Sunday, August 26, 2007 Pro-life bloc rounds up lawmakers to fight reproductive health bills
PRAYERS for 14th Congress members “harboring support” for reproductive health measures, and difficult interpellation for pro-choice legislators.
These are some of the tactics being planned to block “pro-choice” bills that Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. believes are gaining ground.
“I think slowly it is gaining ground because some people are not quite aware about the issues,” Pimentel told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
“The issues are muddled, which I think is what the other camp is trying to do, by saying that what they are advocating is all right and in accordance with the Constitution,” he added.
Pimentel spoke in yesterday’s Human Life International (HLI) Pilipinas annual national conference in Cebu.
HLI-Pilipinas promised to offer prayers, while Pimentel and Rep. Roilo Golez of Parañaque City promised to fight the bills in the Upper and Lower Houses of Congress.
“That sort of logic becomes difficult for people to realize that the foundation of society which is the family is really being undermined by these efforts,” Pimentel said.
Invoking the Constitution, he said, “Families and family associations have the right to participate in the planning and implementation of policies and programs that affect them.”
He and Golez, though, are not keen on passing their own “pro-life” bills.
HLI executive director Rene Josef Bullecer told conference participants to pray for the enlightenment of Reps. Edcel Lagman (Albay, 1st district), Darlene Custodio (South Cotabato, 1st district) and Janette Garin of Iloilo.
Lagman filed House Bill 17 or the Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population Management Code of 2007 immediately after the 14th Congress opened, while Garin submitted House Bill 812, or the Reproductive Health Care Act.
Custodio is among the bills’ strong supporters.
“We will face them during the deliberation,” Golez told Sun.Star.
Sens. Rodolfo Biazon and Panfilo Lacson have filed similar bills.
And while he left it to “moral experts” to comment on contraceptives, Pimentel asked for a “clearer” definition of reproductive health in the bills filed both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate.
“It depends on what kind of reproductive health we are talking about because many things can be covered by a nice-sounding title of an advocacy. So we will scrutinize all these reproductive health bills to find out if they contain any indication that they are assaulting the family as the bedrock of society,” he said.
Some pro-life groups fear that the bills will set the stage for the passage of abortion bills.
“Some sectors of our society advocate abortion—maybe not directly but indirectly—in advancing the use of abortifacient drugs to prevent pregnancy,” he added.
Also, in celebrating a mass for the unborn child at the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Punta Princesa, Msgr. Cris Garcia said he would suggest for the Church to go beyond saying no to abortion and contraception.
“Ang simbahan maayo lang sa pagbalibad (The Church is good at forbidding certain things). But it can do more because it’s bigger than the power of the devil, which is abortion. The power to forgive is more than the power of sin and the power of the devil,” he said during the homily.
Specifically, he hoped that the Church would soon open its arms to mothers who have committed abortion.
A recently-released survey revealed that there have been 473,000 estimated abortions since 2000. (JGA)
(August 26, 2007 issue) Write letter to the editor. Click here. Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here.
