RH bill – its clear and present danger
No more shame campaign that CBCP, at its best, can launch against those who embrace the RH bill.
No more ideological force built on mere religious belief can stand in the way of its passage into law.
No more counter-argument – statistical, medical, scientific and cultural – can apply the brakes for the bill to finally pass muster.
People are buying the idea of free choice. No such thing, in the bill, of a culture of death. No such thing as abortion. Poverty and population do affect each other in a way that the pro-RH bill has espoused.
So where will this leave us?
The bill passed in the House of Representatives. It can pass in the Senate as well. Malacanang has aired its imprimatur. Finally, it seems that no wind goes in the different direction anymore.
Signs indicate, the RH bill will be approved in the bicameral conference of both Senate and House and when transmitted to Malacanang, will be signed by the President.
Is there another side in all these? In countries where divorce has been allowed, what happened? In countries where abortion has been legalized, or euthanasia, or two-child policy or homosexuality, what really happened to the very moral fabric of their existence?
Nothing can stop us thinking that in countries in Europe where divorce has been allowed, the rates of divorce follow an increasing trend throughout the period. On the other hand, in countries where abortion has been legalized, benefits appear to far outweigh the costs in terms of danger to life of the mother as it is to the child.
Like it or not, unwanted children may have to go since freedom could be liberating from the hard grip of social and economic conditions that confront teenagers or women in unplanned pregnancies. To begin with, there will not be pregnancies as there are contraceptives to take care of the problem.
What do all these leave us?
No more arguments. The proponents of RH bill are winning the war. Less maternal or infant deaths could be desired more than the contrary. The problem of unwanted children is best addressed under a ‘paradigm shift’. Never mind what really happens afterwards but we may have ‘founded’ fears that teen age boys and girls might go astray. That otherwise good wives would turn the table around. That people across all ages will not be afraid of sex than the priests or their parents have warned them against.
So much are going to happen. It bears watching. And the dim effects of unenlightened judgment will fail to light the road to reason, morality, and rationality. Then, we would have failed and being doomed is not an overstatement.
Sari sari stores will sell condoms or even ambulant cigarette vendors. Teenagers can play sex at vacant street corners or abandoned buildings. The cascading effects of freedom, of choice, of an enabling environment will take its toll upon families, more families over time.
Whoever said there is anything like “reproductive rights” must be stupid.