WILL IT be fine if we just sit around in the corner leaving our country’s population to grow and grow just for the sake of the so-called “God’s will”? House Bill No.812 or known as the Reproductive Health Care Act is now pending in Congress. The bill is authored and sponsored by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and supported by other legislators. It is a combination of four measures establishing a reproductive health and population management policy. A highly contentious issue is the provision on artificial family planning methods for women and couples.
This is the root of the ‘mortal combat’ presently going on between the church and those government officials madly and impatiently waiting for the bill to become a law. There’s a controversy that does on to this day in the Philippines where the Catholic Church in the country has faithfully been opposing proposed legislation on reproductive health that promotes the use of artificial contraception.
Both sides have their own opinions and both are eager to win. But the decision lies on the hands of the entire humanity dwelling in the Philippines. This issue serves as a mind-boggling problem to the people. Citing studies abroad, pro-life groups warned that some of these methods would involve the use of pills and intrauterine devises. The same groups also feared that even if the bills declared abortion as illegal, the mere inclusion of the term “reproductive health” would embrace abortion as had been supposedly agreed in a global conference years ago.
Contrary to the idea, the legislators who proposed the said bill would not propose it for nothing. It’s just a waste of time if so. They have their own reasons of doing such. Obviously, that’s because they worry much on the situation being faced by the “Pearl of the Orient Seas” at present times.The country’s population is projected to reach 90-million this year, 102 million in 2015 and 110 million in 2020. And that’s quite terrible. If this situation continues, our population will uncontrollably explode in the near future.
Earth’s resources are limited. It cannot support a very large population. Population increase affects the demand and supply of basic needs. And because a few legislators don’t want to blame themselves or anyone else of what might happen in the near future, the “Reproductive Health Bill” came into life. If you think about it carefully, the Catholic churches have their reason for contradicting the bill, because they just want to follow “God’s will”. They are referring to what God had said to Adam and Eve when He created them. “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it”, the Holy Bible says.
Our country is Catholic so many would probably take the church’s side. But just a piece of advice let’s be practical and reasonable as well. For many years already, we’re given the freedom; couples were given the freedom to have as many children as they want. And now that our population is beginning to grow rapidly and now that the consequences of that freedom are coming in front of us, we should be responsible enough.But, there’s a single sign of it. That’s why the reproductive health bill did it for us. If the lives of our future sons and daughters are at stake, why contradict the bill? It serves as an opportunity, so we should grab and take advantage of it, shouldn’t we?
by:Jeepy Compio
