Women's groups launch drive for RH Bill

CEBU - Different women’s groups recently launched an online signature campaign nationwide in support of the Reproductive Health Bill.

The Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN), through the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, initiated the advocacy that aims to gather one million signatures in a month.

The network’s move came after Cardinal Ricardo Vidal announced over the weekend that the church will gather one million signatures in Cebu to oppose the controversial bill.

As of yesterday, RHAN already gathered 2,874 signatures in its online petition, which can be accessed at http://www.petitiononline.com/rhan2008.

Within this month, RHAN will be presenting the signatures to the House of Representatives and the Senate as it waits for the plenary deliberations at the House and the release of the report from the Senate committee on health.

The proponents of the bill believe it would address the prevalent growth of the country’s population.

They said more than 10 Filipino women die every day due to pregnancy and child-birth complications while 29 out of 1,000 infants die due to various sicknesses.

The organization, the bill’s proponents and those who signed the petition believe that the public should be informed and should decide on reproductive health methods.

According to the petition, the severe lack of information regarding reproductive health has resulted in the untimely death of women and children.

It said this lack of information has also been the prime reason why the youth are largely unprepared to deal with matters on their sexuality. — Cressida Paula Delmo/LPM (THE FREEMAN)