This is an archive for open letters and declarations, illustrations, treatises, opinion pieces, interviews and videos that support the orthodox Catholic position on the so-called "Reproductive Health Law" passed by the Philippine Legislature and signed into law in December 2012. (NB: Inclusion of a given piece in this blog-archive neither necessarily signifies the blog owner's agreement with all of its assertions, nor does it mean that he endorses it as completely accurate or precise.)
Showing posts with label Slideshows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slideshows. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
A UP Diliman Professor's Campaign for Life and Against the RH Bill
(NEWER ARTICLES BELOW. THIS ARTICLE WILL STAY HERE UNTIL AUGUST 1)
The Catholic Position on the RH Bill congratulates Dr. Aliza Racelis, Associate Professor in UP Diliman, whose speech at the UP Diliman University Council meeting earlier this month, we are told, dealt a setback to the plans of pro-RH professors to get the Council to issue an official statement supporting the RH Bill. It was sent back to the drafters, and it is not yet clear if it will be issued at all.
Apparently, during her speech Dr. Racelis focused on the following arguments: 1) the RH bill is anti-women and 2) the lack of moral consciousness exemplified by the RH Bill
The first point was already elaborated by Dr. Racelis on the following webpage:
And the second point in the following:
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Other webpages featured on Dr. Racelis' page that have a bearing on the RH bill are:
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These webpages feature useful slides, data and illustrations.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Another academic against the RH Bill
Amparo Pamela Fabe is a UP and UA&P -educated economist and sociologist who has worked on USAID, ADB and World Bank projects. Author of four books and Senior Fellow of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, Inc., she is currently the Assistant Principal of the High School Department of the Philippine College of Criminology.
A summary of the views she expresses below can be found HERE.
And here is a slideshow (from 2008) made by Ms. Fabe versus the then-current versions of the RH Bill:
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
THE NOBILITY OF FAMILY AND HOME
(Talk of His Eminence GAUDENCIO B. CARDINAL ROSALES, Archbishop of Manila, delivered for him by Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo (with power point accompaniment) at the MAGPAS First Saturday Catechesis on March 5, 2011 at the Paco Catholic School Auditorium).
The late Winston Churchill once said that “there is no doubt that it is around the family and home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society are created, strengthened, and maintained.” People who succeeded in their profession, business or any undertaking can always look back at the way they had been reared, encouraged and accompanied by their parents. Parents may not be rich; they may not be highly educated, but a good mother, in her simple ways, and a responsible father can shape the life and character of a son or daughter in such ways that later in life they becoe endearing examples to others and are able to guide and motivate many young people as well.
Parents Who Influenced Their Young Child
Giuseppe Sarto was born to a very simple family, not exactly very, very poor, although he went to school barefooted, and heput on his shoes when already he was near the school. His father was a simple village official, not the equivalent of a Barangay Captain, probably the equal of a Kagawad ng Sanggunian Barangay; the mother was “onlyu” a simple housewife whocooked for the family, washed the laundry, and cleaned the house for her brood. It was the Mama who influenced little Giuseppe very much. From her stories, her reminders and prayers, this little Giuseppe Sarto received the great motivation to be a good son and a hardworking student. Maybe it was also the mother who prayed for the vocation of her son. Giuseppe entered the seminary and ultimately became a priest, and lived and served to be a very good priest. He was promoted Bishop, Cardinal, and eventually, Giuseppe Sarto became Pope Pius X … and he went beyond the Papacy. He was canonized Saint Pius X, the patron of special devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist. Much of his progress in studies and his priestly vocation, Father Giuseppe Sarto attributed to his mother.
Admiring her son’s Episcopal ring, Mama Sarto once remarked to Giuseppe that without this ring, pointing to her original wedding ring, “there will not be that Episcopal ring on your finger,” she remarked to the young Bishop Sarto.
Many times the fidelity and refinement of man or woman would be traced to the mother, while the courage and industry are linked t the father. Without doubt the fused devotion and faith of Papa and Mama will one day determine the children’s fear and love of God and marked compassion for the poor and the weak. The early influence of parents on their children will tell on the future of their matured life, even and especially when, the daughter or the son becomes a parent himself/herself.
This is how important the role of man and woman, as husband and wife, has become in the gift of the procreation of life, that the covenant they enter into requires that they mutually offer to each other an “intimate communion of life and love,” and this covenant has been endowed withits own special laws by the Creator. “By its very nature, marriage is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of the children.” (CCC 1660).
Unity, indissolubility and openness ot life ar essential elements of every Christian marriage. Such was the mind of the Creator that He made humans, male and female. Then the Lord Jesus said, “have you not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said, “this is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the to become one flesh. They are no longer two, therefore, but one flesh. So then what God ahs united, human beings must not divide.” (Mt 19:4-6). They are united as one, because fidelity is one of the binding qualities of Christian marriage, with one person faithful to a partner, man faithful to his woman as wife, and wife faithful to her man as husband. The question of fidelity will always find its roots in unity. In a unified and faithful union of man and women, it is a muct to consider their union as the natural nest (or early home) of life.
Everything in Life Is Sacred.
Every life is sacred and its early receptacle or cradle needs to be considered sacred, just like the Sacred Consecrated Host, the Body of Jesus Christ is kept in a clean and consecrated ciborium. The first task towards life, when one is alerted to its presence, is to protect, preserve, nourish and defend it. And the first place where to do these is in the family and the home. It is not right to consider the woman as the only one tasked by the Creator to care for the life of the yet unborn, simply because it is in her womb that the feeble life seeks its sanctuary. The woman welcomes this little life in her womb that within the next nine months she can call her own --son or daughter. All-embracing motherhood is the great privilege that can belong only to woman. It is a great gift from God that a woman will especially partner with God (with the help of her husband) to share life with a divinely chosen person who one day will show great wonders, possibilities hope, grace, and the ever-astonishing mystery of love. Without the loving care of parents, the tragic opposite can happen.
The Gift of Motherhood Is Only for Woman
Woman, because she has partnered with man in a most intimate and selfless trust and love, earns, above all, the confidence, not only of her husband, but especially the loving trust of and partnership with God, because she has lovingly consented to be a mother. This gift of motherhood as given to woman, was beautifully described by an author. “it is in fully being a wife that a woman fully becomes a mother. There is no motherhood without marriage, without the gift of elf and the reception of the other … It is a wonderful blessing that is bestowed upon the woman to carry a child in her womb, to participate so intimately in Creation by giving her own flesh and blood. Her entire being is designed according to her vocation of motherhood. To deny it by attacking her biological rhythm, by wanting to do away with anything that would be a handicap to the female condition, so that she might be equal to man seriously harms the woman as deeply as her most subconscious part. It renders her sterile. But the woman was made to be a mother, in her body and in her soul. She can only attain fulfillment if she is faithful to her vocation. If she is not granted the happiness of finding a husband, she can receive even greater happiness through meeting the Lord and becoming the spouse of God. Thus she will not give birth physically but spiritually. It is awful to remain single all of one’s life, to become an “old maid.” Every woman is called to be a daughter, a wife and a mother: daughter of God, bride of Christ, mother of mankind, mother of humanity, through a motherhood that goes beyond that of the flesh and constitutes depth of her being.” (Jo Croissant, Woman’s Unique Vocation, The Priesthood of the Heart, pp. 91-92). This is the reason why a woman lives a more sublime calling than man. Like Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in her motherhood, a mother shapes the future of the earth by ensuring the character of the person she receives as her child.
Man Is Co-responsible for Life.
Both woman and man, wife and husband, are co-responsible for the life that they have both brought to birth. It is true as we have seen, that the mother is closest to the child, after having carried that “little life within her” for nine months, nevertheless, the husband, the Papa, shares the responsibility to care for and sustain that life and relate with their child, not just as in a state of co-ownership, but the father enters a relationship with as a child (son or daughter) to its father, or as beloved to its lover. The Papa cannot only be a simple provider. The feeding task can be provided by an institution or a machine. He cannot just be a defender-protector of his family and children; an agency can very well function as its security. But the father of a family, husband to her woman (wife), father to his children is the head of the family. He wields the authority in the family. He makes definite and concrete corrections on every occasion that the young needs to be reminded about.
These are perhaps the reasons why so many of the young people today behave as if there is no direction at all in life, act as if there is no authority at all, and live as if there is no tomorrow that will judge every act and conduct. The papa is the person who can usher, with knowledge, experience and prudence, both son and daughter into the cruel and deceiving ways of today’s world. He can very well introduce the child into the struggles of adult life (Enchiridion on the Family, No.3284). This is another responsible task of the father.
As a consequence of this perspective on the family, it is within the responsibility and influence of Papa and Mama that the children first get their first lessons not only on truths but also on values. The “rub on” effect of formation and instruction is picked up by the child from his parents at home. If this interaction between the elders and the youth does not take place now or has been abandoned because of too much exposure to the video and computers, then it will be sad to admit that mama and papa’s has badly corroded them.
Care for Life Starts at Home
The first care for life begins at home. It shows not only in the way the conversation goes among the members of the family. It is proven by the respect and the reverence given to life and the dignity that goes with that life. The elders and those with authority not only enjoy the respect of the youth, they equally respond by carrying mutual deferential response to any one who gives them that care. It is in the family that life at its feeblest moments gets the attention and the extremely sensitive care appropriate to the weakest. Fittingly, the first defense of life must be in the family, especially when all kinds of threats are thrown against a newly formed life in the womb or about to be formed in the womb of the mother. And it must not only be the woman who cares, it must also concern the man who shares in the responsibility, because mutual openness to love and absolute surrender to the possibility of life (as the greatest gift) is always carried by the spouses.
The second care that is learned at home is in the use of food. The respect for food nearly always becomes “reverence” simply because food is linked to life in order to support it. Some of the gravest mistakes children are confronted with at home, and sometimes with special “little punishing teachings” is the irreverence given to food. “Natatapon … o kay ay nasasayang” ….”Sobra ang takaw ng mata” … when the children cannot consume the food they put on their plates. Again and again, parents lecture this to the children.
Anything can be linked to life as support or as protection will be treated with reverence. The “heart of the Catechesis” on the Theology of the Crumbs in Pondo ng Pinoy is precisely the truth that nothing that supports or can support life should be thrown to waste. In the Gospel of Luke (Chapter 16:19-31) the life sustaining capacity of even a tiny bit of crumb was underlined by the Lord Jesus by allowing the beggar Lazarus to desire even the crumbs that feel from the rich man’s table. For us the lesion is clear on the values of this enriching catechesis on the resources that pass through our home, our dining table, our school bag, our purse, and our littlest “barya”-- and the teaching begins in the family.
The third care for giving the young the power to be responsible in their life of respect, concern and love begins also in the family. In a family where no teaching is given by the parents, nothing will be learned at home. Alas, the wrong learning can be earned outside the home, from fiends, and sometimes doubtful acquaintances. Where no initiative for good works and friendliness to others outside the clans is taken, sociability will only be among a few select groups. Existence even within a village or neighborhood can be ghetto-ish. Let papa and mama not give influencing good examples (loud or whispered) and the values of the family’s young will come from others.
To ensure the stability of the young adult and to help ensure the soundness of christian civil life in tomorrow’s society, marriage as the bedrock of the family must be supported and strengthened. This is our commitment in MAGPAS.
+G.B. ROSALES
MAGPAS MONTHLY CATECHESIS
05 March 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
A handy summary of some of the major arguments against the RH bill
8 Reasons Why We Should Not Pass the RH Bill
From: World Youth Alliance
From: World Youth Alliance
(For a slideshow version, please scroll down this post.)
1. The Reproductive Health Bill undermines the human rights it seeks to advance.
The government cannot, on the one hand, guarantee the “universal basic human right to reproductive health” with its concomitant “right to make free and informed decisions,” and on the other hand advocate a policy that tells parents—especially women—what their choices should be. Such an approach is an unjustifiable affront to the dignity and capacity of the poor.
The bill also claims to give equal importance to natural and artificial methods of family planning. This claim does not hold. While mention is given to natural methods of family planning, no funding is provided for the promotion of these methods in the budgetary provisions of the bill. Natural methods rely on investments in the education of women and increased knowledge, in order to enable women to manage their health, and make informed decisions. Budgetary allocations must be inserted to the bill to provide funding for the training of knowledge-based reproductive health care providers, and the promotion of necessary information to women in order to enable informed choice.
2. Maternal Health requires access to healthcare facilities and reproductive health education, not contraceptives.
Improved access to basic health care, nutrition, medicines and technology are the additional means by which maternal mortality and morbidity can be reduced and eliminated.
The mandate of the RH bill to increase obstetric care and skilled birth attendants, is not emphasized in this bill. The causes of maternal mortality and morbidity are limited: hemorrhage, infection, obstructed labor and hypertensive disorders. These causes can be significantly addressed through investment in skilled birth attendants, and provision of health education for women and families.
There is probably no more important step the Philippines could take toward improving reproductive health. The UNFPA states that three-fourths (¾) of all maternal deaths could be averted by the presence of skilled birth attendants. By contrast, family planning is likely to reduce maternal deaths only by one-third. The RH bill’s current provisions for maternal care are important, but underdeveloped in comparison with other parts of the bill.
3. It does not protect the rights of conscience of those that will be responsible for implementing new measure.
All reproductive health care workers should “provide information and educate” and “render medical services” consistent with the new provisions in this bill. This bill does not include measures that protect conscientious objections for healthcare workers or institutions that refuse to provide services due to religious or cultural beliefs and practices. In addition, through state-imposed reproductive health curriculum in schools, this bill undermines the rights of parents to be the primary educators of their children. Likewise, denying couples the right to marry without first receiving “adequate instruction” on family planning and responsible parenthood violates their individual freedom conscience and discriminates against those who would refuse such training in religious or cultural grounds.
4. It violates freedom of expression.
The bill’s criminalization of speech that “maliciously engages in disinformation” (an undefined category) about the substance or even potential motives behind the RH bill violates the constitutional right to free speech and expression. The provision should be eliminated in its entirety.
5. Increase in Contraceptive use leads to higher abortion rate
Dr. Malcolm Potts, abortion and contraceptive advocate and past medical director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said that “As people turn to contraception, there will be a rise, not a fall, in the abortion rate.” Dr. Judith Bury of the Brook Advisory Center chimed in a few years later that “There is overwhelming evidence that, contrary to what you might expect, the provision of contraception leads to an increase in the abortion rate.”
The reason for this is twofold: First, contraceptives fail a certain percentage of the time. A 5% failure rate means that 5% of the couples using a certain method will be pregnant at the end of the year. Second, the use of contraceptives gives a false sense of security that leads to risky sexual behavior. The result is more “unplanned” pregnancies and hence more abortions.
http://www.pop.org/content/presidents-page-contraception-reduces-1874
6. It fails to reaffirm the Philippines’s protection of the unborn.
Filipino law has long defended the right to life of all persons, whether born or unborn. The Reproductive Health Bill makes only an ambiguous statement of principle (“While nothing in this Act changes the law against abortion...”) as part of a care provision for post-abortion complications. Additionally, the bill’s guarantee of “reproductive health care services,” as opposed to the defined term “reproductive health care,” as well as a “universal basic human right to reproductive health” according to international legal custom, could eventually open the door to undermining Philippines national law protecting unborn persons.
7. Recent reports emphasize the problems with widely used family planning programs that fail to meet the needs of the poorest populations.
“Strategies that seek to increase contraceptive use rapidly by improving services and access in convenient or well-resourced areas are likely to increase observed inequities in contraceptive use.” Maternal mortality and general reproductive health problems also remain high because the unique issues facing poor populations are not addressed. (Nuriye Ortayli and Shawn Malarcher, “Equity Analysis: Identifying Who Benefits from Family Planning Programs.”) In this way family planning programs, by focusing on contraceptive use rather than an integrated, comprehensive approach to population development, fail to address the needs of the poor.
8. There has never been a direct link connecting high population with high poverty rates.
Correlation is not causation. It is short-sighted to think of declining population growth as a goal in of itself. Population control, as an economic policy, has proven to be unsustainable. Across Europe and Asia, countries that saw steep declines in fertility in the past generation are now bracing themselves for the future consequences of an aging population, when a large number of elderly can no longer be supported by the smaller and younger working class. During the 1970s and 1980s, Singapore instituted an aggressive two-child policy, which led to a situation of labor shortages and the difficulty of supporting an aging population. In an effort to recover, Singapore now pursues a pro-fertility policy.
In the case of Hong Kong, the country’s dense population has had no debilitating effects on its economic development. Hong Kong has experienced a great economic boom and high levels of economic prosperity largely due to a sound banking system, no public debt, a strong legal system, and a rigorously enforced anti-corruption regime. This case provides a clear example that economic development is not synonymous with small population size, and that a large population is not only sustainable but an asset to development.
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Slideshow version:
Thursday, November 25, 2010
An extremely important presentation on the RH Bill from a medical perspective
The Medical and Ethical Issues in Reproductive Health Care
By Dr. Maria Fidelis Manalo MSc
Reproductive Health (RH) Bill 2010 - House Bill 96
A more detailed version:
RH Bill
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