How Filipinas regard babies

There are Filipinas who do not regard a baby as a gift from God anymore. Pending in Congress is the RH Bill 5043 or the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act. It claims to just inform Filipino couples on family planning, assure ‘enabling environment’, and sustain human development, among others.

For Dr. Dante A. Ang though, ‘the bill, in effect, tells our Creator, “wait for our signal before you send us your gift. We are still busy enjoying sex.”

“The heart of the issue is faith or the lack of it. For me, when our politicians begin legislating birth control it is like admitting that they are unable, even helpless, to solve our social problems.”

“To set the record straight, I accept that overpopulation is anathema to progress and brings unimaginable hardships to the poor. Many of them are driven to crime by poverty not by choice but by force. Studies abound on the causal effects of uncontrolled population growth on development and prosperity. That is not debatable. What is debatable is the mode of moderating runaway population.”

“What I do not subscribe to is the legislative’s proposal to control population growth through RH Bill 5043. It is what I call, the path of least resistance. It does not teach our country’s poor the virtue of accountability and responsibility. With the controversial bill, we are, in effect encouraging parents to “be merry and gay” and not be responsible for the outcome of their sex life.”

“When it comes to matters of life and the sanctity of marriages, the Church is well within its God-given rights to intervene and assert moral authority. Come to think of it, it is the other way around. It is us, humans—the proponents and supporters of RH Bill 5043, who are “meddling” in the affairs of life, death and creation.”

”Promoters and supporters have argued the bill does not interfere with life. They question the timing, when life actually begins. They say that responsible parenthood is actually preventing the cells from becoming a human being.”

“That’s exactly my point. Why prevent the cells from becoming a fully developed human being. If there is universal agreement that life is a “gift from Heaven” shouldn’t the couple be thankful that they are being blessed with an offspring? And if the couple welcomes the “gift” why delay or even refuse to accept the “blessing?” Why are our leaders promoting legislation to prevent the “gift” from being delivered to and received by the parents?”

Last year, an overseas worker from Qatar abandoned the baby she just conceived in a Gulf Air plane. She concealed her pregnancy with an abdominal binder then dumped the newborn in a trash bin in the plane’s comfort room.

Three months after that incident, a 23-year-old OFW from Cebu denied giving birth inside a restroom in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1. Fortunately, the Department of Social Welfare and Development Reception and Study Center in Quezon City took custody of the baby.

Lately, another fetus was left behind in the Etihad Aiways flight EY 428. It was wrapped with napkin and brought to Veronica Funeral Homes in Pasay City.

There is no doubt right now that more and more Filipinas does not consider the sanctity of life anymore. But is abortion the appropriate recourse for Filipinas who are sexually abused? What about those who are copulating just for the fun of it? According to government statistics, the annual growth rate in the country to date is over 2.1%. And about 42% Filipinas of reproductive age suffer from anemia.

For the Philippine Association for Childbirth Education (PACE), it is not. The organization even collaborated with the most extensive ‘mommy’ portal in the country as well as with GlaxoSmithKline to write the first pregnancy guidebook. Infanticipating: Your Ultimate Guide to Motherhood discusses the importance of pre-pregnancy and post-partum vaccination as well as the important role of husbands. Japan has also put up a P3-million birthing facility in Tanauan, Leyte to protect pregnant women in that municipality to settle on home deliveries instead.

Pilipina Ako could only guess why a neighboring country with already an industrialized economy spend for such. If even the Japs could support the Philippines’ population growth, why is the country confused in respecting life?

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