RH Bill is Flawed

(Statement by U.P. faculty, students, and alumni)

The RH Bill is envisaging the control of our population, not realizing the negative experience of many nations that are aging and declining, tending towards extinction. The encouragement to use condoms for health protection is also based on false assumptions, because the model in Asia for condom use is Thailand, which has the highest incidence of the HIV AIDS virus, which so far, unfortunately, has no clear medication available to all sectors. The oral-contraceptive pills (OCPs) have been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as Group I Carcinogens.

From the U.P. statement and position paper you read the following: “Our main argument boils down to this: that it is the State’s duty to order society by promoting the well-being of its citizens. Thus it is a disservice to legislate what constitutes harm to its people… While it is true that the State cannot stop people from using contraception, since they may personally choose to expose themselves to its risks, it is not the State’s job to facilitate access to what is harmful…. We urge the legislators to dump the contentious and flawed Reproductive Health bill and to pass more bills strengthening the Filipino family, protecting its citizens against the risks of contraception, defending the scientific fact that conception begins at fertilization, providing essential medicines for the main causes of death, making quality education more accessible to Filipinos, and providing more jobs.”