The Reproductive Health bill has a lot of debatable issues - over its nature, its purpose and its hidden agenda. As Catholics and as a citizen of this nation, we have the moral and civic responsibility to be informed of our personal decisions and where our hard-earned tax money goes to therefore I urge you to read Pro-life’s position paper on this bill that can be found in http://prolife.org.ph1.
My focus will be on contraception, specifically on pills, as numerous forms are beginning to be available in the market today. I have established in my first article where life begins – from the union of the egg and sperm called zygote which natural course is to implant itself in the walls of the woman’s uterus. What does contraceptives do? It prevents the blastocyst (the one-week old zygote) from implanting itself in the walls of the woman’s uterus. When in fact the blastocyst is already a life, contraceptives then becomes abortion. Abortion is defined as the loss of fetal life (newadvent.org)2, and if one takes a life, is it not - murder? And is not murder which is defined as the unlawful killing of a person with malice aforethought3 – is something we all should be concerned about? In ARTICLE 248, Sec. 1 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines: “any person who, not falling within the provisions of Article 246 shall kill another, shall be guilty of murder and shall be punished by reclusion temporal, if committed with any of the following attendant circumstances: 1. With treachery, taking advantage of superior strength, with the aid of armed men, or employing means to weaken the defense or of means or persons to insure or afford impunity.”
And yet, we seem to undervalue the gravity of murder in contraceptives and instead Pro-RH groups mask this as “reproductive health”, a means of birth spacing, to control population, and other propagandas.
If murder is not enough reason, think about the major side effects of the pill – increased risk in ability to conceive later in life due to the damage of cilia or hair-like projections that carries the fertilized egg to the uterus, increase risk in ectopic pregnancies due to the pill that produces high levels of estrogen and progesterone to prevent “pregnancy”4, and increase risk of breast cancer in certain groups of women – results from studies from Schlesselman, 1989; Thomas, 1989; Mann, 1990.5”, all these notwithstanding the hundreds of common side effects of the pill.
Say NO to the RH bill. Don’t promote murder. Be informed! Vote against the bill online at http://petitiononline.com/lifeph/petition.html and promote life!
Insets –
1) Contraceptives by its etymology are Contra (Anti, against) and Conception- (Life).
2) Do you know that despite having access to contraceptives, abortion rate is still increasing? “K. Edgardh found that despite free abortions, free contraceptive counseling, low cost condoms and oral contraceptives, and over-the-counter emergency contraception (EC), Swedish teen abortion rates rose to 22.5 per thousand from 17 per thousand between 1995 and 2001.”6
Sources:
1http://prolife.org.ph
2http:// newadvent.org
3http:// www.merriam-webster.com/
4http://www.doctorslounge.com/gynecology/diseases/ectopic.htm
5David C. G. Skegg, Oral Contraceptives and Breast Cancer, Institute of Medicine, (National Academic Press) 176
6Edgardh, K. et al. Adolescent Sexual Health in Sweden, Sex Trans Inf 78 (2002): 352-6, available at http://sti.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/78/5/352
Prolife Series (1 of 3): When does life start?
By Arlene C. Thay
"I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself."
"And if we can accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"
- Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
We’ve heard what Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay has to say on the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008 he authored. Before we even attempt to dissect the bill and raise strong points, we must first try to understand what is the value of a human life? How must one protect the dignity of a human life? More importantly, what is the Church’s stand on life?
As Catholics, we are called to a culture of life. Quoting from the United States Bishop’s Statement of Faithful Citizenship: Civic Responsibility for a New Millennium in October 1999, "Every human person is created in the image and likeness of God. The conviction that human life is sacred and that each person has inherent dignity that must be respected in society lies at the heart of Catholic social teaching… We believe that every human life is sacred from conception to natural death." (Ibid., p. 13).
Created n the image and likeness of God
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Gen 1:27)
God alone creates a human life – absolutely unique, never to be duplicated, an individual fashioned by God. In Prolife.Org’s website: “On the question of when human life really begins, authorities from around the world in the fields of medicine, law, ethics, and the social sciences met together in the First International Conference on Abortion held in Washington, D.C. (October, 1967) and unanimously concluded that: "The majority of our group could find no point in time between the union of sperm and egg (or, at least, the blastocyst stage) and the birth of the infant, at which point we could say that this was not a human life. The changes occurring between implantation, a six-week embryo, a six-month fetus, a one-week- old child, or a mature adult are merely stages of development and maturation."
The message is clear. The Church is clear. And Part 2 will discuss why we must not support the RH Bill by Edcel Lagman.
Sources:
http://www.prolife.org.ph/
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/faithfulcitizenship99.htm
