Women's Rights and Reproductive Health - Essay Example

            The issue was about a bill filed in the Congress of the Philippines of making Reproductive Health Services available to the general population.  The argument was that there is a high mortality rate of birth-related deaths among impoverished mothers and such, mothers should be educated about birth spacing to reduce birth mortality and be given the means if they choose to reduce their family size.  Also, it was pointed out that the country being poor, where half of its population lives below the poverty line and 21 % among them experiences hunger, family size should be managed according to their income.  This can be done through the popular introduction of several methods of pregnancy prevention, including the usage of condoms and birth control pills.  It was also discussed that condoms can be used to stop the ballooning HIV infection in the country which had exponentially increased in the last couple of years.

            This was however vehemently opposed by the Catholic hierarchy and even went as far as threatening to excommunicate the President of the Republic should he support the said bill.  While the threat was later withdrawn, it only showed the influence of the Catholic hierarchy in the government. 

The argument that was primarily used by the church in opposing the bill was the sanctity of life.  That life should be respected and let it run the natural course.  As to birth spacing, the church only approves the natural birth spacing method and is not agreeable to the usage of condoms.  The argument however is not grounded in practicality.  In a country where half of its population lives below the poverty line, reproductive services are one of the basic services that government should provide to arrest its ballooning population which takes a toll on much of its already scarce resources.

            This move by the catholic church was a clear abridgment of the women’s right over their bodies to determine what is good for them and their families.  And as the church blocks the passage of the bill, it wants to deny them the services and education that the state should provide to take care of themselves and their family.  Also, I find it socially irresponsible for the church to discourage the usage of protection against sexually transmitted diseases especially AIDS which kills.  Moreso, when the number of HIV infections in that country has more than doubled in the last couple of years owing to gross ignorance to use the devices that could protect them from such diseases.

            Lastly, the Church should not impose its belief and prejudices on the government it has to govern a pluralistic society. The separation of State and Church is enshrined in its Constitution yet, it is not followed and is blatantly disregarded by the catholic church.