EDITORIAL - Based on its merits

Every time the Catholic Church threatens to sic the Catholic vote on a candidate, the candidate wins. Joseph Estrada won the presidency by a landslide. Juan Flavier, who aggressively promoted condom use when he was Fidel Ramos’ health secretary, landed near the top in the Senate race despite a strong campaign against him by the Catholic Church. Ramos himself became the country’s first Protestant president, defeating the choice of the Catholic Church, Ramon Mitra Jr.

There are Catholic groups that are actively endorsing the Reproductive Health bill, so lawmakers should not be swayed by the Church’s latest call to arms against the measure. Lawmakers should assess the RH bill based on its merits rather than the dictates of a religion that has had to publicly apologize to women for its long history of gender discrimination.

Reproductive health is a right that every woman should enjoy, and not just those who have the money and education to make informed choices about their own bodies. It is curious that the strongest opponents of the bill in the Senate are men. The RH bill is for the millions of impoverished women who lack even basic information about planning the size of their families. Lack of access to such information has forced hundreds of thousands of women over the years to resort to abortion – something, it must be emphasized, that is not endorsed in the RH bill.

When they run out of sound arguments, those opposing the measure resort to disinformation and plagiarized prose to stall the passage of the bill. Despite the constitutional provision on the separation of church and state, personal religious beliefs are openly invoked by certain lawmakers in deliberating on the measure. Those who consider the realities of life for millions of impoverished women are the ones who will get voters on their side.