Basic presupposition

There are two bills pending before Congress regarding birth control and abortion. From the language, they are clearly "inspired" by (if not actually drafted by) the propagators in the United States of what is called "Free Choice". The basic presupposition is that a woman owns her own body and therefore has the right to do with her body as she pleases. If she wants children, that’s her privilege. If she does not want children, that also is her right. If she wants to have sexual intercourse with a man, that’s her right.

Consequently (according to that basic principle) if there is a fetus growing in her womb as a result of intercourse, the woman is perfectly free to expel the fetus, even if it means killing a living human being.

Similarly, a woman has the right to prevent conception by any means possible and thus be free to have sexual relations without the inconvenience of child-bearing.

This basic principle – namely, that a woman owns her own body and therefore has the right to use her body as she pleases – might be called the New American Gospel. The proponents of the two bills now in Congress, perhaps unwittingly, are in effect preachers of the New American Gospel.

What the bills intend is that the Philippine Government should accept and make its own this New American Gospel. The bills seek to make the government aware of the "fact" that a woman owns her body; and therefore should not only respect her "right" to do with her body as she pleases, but also to help her in the process.

We Christians have a different Gospel. In the Christian Faith, neither man nor woman owns his or her own body. Our bodies are owned by God.

That is a belief that is not peculiar to Christians. It is shared by orthodox Jews and Muslims.

St. Paul goes further: "Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Corinthians 6:19). And in another letter he says, "We are the temple of the living God" (2 Corinthians 6:16).