The RH Bill

Hole of Justice

by Peter G. Jimenea

RH Bill - what’s more in this battle?

A growing number of Christian organizations has expressed support to the Reproductive Health Bill (RHB), and the issue that has long consumed the country was, as it turned out, not good for the Catholic Church..

One of the groups is the Iglesia Ni Kristo. As the issue delves on birth control and limit in number of kids by a family, the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has also sounded their call to fight tooth and nail to stop the passage of the Bill.

But what inspired them to wage a war? As we see it, the Church’s most profitable business is  – human production. The stake involved in their stiff opposition to the Bill guaranteed the tawdry spectacle that follows – income from birth to death of devotees in all Christian communities.

We had been treated with doctrine of Christendom about baptismal, confirmation, first communion and so forth. But later is the wedding of the grown-ups as another doctrine of the Church for Christians wanting to have a family and all these - for a fee.

Worse, they say dead members of our family can never go to heaven without first securing a ticket from the Church – the blessing for a fee. There’s no Muslims or Buddhists in this Catholic Church business, only two members of a Christian family, the rich and the poor majority who prefer to accept money than apology!

The condom and contraceptives were already in used prior to the introduction of RH Bill in Congress. On why the CBCP suddenly stood up only now in opposing the people’s use of these birth control things, only God knows.

They also said life is sacred, thus, no to the RH Bill. But pity those crying mothers on the TV screen begging for financial help from people with golden hearts to save their dying kids. Where is the CBCP now that sacred lives are about to go?

Pet Melliza a colleague, is correct to say that Church leaders refused to accept the RH Bill as more parishioners, more collection. Oral contraceptives and condoms are not to abort but only to stop the sperm from developing into a fetus to become a human being.

The stuffs are merely to avoid unwanted pregnancy and additional new child-member in the family. These are not abortion as what the earlier claim hinted at. There’s no murder here, for how can you kill a lifeless matter?  

The CBCP nitpicks too much on the State's affair when their backyards are in shambles. They skipped the scattered dirt of peers but have that large propensity to interfere in the programs of the government for the future of its people.

The country’s population growth is fast-getting closer to the pit of poverty. It only widens the economic disparity between the rich and the poor as the Church intervened too much in government affairs.

Anything in excess is bad. The CBCP is already in the pot but jumped into the fire. What is wrong with RH Bill that it must be killed? Glitches can be fixed and women who are prone to risks of pregnancy are more than willing to accept it.

But the CBCP and Church hollies always resort to arguments to sway popular support rather than facts and reason. No wonder why small religious sects that abandoned the Catholic Church are growing in number.

They are fed up of too much intervention by the Church in government affairs This gives also more reasons to the government to give them the taste of defeat as the push comes to shove.

A big population is good for the CBCP inter se but it does not sit well for women who risk live during pregnancy. Thus, despite the ex-communication threat of the Church they stood pat supporting the RH Bill.

A national daily with picture of two women who challenged the Catholic Church to ex-communicate them is already a vital document to support this claim. They eventually realized the usefulness of RH Bill to women in particular and to the Filipino families in general.

Like Cong. Janet Garin, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago and Ms. Lea Salonga who openly support the Bill, the two ladies, like other pro RH Bill already understand that the prize at stake in this war is worthy of the battle they are fighting for!