WHY I AM AGAINST THE RH BILL

Jesus P. Estanislao

1. The bill, in its present “consolidated form”, dissimulates. It is far from transparent: it purports to be
for reproductive health. In fact, by its aim, it is dangerous not only to the health, but even the life, of
unborn babies. It can also be dangerous to the health—both physical and psychological---of women.

2. The bill aims at fewer babies being born in our land, under the premise that the fewer they are, the
better off the Philippines would be: fewer mouths to feed, fewer children to educate, fewer people to
care for. This premise looks at children---indeed at people---as mere liabilities. It turns a blind eye on
the other side, that they can be---indeed often are---great net assets.

3. The bill claims to make the road to development much easier: the fewer babies we have to provide
for, the more resources we free up for investments, particularly for infrastructure. It forgets that the
best investment we can make is on people, on a big natural base of human resources.

4. The bill ignores one of the most pressing development issues now confronting Japan and a few other
countries as well, including many European countries and soon also South Korea and China. Ageing of
the population, arising from too few babies being born, is bringing about a demographic winter, which
considerably darkens the long-term prospects of the economies concerned.

5. The bill is simplistic in its view of development: one shaped and determined mainly by lowering birth
rates and population growth rates. It fails to give due importance to the key determinants of
development, which include the following top five factors: “good governance; openness to knowledge;
stable finances; allocation of goods and services principally by markets; high rates of savings and
investments” (Michael Spence).

6. The bill expands the role of government considerably, expanding it into areas that are best left to
individual choices and responsible decisions of married couples. It violates the key governance
principle of leaving to individuals, institutions, and other lower bodies those decisions and duties that
they can and should take up on their own. It disregards the maxim that governments govern best by
refraining from over-reach.

7. The bill proposes to spend tax money on population control programs, featuring artificial methods of
family planning, which many citizens find offensive to their conscience and objectionable on the basis
of the constitutional protection of the unborn. Indeed, many citizens are asking: what business does
the government have dispensing contraceptives and condoms and spending public funds on items that
are supposed to be a matter of individual “choice”?

8. The bill is not only intrusive; it is also coercive. It tramples upon the right of conscientious objection
on the part of individuals and institutions by threatening jail and other punishments to those who
refuse to promote and observe its anti-life orientation and propagation of artificial methods of birth
prevention.

9. The bill offends the basic dignity of human sexuality so essential for strong families as the
foundation of a strong society. While proposing to improve the condition of families, it can easily lead
to a fools’ paradise, characterized by “more premarital sex, more fatherless children, less
domesticated men, more crimes, more social pathology, more single mothers, and therefore more
poverty”, as has actually occurred in some countries that have taken the path the bill proposes (George
Akerlof).

10. The bill promotes a mind-set that weakens the ethical fiber of our people. It devalues human life.
It fosters short-term enjoyment of “freedom” without instilling a deep sense of duty to take on its
corresponding long-term responsibilities. It views personal relationships and social processes from a
narrowly pragmatic, materialistic perspective without giving due consideration to ethical and spiritual
values, the bedrock foundations for the genuine development of our people.

Manila, March 2011