Reproductive Health Bill - Updates

Recent surveys say:

• 76% of Filipinos want family planning education for the youth (SWS)
  
• 71% favor the passage of the RH Bill (SWS)
  
• Family planning education and RH Bill are supported by 76% of Catholic and 78% of non-Catholics (SWS)
  
• 75% of men and 77% of women support family planning education and the RH Bill (SWS)
  
• 82% of Filipinos think that government should not only educate couples regarding modern methods of family planning but also provide them with services and materials on these methods (Pulse Asia)
  
• Almost all Filipinos consider it important for one to have the ability to plan the family for the welfare of both the family (93%) and the country (90%) (Pulse Asia)
• Most Filipinos are aware of the reproductive health bill pending at the House of Representatives (68%) and are in favor of the bill (63%) (Pulse Asia)

Yay!

• The RH Bill remains a priority of the House of Representatives.
  
• Despite the vicious backlash from the "pro-life" camp, all 113 co-authors continue to support the bill.
  
• The plenary debate in congress resumed last 27 January 2009.

Nay!

• Anti-RH legislators are delaying the proceedings.
  
• This is not only obnoxious, it's expensive. For every day that drags on, they're wasting about about P12.5 million pesos (the House's daily budget) of tax payers' money.
  
• The deceitful tactics they're employing are disgusting. Rep. Roilo Golez was recently slammed for deliberately misleading the House and the general public when he misrepresented data during his interpellation. He claimed his figues came from the Department of Health, the National Statistics Office and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute but all three agencies officially denied producing such data.

Hey!

We're not going to stand for this. We RH Bill advocates will be heard. Ms. Elizabeth Angsioco, Secretary-General of the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) suggests five simple things we can do:

• Write to your Representative and let him/her know your stand on the issue.
  
• Write Letters to the Editor and send them to your favorite broadsheets.
  
• Monitor the proceedings in Congress.
  
• Sign/invite more people to sign the Declaration of Support for the Immediate Passage of the Reproductive Health Bill into Law
  
• Wear your sentiments on your sleeve or your car, as the case may be. (Pro-RH stickers and pins are available from the RHAN Secretariat. Call 927-1766 from 9 am to 6 pm.)

In addtion, let's harness the power of the Internet and use our e-mail, blogs and social networks to engaged others. Let's use every opportunity to educate people and counter propaganda with factual information and sound arguments.

If you believe that access to comprehensive reproductive health programs is a basic right, if you are against eleven women dying every day due to pregnancy and childbirth complications, if you are against the growing number of medically unsafe back-alley abortions, if you are against the youth engaging in risky sexual behavior without understand the full consequences of their actions, if you are against more children being born into poverty because their parents simply don't know any better -- now, more than ever, is the time to make your stand.

On the Reproductive Health Act of 2008: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5