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Salient Features of House Bill 4244 Senate Bill 2865

Salient Features of House Bill 4244 Senate Bill 2865. HB 4244 – An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood, and Population and Development, and For Other Purposes

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Salient Features of House Bill 4244 Senate Bill 2865

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  1. Salient Features of House Bill 4244 Senate Bill 2865

  2. HB 4244 – An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood, and Population and Development, and For Other Purposes SB 2865 - An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health and Population and Development

  3. Why is there a need for reproductive health law • Address problems on the country’s RH conditions • Promote the reproductive rights of women and couples • Institutionalize RH services at the national & local level • Mainstream RH especially family planning in development plans and programs

  4. If enacted into law, RH bill will promote… • INFORMED CHOICE • (advances the right of women, couples and individuals) • HEALTH (improves the health of women, couples and infant) • SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (fosters development by addressing high fertility and rapid population growth rates, especially among the poor, which exacerbates poverty)

  5. Total fertility rate, Philippines, 1993-2011 Note: Rates reflect 3-year averages centering on the middle of the 3-year period

  6. High maternal mortality ratio or about 3-5T women dying/year Sources: NDHS 1993 & 1998. FPS 2006, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA: “Maternal Mortality in 2000”.

  7. 46% of 3.1 M Births Unplanned/Unwanted (AGI-UPPI Study 2000)

  8. Unwanted pregnancy causes over 400,000 induced abortion every year Estimated no. of women having abortion per 1000 women of reproductive age distributed by major island groupings in 1994 & 2000 52 41 30 27 27 25 17 18 18 11

  9. Demographic and RH indicators 3.5 2.5 Wanted and Actual Fertility Rates, by poverty status

  10. Misconception 1: The Bill is anti-life • It is pro-quality life. It will ensure that children will be blessings to their parents since their births are planned and wanted. • It will empower couples with the information and opportunity to plan and space their children. • This strengthens the family as a unit and optimizes care for fewer children who will have more opportunities to be educated, healthy and productive

  11. Misconception 2: Bill is biased for modern methods • The bill in fact democratizes family planning because it will make available to couples all possible family planning methods and not just NFP which is preferred by the Catholic Church. • Section 3(e) of the bill provides: “The State shall promote, without bias, all modern natural and artificial methods of family planning that are medically safe, legal and effective.”

  12. Misconception 2: Bill is biased for modern methods • Government’s bias is actually for NFP because POPCOM has been promoting purely NFP even though only 27% of all women using family planning employ both NFP and traditional methods COMBINED compared to the 73% who use modern contraceptive methods. (FPS 2006) • The bill in fact democratizes family planning because it will make available to couples all possible family planning methods and not just NFP which is preferred by the Catholic Church.

  13. Misconception 3: The bill legalizes abortion • The measure repeatedly underscores that abortion is illegal, criminal and punishable, and is not part of the menu of legally permissible and medically safe family planning methods. • Catholic countries like Panama, Guatemala, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Paraguay and Ireland all prohibit abortion as a family planning method even as they vigorously promote contraceptive use. • Muslim and Buddhist countries like Indonesia and Laos have likewise liberalized the use of contraceptives but still continue to criminalize abortion. • Contraceptive use and abortion have an inverse correlation: regular and correct use of contraceptives reduces abortion rates since unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are avoided.

  14. Misconception 4: The bill endorses abortifacients • Pills and IUDs are BFAD-approved, medically safe and legal. • Primary mechanism is to suppress ovulation. If no egg is released, how can there be an abortion? They also prevent the sperm from reaching the egg. If fertilization is avoided, how can there be a fetus to abort? • IUDs do not cause abortions because they stop fertilization. • UNDP, UNFPA and WHO Expert Opinion on the Mechanisms of Modern Contraceptives: contraceptives “cannot be labeled as abortifacients.”

  15. Misconception 5: Contraceptives kill • The WHO emphasizes that 15% of all pregnant women experience potentially fatal complications. Preventing pregnancy in high risk women through contraception significantly reduces maternal death. • Medical risks connected with contraceptives are infinitely lower than the risks of an actual pregnancy and everyday activities. • Risk of dying within a year of riding a car is 1 in 5,900. • Risk of dying within a year of using pills is 1 in 200,000. • Risk of dying from a vasectomy is 1 in 1 million. • Risk of dying from using an IUD is 1 in 10 million. • Risk of dying from condom use is absolutely zero. • But the worldwide risk of dying from a pregnancy is 1 in 10,000. • In the Philippines, the lifetime risk of dying from maternal causes is an alarming 1 in 100.

  16. Misconception 6: Sexuality education promotes promiscuity • Age-appropriate RH education promotes correct sexual values. • Benefits of sexuality education: • understanding of proper sexual values; • initiation to sexual relations is delayed; • abstinence before marriage is encouraged; • multiple sex partners is avoided; and • spread of sexually transmitted diseases is prevented.

  17. Misconception 7: The bill will promote a contraceptive mentality • The bill does not prohibit pregnancy. • Couples will not stop wanting children simply because contraceptives are available. • Contraceptives are used to prevent unplanned pregnancies but not to stop pregnancies altogether. • Human beings have the primal desire to reproduce and propagate their genes. This bill cannot undo millions of years of evolution. • The bill’s authors recognize the importance of ensuring that children are born healthy and wanted.

  18. Misconception 8: The bill claims to be panacea to poverty • Bill recognizes the verifiable link between a huge population and poverty. • Unbridled population growth stunts socioeconomic development and aggravatespoverty. • UN Human Development Reports show that countries with higher population growth invariably score lower in human development. • Philippines is the 12th most populous country in the world and ranked 105th out 179 countries in the UNDP’s latest Human Development Report. • Asian Development Bank: a large population is one of the major causes of poverty in RP.

  19. Misconception 8: The bill claims to be panacea to poverty • Large family size is a significant factor in keeping families poor across generations. (Phil. Institute for Development Studies) • UN: “family planning and reproductive health are essential to reducing poverty”. • UNICEF: “family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race.” (UNICEF State of the World’s Children Report 1992)

  20. Misconception 9: The bill will lead to a demographic winter • A so-called “demographic winter” is a scare tactic which fails to comprehend the dynamics of population momentum. • UP Economics professors have declared in a paper entitled “Population and Poverty: The Real Score that a so-called demographic winter will not happen in the country for “at least another 100 years.” • National Statistics Coordination Board: replacement fertility of 2.1 children will be achieved only by 2040 but effects of “population momentum,” or the continuous increase in population, will go on for another 60 years by which time the population of the country would have reached 240 million.

  21. Misconception 10: The bill is unconstitutional • Bill is being faulted for being violative of the Section 12, Article II of the Constitution which reads: “The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception. The natural and primary right and duty of parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency and the development of moral character shall receive the support of the Government.”

  22. Misconception 10: The bill is unconstitutional • Bill does not violate or intrude on the “sanctity of family life”. On the contrary, it discharges the obligation of the State to protect and strengthen the family. • The family is more than a natural unit. It is a social institution whose wellbeing is impressed with public interest and concern. It is not immune from legislation. It has to be amenable to the State’s exercise of police power for its protection and development.

  23. Misconception 10:The bill is unconstitutional Bill does not supplant the primary right of parents in the “… development of moral character” of the youth even as it proposes the teaching RH and sexuality education. • This gives support, as required by the Constitution, to parents, particularly to the majority who have defaulted in imparting RH sexuality education to their children because discussing sex at home is taboo. • The young get their information on sexuality from polluted and inaccurate sources. Thus, there is critical need for formal reproductive health and sexuality education in schools.

  24. Misconception 10: The bill is unconstitutional • Use of legal and medically-safe contraceptives, which are not abortifacients, does not violate the constitutional provision on the State’s obligation “to equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.” • The purpose of this provision is to preempt the Congress and the Supreme Court from legalizing abortion. This bill definitely does not legalize abortion. • The proceedings of the Constitutional Commission show that there was no intention to ban contraceptives which are not abortifacient.

  25. MaramingSalamat Po!

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