The RH bill controversy

The quarrel between the Catholic bishops and the proponents of the RH bill, including President Aquino himself, cannot be easily settled for this reason: The bishops argue on the basis of spiritual conviction while the RH enthusiasts build their stand on secular grounds. Spiritual versus secular – how could their minds ever meet?

This is actually the age-old tug of war between the world of man and the world of God, the ways of man and the ways of God.

The following account of Mark is pertinent to this point of view. “Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. He would be killed and after three days rise again…so Peter took him aside and began to protest strongly. But Jesus turning around saw his disciples very close. So he rebuked Peter saying, ‘Get behind me Satan! Your thoughts are not from God but from man.”

Viewed from its expected socio-economic impact the RH bill seems what this country needs. Massive poverty, low productivity, ever-rising unemployment, all of which have supposedly made the government operate on a deficit stricken budget. With a 2.2 percent rate of increase, the country now ranks 26th among other countries, yet its population density is only 293 per square kilometer. But overpopulation has been the theme song of RH bill proponents, never mind if other countries more densely peopled than ours are performing very well economically. Certainly this reality ought to open their eyes to the fact that population is only one of the forces that have brought this country down. More crucial is the failure of its leaders to come up with massive and sustainable measures to raise the quality of life of the average Filipino.

By controlling population, can we make this country grow? It’s doubtful if we can. In fact, people can be an engine of growth if properly mobilized and utilized. Look at China and India.

Catholics strongly oppose abortion. It’s murder pure and simple. Contraceptives – IUD, pills, Depo-Provera, etc. – are abortifacients because they cause the death of unborn human beings. Of course the RH bill people don’t accept this, poisoned as they are by family planning literature. That’s why they insist that pregnancy starts when the fertilized egg is implanted in the ovary. But the fact is, pregnancy starts at the moment the ovum is fertilized by the sperm cell, which happens five to seven days before implantation. Here’s what the book entitled Deadly Deception says on this subject: “The truth is that IUD, low doss and mini birth control pills, Depo-Provera, Norplant and morning after pills cause the death of a unique human being during its first week of existence. Remember, even planned parenthood agrees that these devices prevent implantation of an already conceived human being. They are not contraceptives. They are instruments of death.”

Abortion – if you ask the champions of RH bill, they would say they are against abortion because this is prohibited by the Constitution and by our Penal Code. How come they don’t accept the abortifacient property of contraceptives? How come they crafted a bill that promotes and propagates the use of contraceptives? Do they believe that killing a week old human being is less a crime than killing a fetus or an adult human being?

These people are intelligent men. It’s hard to believe they can’t distinguish between terminating the life of a week old human being and salvaging a grown up individual. But as I said their conviction is founded on purely material world view. Their frame of reference is pragmatic and practical and worlds apart from that of the bishops and faithfuls.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts, says the Scripture. But we don’t hear His voice anymore, so loud is the din of the world. What we hear is the incessant scream of our deluded selves for power and pleasure, for name and fame.

Pope John Paul II in his encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” says that mankind has been suffering from “moral darkness” which has eclipsed his valuation of human life. Thus violence, hatred, murder, war, genocide, including abortion, infanticide and euthanasia have been ongoing phenomena in today’s global landscape.

The proponents of the RH bill are undoubtedly well-meaning people. But they should respect the religious conviction of eighty million Catholics. To disregard such conviction is to trample upon their right of religious freedom. The bishops for their part are very much aware of the need to uplift the quality of life of our people, but this should be attained they say without transgressing the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of human life.

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