Who is afraid of reproductive health ?

There is a whole story to the change in language from population control to reproductive health. This is a story that is part of the triumph of women not only here but all over the world after several centuries of continuing discrimination of women. The paradigm shift in language represents a re-thinking from demographics and numbers towards the promotion of the individual rights of each human being. Family planning per se will not improve the health of women as it is not a guarantee that mothers will not die of causes related to pregnancy and child birth. And so, reproductive health which is the broader picture is more than just fertility and family planning. Reproductive health is about the right of a woman to health. This right is now associated with basic principles of dignity and bodily autonomy and the ability to make decisions for ourselves; to be able to make decisions after being fully informed and, yes, after being fully empowered as a woman.

As a legal tradition, the separation of the church and state in the Philippines is more than a hundred years old. That we are a secular state was first enshrined and promulgated in the Malolos Constitution in 1899 as an icon provision during our birth as a free republic as presided over by President Emilio Aguinaldo. It was a reaction to the abuses of the clergy as immortalized in the character of Padre Damaso in the novel of Jose P. Rizal. But, any social institution - like the church or umma – can be an agent of good social change. So, the issue is whether what the church religious hierachy is teaching is for good social change or not. It cannot be denied that religion promotes patriarchy and our evidence for this are the passages that are strewn all over the writings of major world religions. This has resulted to the promotion of secularization in governance without infringing on our freedom of religion.

Therefore, even as our Catholic religious hierarchy continue to guide the faithful, our clarion call to the religious is to listen to what the church membership ( half of them women) are saying. In the Philippines, there is already a growing critical mass of support for the promotion of the reproductive health of women. Politicians should pay attention to this.

The objection of the religious hierarchy is related to the inclusion of the artificial means of contraception as a part of the family planning wholistic package. The proposed government policy is advocating for the right to informed choice. Informed choice cannot be had without the government allocating funds for the education of the public and for making available the basic delivery of health services for the reproductive health of women, which is half of the entire Philippine population. Pray, tell us, what is wrong with that? The opposition to the artificial means of contraception is related to the question : When does life begin ? This is a whole issue for another post all together.