RH Bill 'pushes' Abortion, Bishop Says

MANILA, Nov. 24, 2010— Proponents of the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill are lying with their claims that the measure does not promote or allow abortion,” a Catholic bishop said.

Large-scale public funding for artificial contraceptives such as condoms and pills is assured in the proposed measure.

Almost all versions of the bill classify contraceptives including intrauterine devices and injectables as essential medicines where billions of pesos of public funds will be used for its purchase.

Advocates of the RH bill disagree that artificial birth control is a form of abortion, which the Constitution disallows.

But retired Bishop Teodoro Bacani said that based on several studies, oral contraceptives, hormonal injectables and IUDs are identified as abortifacients.

“They said the bill is against abortion and yet the government is required to provide abortifacient techniques,” Bacani said.

“It’s not morally allowable… abortifacient is one big issue here,” he said on the sidelines of the public forum on RH bill at the Unibersidad de Manila Wednesday. “That’s why I’m so against this RH bill.”

However, former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel denied that said modern family planning devices and methods are abortifacients.

“It is stated in the Akbayan version of RH bill that nothing in this act amends the revised penal code under which abortion is a crime and punishable,” said Hontiveros-Baraquel who was also present at the forum.

“We are not talking about abortion here but only reproductive health through natural and modern family planning methods and through age-appropriate sex education,” she said.

Bacani clarified the Catholic hierarchy is not against reproductive health bill per se but it is the inclusion of the use of artificial contraception and abortifacients that the church objects to.

He also said that the church is not against family planning, but prescribes only the natural method.

“They want better health for women and children… all good intentions and we have nothing against it. It’s the means that will be used to advance these intentions that we can’t stomach,” said Bacani. [CBCPNews]