Garin clarifies stance on Reproductive Health Act: Backs Church on anti-abortion stand
Pro-life and pro-family. Anti-abortion and anti-irresponsible parenthood.
Such are the sentiments of Iloilo First District Representative Janette Loreto-Garin, author of the Reproductive Health Act pending before the 14th Congress. And these, she appealed, should not be misread nor misunderstood especially by the Church and Church leaders. The bill's noble intentions, she added, must not also be marred by half-truths saying the time is ripe for the nation to come up with a comprehensive health care law.
"The Reproductive Health Care Act" is a bill that establishes the Reproductive Health Care Program of the country. It recognizes women's rights and gender equality and ensures universal access to reproductive health information, education and services," Representative Garin explained. "The bill further provides that comprehensive health care means the inclusion of measures that promote safe motherhood, care for persons with HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections, infertility treatment, and male involvement in reproductive health."
Nowhere in the bill, the Ilongga solon pointed out, that State support for abortion is expressed nor implied in the Act's provisions.
"Family planning is not in the same context with abortion. Family planning is in the context of responsible parenthood. I am a doctor by profession and a parent myself. Fact is, we have hundreds and thousands of families living below poverty level denied of education and information on family planning services. No less than the World Health Organization (WHO) in its efforts to globally promote family planning recognizes this problem," she said. "Wouldn't we want to see a Filipino society with responsible relationships and responsible parents in terms of rearing another child into the family? It is about the promotion of safe motherhood and deeper male involvement in his partner's reproductive health."
Garin re-echoed her earlier appeal for the bill's support.
"Right now, other countries are celebrating the successes of their family planning and population programs while we Filipinos are still engaged in the ancient debate of whether the government should provide access to a full-range of family planning methods to couples. It is unfortunate that the debate on population and family planning has no winner. Each and everyone of us, especially the poor, becomes a loser as their rights are not being protected and their needs not being adequately supported by the government," the lady solon, who is also a Board Member of the Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development Foundation (PLCPD) then said.
Albay Representative Edcel Lagman also filed his version of the Reproductive Health Care Bill in House Bill 17.
In the Senate, PLCPD Co-Chair Rodolfo Biazon filed Senate Bill 40 and Senator Panfilo Lacson in Senate Bill 43.
"The bills might differ in some ways but they all seek to establish a comprehensive national policy that will provide for the availability of all reproductive health services and information, including family planning," Garin ended.
The Reproductive Health Care Act is co-authored by Iloilo Fourth District Representative Ferjinel Biron and Representatives Edwin Uy, Leonila Chavez and MarLen Binay among others.