There's nothing reproductive nor healthy about it

... so to start with, I think the term "reproductive health" is misleading. And a bill that proposes teaching students starting from grade 5 in school about "how to have a safe and satisfying sex life;" making drugs and devices that mess with women's physiology and which have caused much harm to their bodies easily accessible to everyone; which imposes the number of children each family should have; and which works with the erroneous basic premise that the world is overpopulated ... simply does not have a place in Philippine society. The consolidated Reproductive Health Care Act goes against the Philippine Constitution that I don't understand why it is even being deliberated on in Congress. Good thing Cebu Rep. Raul del Mar had the courage and took the time to enumerate the specific points of the Constitution that the bill violates during last week's interpellation.

In the current issue of Baby magazine, I delved on this matter in the Editor's Notebook. I'm posting it in full here.

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The bomb is ticking

Take photos of a bunch of kids on the streets of Manila -- the dirtier they look, the better. Put these images on the front page of major broadsheets and slap captions on them about how there are "too many" people in the Philippines. Do this every few weeks. There you have it: the Philippines is "overpopulated."

It's not difficult to manipulate public perception, and it's easy to believe it if you're merely on the receiving end. We overlook the fact that it's a matter of population distribution -- Manila and a few other urban centers are the only places that are congested, and those who choose to live in other parts of the country have a lot of space to themselves (not to mention cleaner air and cheaper goods).

We probably haven't really looked into verifiable data to validate claims that there are too many people on planet Earth. Look at the figures from the United Nations World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision and see there is a high probability for a population implosion, not explosion--and in a few decades societies will be composed mostly of elderly, with too few young people to support the economy.

So, if the unwitting public is led to believe that there is a "population explosion," the next step would be to present a "solution." In this case, the solution deemed fit by some legislators and interest groups is easy access to drugs and devices designed to tamper with women's bodies and their physiology, and -- in cases where the surge of hormones released by the drugs and devices don't prevent ovulation and fertilization -- flush out a fertilized ovum (read: a newly formed human being).

If you grew up believing the myth of overpopulation, it would be easy to consider something like the Consolidated Reproductive Health Bill as something good. And if you've been on the Pill or you're convinced that use of prophylactics demonstrates responsible parenting, you'll find it easy to accept everything you read about the so-called merits of contraceptives without even asking why there's such little information in the media on the side effects, health hazards and the possible motivation behind the aggressive marketing of contraception. You probably don't even ask why (if you are aware at all) the bill is calling for pills, IUDs and condoms to be categorized as "essential medicines and supplies" when evidence-based studies have proven that these have led to numerous health problems in women, including blood clots, breast cancer, cases of perforated uterus and vaginal allergies. If you don't care that some of these contraceptives have been designed to cause abortion (purposely preventing the fertilized ovum from implanting is abortion) as a "safety net" should fertilization still take place, then care about your own health. For starters, turn to page 22 for "Getting to know the real contra vida, Part 1" and be more in the know about these matters.

With a wealth of available materials which legislators and their research staff may refer to in drawing up proposed bills that will affect the lives of their constituents, one wonders how lawmakers Edcel Lagman, Janette Garin, Narciso Santiago III, Mark Llandro Mendoza, Eleandro Jesus Madrona and Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel can formulate laws that involve drugs and devices that are detrimental to women's bodies and may even cause early-term abortions.

We human beings can be so ingenious. We have come up with groundbreaking inventions that have made life more convenient. But we have also made inventions that push us a step backward -- such as drugs and devices that harm the body, confuse the mind and mislead the emotions. And in the long run, rid the world of its most important resource -- people.

But there's still hope -- as long as we go beyond overpopulation myths and make good our promise to leave our kids with a world where children are treasured and life is deemed precious.

- Diana Uichanco
Baby Magazine, Sept. 2008