upholds human dignity.

The RH bill is a health measure

The protection of the wellbeing of mothers and children is paramount to reproductive health.

The Philippines is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, among which are the reduction of infant mortality and the improvement of maternal health. The MDGs were recently amended to underscore that family planning is indispensable to the attainment of these two goals.

There can be no inequity worse than maternal death because the miracle of life must not lead to the death of so many mothers particularly since pregnancy is not a disease. The WHO, UNFPA and the medical journal Lancet are unanimous in asserting that family planning decreases maternal mortality by one-third.

Moreover, the WHO has estimated that about 1 million infant deaths worldwide could be prevented with reliable family planning information and access to RH services.

HB 5043 is about health because it will prevent, not abet, abortions. Studies have shown that correct and consistent contraceptive use reduces abortion rates by a whopping 85%.

Abortion rates and contraception have an inverse correlation. The higher the level of contraceptive use, the lower the incidence of abortion.

There is no rhyme or reason in the contention that contraception will lead to the legalization of abortion. Regular use of contraceptives effectively forecloses unplanned, mistimed and unwanted pregnancies so much so that women do not have to resort to abortion and there is no need for the State to legalize abortion.

It is not only the WHO, UNFPA or women’s groups which advocate the use of family planning to improve maternal health, our very own Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) encourages the use of both natural and modern family planning to enhance maternal health and wellbeing.

RH ensures sustainable development

The RH bill is also about promoting sustainable human development. House Bill 5043 does not only ensure the right to health but the right to development as well. The proposed legislation seeks to translate the concept of development into a concrete process that enables parents to provide for their families’ life sustaining needs; affords individuals, more particularly women, a sense of worth and self-respect; and expands the range of choices in the pursuit of a better and more humane life.

The MTPDP projects to reduce our population growth rate to 1.9% by 2010 as a “poverty target”, thus recognizing the unmistakable nexus between population and human development.

The UNICEF also makes its stand clear when it comes to the importance of reproductive health as an indispensable development tool and underscores that it is cost-effective even as it is exceptionally successful in uplifting human life. It says: “Family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race.” (State of the World’s Children, 1992).

More recently, 27 professors of the UP School of Economics, including five former Directors General of the NEDA and one DBM Secretary, came out with a paper firmly supporting the RH bill wherein they categorically state that a “government-funded FP program has been a critical complement to sound economic policy and poverty reduction” across Asia.

The National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), the country’s highest recognition and advisory body on science and technology which is mandated to advise government on matters related to science and technology, has also issued a statement strongly endorsing the RH bill. It emphasized the crucial role the bill will play in improving the health of women and urged the national government to “fully support the bill as a reflection of its seriousness in pursuing long-term economic growth and poverty reduction.”

There is greater incidence of poverty in larger families. Data from the Family Income and Expenditures Surveys conducted by the NSO affirm what most of us already know: large families are prone to poverty with 57.3% of Filipino families with seven children mired in poverty while only 23.8% of families having two children live below the poverty threshold.

What is even more alarming are the results of studies conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies that show that large family size is a significant factor in keeping families poor across generations (Orbeta and Pernia).

While a large population is not solely the cause of widespread poverty, a huge population growth rate undeniably aggravates poverty.

Both foreign and local studies also show that a ballooning population impacts negatively on all determinants of human development such as health, education, employment, housing, food security and the environment.

In fact, the annual Human Development Index review conducted by the UN clearly shows that the more populous countries consistently score lower on human development indicators.

The RH bill could not have reached this stage of plenary consideration had it not been for the steadfast support and determination of RH advocacy groups; inter-faith organizations and kindred organizations of women and students; members of the academe; scientists; leaders of commerce and industry; labor unions; local government units, committed media practitioners; dedicated individuals and volunteers; and ordinary women and men who have long campaigned for the passage of the RH bill.

I am also deeply grateful to the 96 co-authors of HB 5043 who have made a stand in favor of genuine and sustainable human development, reproductive self-determination and women’s health and rights. These legislators, mostly Catholics, have braved the wrath of their bishops and certain sectors of the Catholic hierarchy.

The use of contraceptives for family planning does not make acceptors bad Catholics. But having more children whom parents can ill-afford to feed, educate, medicate, guide and love makes them irresponsible regardless of their religion.

The symbol of the reproductive health campaign is an image dear to all of us – the figure of a mother and child, emblazoned by the call for “Choice. Women. Life.”

We must appreciate free choice because freedom is the bedrock of republicanism and democracy.

We must appreciate women, the cradle of life whose maternal health must always be paramount.

We must appreciate life, whose quality and sustainability must not be wasted in neglect, squalor, want and abject poverty.

I earnestly beseech all of you, my distinguished colleagues, to support the passage of House Bill No. 5043.

While the bill may not be the panacea to all our ills, it is definitely not the source of baseless paranoia.

Thank you.