STILL TAKEN FROM THE WEBSITE OF http://www.truthaboutnoynoy.com/
Did Noynoy Author the RH Bill?
Monday, 07 December 2009 06:02 CLAIM: He authored the RH Bill which is anti-Church, and supports abortion
TRUTH: The RH Bill was authored by Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay. The RH Bill does not support abortion. The RH Bill seeks to work with the church, and is not pro-abortion.
About RH Bill:
The Reproductive Health (RH) bill espouses education on regarding reproductive health issues, as well as access to natural and medically safe, legally permissible modern family planning methods.
It seeks provide a safe environment for women, informed youth and adolescents, and assistance in dealing with, and prevention of, sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS/HIV. Medical assistance on cancers and infertility are also covered by the bill.
The RH bill shall also provide women and couples the freedom of informed choice on family planning, which would ultimately depend on their needs, personal convictions and beliefs.
Coverage of the RH Bill:
1.Information and access to natural and modern family planning
2.Maternal, infant and child health and nutrition
3.Promotion of breast feeding
4.Prevention of abortion as well as management of post-abortion complications
5.Adolescent and youth health
6.Prevention and management of reproductive tract infections, HIV/AIDS and STDs
7.Elimination of violence against women
8.Counseling on sexuality and sexual and reproductive health
9.Treatment of breast and reproductive tract cancers
10.Male involvement and participation in RH
11.Prevention and treatment of infertility
12.Reproductive health education for the youth
On Contraception:
Contraceptives as essential medicines: Reproductive health products shall be considered essential medicines and supplies. Under the RH Bill, contraceptives shall form part of the National Drug Formulary, in light of the fact that family planning reduces the incidence of maternal and infant mortality.
On Education:
According to Rep. Lagman, principal author of proposed Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008:
Reproductive Health education in an age-appropriate manner shall be taught by adequately trained teachers from Grade 5 to 4th year high school.
As proposed in the bill, core subjects include responsible parenthood, natural and modern family planning, proscription and hazards of abortion, reproductive health and sexual rights, abstinence before marriage, and responsible sexuality.
In Noynoy's own words...
•With regard to the RH bill, there is a misnomer and misimpression that I’m an author of the RH bill. I didn’t author any such bill.
•I cannot subscribe to the idea to ignore that there is a problem. My position is: there is a problem, there is a need for the state to remind everybody, the parents, that they have responsibilities to their children. (Cebu Daily News)
•The state cannot mandate how you plan your family and the methods that you will use. It cannot even tell you how many children you should have. I do not also support ideas that have been tried in other countries like the 1 child policy. (Cebu Daily News)
•I cannot in good conscience say that the problem does not exist [in order] to appease the more conservative elements in our society. [Getting] their support should be secondary to espousing something that I believe in and that I think is right. (PCIJ Forum)
•I’m being labeled today as an abortionist for espousing education. Be that as it may, I’d rather defend that which I think is right rather than accept something not right and be hard pressed to defend that position. (Wall Street Journal)
•Government hospitals will be provided with budgets in support of artificial methods of family planning. I think there should be penal sanctions for people who will wrongly advise prospective families and parents as to their options and their rights. (PCIJ Forum)
•The country in 1986 had a population of about 50 million Filipinos. We are now, arguably...95 million Filipinos in a period of about roughly 20 years. So the issue is: population growth is geometric, rather than arithmetic in progression. The issue is that with unmitigated population growth, especially unplanned, then you have the attendant problem of education, health, feeding, sheltering and so on and so forth. The demand of this population on the resources of the country and more directly of the state compels us to look for an answer. (PCIJ Forum)