The Reproductive Health bills, popularly known as the RH Bill, are Philippine bills aiming to guarantee universal access

to methods and information on birth control and maternal care. The bills have become the center of a contentious national debate. There are presently two bills with the same goals: House Bill No. 4244 or An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and For Other Purposes introduced by Albay 1st district Representative Edcel Lagman, and Senate Bill No. 2378 or An Act Providing For a National Policy on Reproductive Health and Population and Development introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago. While there is general agreement about its provisions on maternal and child health, there is great debate on its key proposal that the Philippine government and the private sector will fund and undertake widespread distribution of family planning devices such as condoms, birth control pills (BCPs) and IUDs, as the government continues to disseminate information on their use through all health care centers. The bill is highly divisive, with experts, academics, religious institutions, and major political figures supporting and opposing it, often criticizing the government and each other in the process. The issue is so divisive that at one point, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines threatened to excommunicate the President, Benigno Aquino III if he supported the bill. Debates and rallies for and against the bill, with tens of thousand participating, have been happening all over the country. Stated purpose One of the main concerns of the bill, according to the Explanatory Note, is that the population of the Philippines makes it the 10th most populous nation in the world today, that the Filipino womens fertility rate is at the upper bracket of 606 countries. It states that studies and surveys show that the Filipinos are responsive to having smallersized families through free choice of family planning methods. It also refers to studies which show that rapid population growth exacerbates poverty while poverty spawns rapid population growth. And so it aims for improved quality of life through a consistent and coherent national population policy. Bill content Summary of major provisions

The bill mandates the government to promote, without bias, all effective natural and modern methods of family planning that are medically safe and legal.[2] Although abortion is recognized as illegal and punishable by law, the bill states that the government shall ensure that all women needing care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner.[2] The bill calls for a multi-dimensional approach integrates a component of family planning and responsible parenthood into all government anti-poverty programs.[2] Under the bill, age-appropriate reproductive health and sexuality education is required from grade five to fourth year high school using life-skills and other approaches.[2] The bill also mandates the Department of Labor and Employment to guarantee the reproductive health rights of its female employees. Companies with less than 200 workers are required to enter into partnership with health care providers in their area for the delivery of reproductive health services.[2] Employers are obliged to monitor pregnant working employees among their workforce and ensure they are provided paid half-day prenatal medical leaves for each month of the pregnancy period that they are employed.[2] The national government and local governments will ensure the availability of reproductive health care services, including family planning and prenatal care.[2] Any person or public official who prohibits or restricts the delivery of legal and medically safe reproductive health care services will be meted penalty by imprisonment or a fine.[2] [edit] Family planning Catholic Church: A large family is a sign of God's blessings (CCC 2373) The majority of Filipinos are in favor of family planning. The Catholic Church teaches the necessity of responsible parenthood and correct

family planning (one child at a time depending on one's circumstances), while at the same time teaching that large families are a sign of God's blessings. It teaches that modern natural family planning, a method of fertility awareness, is in accord with God's design, as couples give themselves to each other as they are. The RH bill intends to help couples to have government funded access to artificial contraception methods as well.[citation needed] [edit] Access One of the main concerns of the proponents is the perceived lack of access to family planning devices such as contraceptives and sterilization. The bill intends to provide universal access through government funding, complementing thus private sector initiatives for family planning services, such as those offered by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) which supports the Family Planning Organizations of the Philippines and the 97 organizations of the Philippine NGO Council. The opposition argues that "Access to contraceptives is free and unrestricted" and that the proposed law is pushing an open door.[24] They say that these family planning items are available to the citizens and many local government units and NGOs provide these for free. Congressman Teddyboy Locsin argued, echoed by a Business Mirror editorial, that the poor can afford condoms since they can pay for other items such as cellphone load. Opponents also argue that Philippine government is not a welfare state, and taxpayers are not bound to provide for all the wants and desires of its citizenry, including their vanity needs, promiscuous actions and needs artificially created by elitist, imperialist and eugenicist forces; nor should taxpayers pay for drugs that are objectively dangerous (carcinogenic) and immoral. They argue that the Philippines should give priority to providing access

declares that the State shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.[45] Opposing the bill, the Faculty of Medicine of the catholic University of Santo Tomas, the Philippine Nurses Association (with at least 368,589 members), the Bioethics Society of the Philippines, Catholic Physicians Guild of the Philippines stated that the antiabortion stance of the bill is contradicted by the promotion of contraceptive agents (IUD and hormonal contraceptives) which actually act after fertilization and are potentially abortifacient agents.[46] Opposition refers to a 2000 study of a scientific journal of the American Medical Association, in which a meta-analysis of 94 studies provides evidence that when a common birth control pill fails to prevent ovulation, "postfertilization effects are operative to prevent clinically recognized pregnancy."[20] They also point to the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2005), which concluded that the IUD brings about the "destruction of the early embryo,"[21] thus is deemed to kill five-day old babies.[8] Jo Imbong, founder of the Abay Pamilya Foundation, reported that "Lagman said in a House hearing that the bill would protect human life 'from implantation,'"[47] and not from fertilization, noting at the same time that the Records of the Constitutional Commission state that Human life begins at fertilization.[47][48] After referring to many standard textbooks of medicine and human embryology to affirm this as true,[49] the anti-RH bill citizens argue that the human embryo already has the complete genetic code and is thus a distinct human life beginning its own new life cycle. They say that the embryo is an individual, self-coordinated and self-organizing subject belonging to the species homo sapiens: a human being by nature and thus a person equally worthy of respect.[22] Proponents argue that research by the Guttmacher Institute, involved in advancing international reproductive health, reveals that the use of contraceptives can reduce abortion rates by 85%. Proponents such as 14 Ateneo de Manila University professors, argued thus: "Studies show that the majority of women who go for an abortion are married or in a consensual union (91%), the mother of three or more children (57%), and poor (68%) (Juarez, Cabigon, and Singh 2005). For these women, terminating a pregnancy is an anguished choice they make in the face of severe constraints. When women who had attempted an abortion were asked their reasons for doing so, their top three responses were: they could not afford the economic cost of raising another child (72%); their pregnancy occurred too soon after the last

[edit] Abortion One of the bill's components is "prevention of abortion and management of post-abortion complications." It provides that "the government shall ensure that all women needing care for postabortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner." It also states that "abortion remains a crime and is punishable," as the Constitution

one (57%); and they already have enough children (54%). One in ten women (13%) who had attempted an abortion revealed that this was because her pregnancy resulted from forced sex (ibid.). Thus, for these women, abortion has become a family planning method, in the absence of information on and access to any reliable means to prevent an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy." [38] The bill, said Clara Padilla of EnGender Rights Inc, will "help reduce the number of abortions by providing increased access to information and services on modern contraceptive methods, that in turn will reduce the number of unwanted --and often aborted-pregnancies."[50] Opponents of the bill argue that the Guttmacher Institute is the research arm of International Planned Parenthood and that the latter is "the largest promoter of artificial birth control and abortion worldwide."[19] Opponents argue that new data thwarts the "myth" that contraception lowers abortions.[51] Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP) in their Position Paper stated that "The Guttmacher Institute's own study in 2003 showed simultaneous increases both abortion rates and contraceptive use in the United States, Cuba, Denmark, Netherlands, Singapore, and South Korea."[52] The AKP argues that "Since contraceptives will not reduce unplanned pregnancy, they will not reduce abortion rates either and may increase them."[52] Both sides of the debate accuse the other side of deception and misleading the public. The pro-RH people accuse the anti-RH group of misleading the public by calling the bill an abortion bill, when the bill states that abortion remains a crime and is punishable. The anti-RH advocates accuse the RH supporters of deceiving the public regarding the true meaning of reproductive health, since US Secretary Hillary Clinton said that RH includes abortion,[53] and that RH includes the pill where "postfertilization effects are operative" [21] and the IUD which brings about the "destruction of the early embryo," according to the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.[21] [edit] Penalties There is mandatory sexuality education starting grade 5, and "malicious disinformation" is penalized.[7] All health care service providers which provide reproductive health services, including faithbased hospital administrators, may be imprisoned or fined if they

refuse to provide family planning services such as tubal ligation and vasectomy. The same may happen to employers who do not provide free services to employees.[7] Imprisonment ranges from (1) month to six (6) months or a fine ranging from Ten Thousand Pesos (P10,000.00) to Fifty Thousand Pesos (P50,000.00).[7] Former Finance Secretary, Roberto de Ocampo, stated that these punitive provisions "are tantamount to an affront to civil liberties and smack of religious persecution."[33] Defending the bill, Dr. Felipe Medalla, former dean of the School of Economics of UP, said that "Although the poors access to family planning services can be improved even without the law, the absence of the law makes it easier to block the program." [edit] Separation of church and state Because 81% of Filipinos are Catholics, the Catholic Church exerts a strong influence in public life. Its staunch opposition to the bill has drawn the ire of non-Catholics and Catholics alike who support the bill, and they invoke the principle of separation of church and state to stop the church. Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J, one of the drafters of the Philippine Constitution and a prominent lawyer and writer, explained that the concept of separation of church and state is directed towards the state, rather than the church, as it is a political concept. Technically it means nonestablishment of religion, as the Constitution stated that No law shall be passed respecting an establishment of religion ... It means that the state should be guided by the principle that it should support no specific religion. This means that government funding should not be allocated for building churches or mosques, and not favor any particular religion. It does not prevent the church, parents, supervisors, teachers and other moral educators from expressing their views and educating their wards on the morality of their personal and social actions. Proponents, on the other hand, state that the church should not meddle in matters of the state, and should focus on religious matters, not political matters.