Aims To Prevent Abortion by Educating Women The opposition contends that providing choice to women in terms of planning the

family paves way to legalizing abortion. Nowhere in the bill states that abortion is permitted. On the contrary the Philippine statutes still abhors the act of abortion. The RH Bill being silent as to such issue is presumed to be in harmony with the laws of the land. Since the bill doesnt have a provision legalizing abortion and since the Philippine laws still disallows abortion, the fear of the opposition is merely speculative. Education and information. Those are the objectives of the RH Bill. Unawareness of these methods may usher more cases of abortion. Teenage, unwanted, and unplanned pregnancies are problems which need to be addressed. These problems cater to the possibilities that these women may resort to abortion because they didnt have a choice. The RH Bill seeks to give information to the community through the Local Government Units. In this manner, it would be easier to disseminate information in communities which are hard to reach. In fact, the provisions of the RH Bill specifically intend Local Government Units to have a role in developing and enhancing the family lives in their localities. The provision of the RH Bill requires each Congressional District must be provided with at least one (1) Mobile Health Care Service (MHCS) in the form of van or other means of transportation 1 appropriate to coastal or mountainous areas. Anti-RH advocates may justify that Local Government Units may enact ordinances appropriate for this endeavor without using the national funds taxed by the Filipino people. This thinking to us is does not address the issue but only promotes a divided nation for only those Local Government Units who implement such would be able to help educate the portion of the population which we think needs it most. By making the task to inform and educate Filipinos a national advocacy, though proper implementation, it would become more beneficial in the long run. The government would be able to have create a more informed population and would result in making choices that would fit their family values and the traditions that they believe in. By enacting the RH Bill, both national and Local Government Units would be able to mobilize policies and resources both in the national and local levels to imbibe an atmosphere that advances and protects family planning and welfare of each and every member of the family and their reproductive health and rights. Through proper implementation of the RH Bill, access to quality service by trained professionals and health workers would become a stagnant project of local government units. Couples would also have the choice in deciding what family planning method would be used to be able to cope up with their needs and values. Women and young people would be more empowered and hopefully become more responsible in their reproductive health choices. As women become more educated, they tend to have fewer children, 2 and participate more fully in the labor market. Ignorance about sexuality and reproductive health is now causing over half a million deaths of our women who have resorted to abortion out of desperation. We are not talking only of single women who sought abortion to protect their social reputation. There are more women who are married but have

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Section 15 on Mobile Health Care Service, RH Bill NA. (2012) Linking Population, Poverty And Development. Retrieved at http://www.unfpa.org/pds/poverty.html

sought abortion even at the risk of death because they could not bear having another child they cannot 3 afford to raise. Choices. Looking into the bigger picture, the law merely provides choices since lack of options may lead to the possibility of having more drastic methods of resolving these problems. The problem we face such as teenage pregnancies, unwanted pregnancies, and unplanned pregnancies has a large impact in the development of the country. These give rise to severe problems of poverty and population growth. The RH bill addresses these concerns. Access to reproductive health information is difficult to the poor. They do not have enough means and method to get a hold of the information that would help them in making informed choices in their planning their family and other health preferences. In general, poor people become ill more often and have less access to health services than more affluent people. Studies show that maternal mortality is directly related to access to resources and services: pregnant women in developing countries are between 80 and 600 times more likely to die than women in industrialized countries. For example, in Latin America, a womans risk of dying of pregnancyrelated issues (pregnancy, childbirth and pre and post-partum complications) is 1 in 188; while in 4 industrialized countries it is 1 in 2,976.

Lagman said in an interview, Reproductive Health Bill promotes information and access to both natural and modern family planning methods, which are medically safe and legally permissible. It assures an enabling environment where women and couples have the freedom of choice on the mode of family planning they want to adopt based on their needs, personal convictions and religious beliefs. He added the bill does not have any bias for or against natural or modern family planning. Both modes are 5 contraceptives methods and their purpose is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Solution. It provides for solutions for problems involving poverty. The bill promotes sustainable human development. The UN stated in 2002 that Family planning and reproductive health are essential to reducing poverty. The Unicef also asserts that family planning could bring more benefits to more 6 people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race. In fact, some of the options offered the bill has already been existing like contraceptives and the like. This law merely bolsters the mechanism of providing information and access to the public.

Chanco, Boo. (2012) Not Abortion But Quality Of Life.The Philippine Star. Retrieved at http://www.philstar.com/business/2012-12-19/887564/not-abortion-quality-life on December 19 2012 4 UNFPA. State of the World Population, 2002.Population, Poverty and Opportunities.New York, 2002. 5 RH Bill and The Freedom Of Choice. Sun star. (2012) Retrieved at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/baguio/feature/2012/08/12/rh-bill-and-freedom-choice-237063 6 Reference Philippines Health, Reproductive System and Wikipedia Encyclopedia