Valentine’s Day is supposed to be the day of “lovers”. It has always been associated with the word “love” as symbolized by the heart. Hence this is the day when cards containing attractive and beautiful replica of the heart, or red roses that resembles the shape and color of the heart, or heart- shaped cakes and other heart-shaped gifts, are exchanged between “lovers”. Before and after this day, or during the whole month of February which is now universally accepted as the “love month” business is extremely good for the commercial establishments selling these items.
Apparently, this is the modern day concept of love born out of pure commercialism. It is a concept that considers love as mere emotional affections and feelings of attraction to another individual, as depicted by the “heart”. It is a self serving emotive reaction that is being exploited purely for business purposes.
But this is not the real meaning of love. True love is more than a feeling or emotion. It is an act of the will that involves self-sacrifice. It is a decision using both heart and mind not only for the good of oneself but more for the good of another or others. In true love one thinks more of the other than of oneself. Our Lord Jesus Christ best exemplifies true love when He laid down His life to save all of us sinners. Hence, as has often been said, the opposite of love is not hatred, but selfishness. The modern world has apparently distorted this meaning of genuine love; all because of too much consumerism.
This modern concept of love has indeed led to the advent of contraception that “undercut” the potentials of the sexual act which by its nature is intended both for bonding and for having babies; for “creating tremendous emotional bonds and for creating a new life”. As Humanae Vitae states, “The modern age tends to treat babies as burdens and not as gifts. It tends to treat fertility as some dreadful condition that needs to be guarded against. Some speak of ‘accidental pregnancies’ as if getting pregnant were like getting hit by a car – some terrible accident has happened. But the truth is that if a pregnancy results from an act of sexual intercourse, this means that something has gone right, not that something has gone wrong”.
There is no doubt that contraception is now permitted in our country. The sale of condoms is openly promoted by radio and TV ads. In fact, last year during Valentine’s Day, the Department of Health (DOH) has even helped in promoting the condom business by distributing free condoms purportedly for purposes of safe-guarding the health of citizens against the spread of HIV/AIDS. This year, Congress is once more on the verge of enacting into law the use of the entire range of contraceptive pills and artificial birth control devices after being frustrated for the past several years.
The proposed law heretofore known as the RH bill is allegedly for the purposes of promoting women’s reproductive health and of checking the alarming rise in maternal and child deaths. They are telling the people that these purposes can only be achieved by reducing the pregnancy rates through the use of contraceptives, among others, when the truth is that they are achievable by just improving maternal and child health care which can be done even without the passage of said bill.
Lately they have been telling us that the bill is also for purposes of family planning as part of the couples’ duty to exercise responsible parenthood to lift them out of poverty or improve their economic conditions. Hence, contraceptives are still made available side by side with the natural family planning method, with the couple being given the right to make the choice after being properly informed. They are giving more importance to the right to make an “informed choice” even if said choice is wrong as it may lead to abortion or entails so many health risks to women.
Indeed, “contraception treats the women’s body as though there were something wrong with it. The use of contraception suggests that God made a mistake in the way He designed the body and that we must correct the error. In an age that has become very weary of dumping pollutants into the environment, it is so ironic that people are so willing to dump pollutants into their bodies. The health risks of contraception to women are considerable; the list of side effects is long and includes high blood pressure, strokes, increased incidence of some forms of cancer. The IUD went off the market because of so many lawsuits against manufacturers”. More importantly, “many form of contraceptives work by causing an early term abortion, they work by preventing the fertilized egg, the tiny new human being, from implanting in the wall of the uterus”.
But the proposers nevertheless insist that the bill does not legalize abortion and is “pro-life”. Yet the word “contraception” itself means “against the beginning of a new life”. The spouses engaged in contraception put “barrier methods in place – for protection – protection against a new baby... God gives the spouses the mission of transmitting human life. Contraception says ‘no’ to God; it says those using it want to have the wonderful physical pleasure of sex but do not want God to perform His creative act”.
Finally, “a sexual act open to the possibility of procreation ideally represents the kind of bond to which spouses have committed themselves. Contraceptives, however, convey the message that while sexual intercourse is desired, there is no desire for a permanent bond with the other person. The possibility of everlasting bond has been willfully removed from the very act designed to best express the desire for such relationship. It reduces the sexual act to a lie”.
So it is quite clear that contraception which is an integral part of the RH bill is an “offense against one’s body, against one’s God and against one’s relationship with one’s spouse and does great damage to society”. The legalists among us insisting on the narrow and strict interpretation of Article II Section 12 of the Constitution allowing the use of contraceptives except those that cause abortion or kill a fertilized ovum are leading our country to moral corruption.
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