•  manila
• Friday, April 15, 2011
• Inter Press Service

In a country where an estimated 4,500 women die every year due to complications during childbirth, the enactment of a reproductive health (RH) policy is said to be a measure that could save lives. The Catholic Church has been very vocal in its opposition to a RH policy in the country, but not all religious organisations agree.

In a press conference dubbed ‘To Sin or not to Sin: The Views of Other Churches on RH’, representatives from different faith-based organisations expressed their support for the passage of the highly debated House Bill 4244 or the ‘Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2011’ and its Senate counterpart.

'We support the RH Bill because it is pro-life, it is pro-development and it is pro-poor,' said Bishop Efraim Tendero, of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC). PCEC is the largest network of evangelical Christians in the Philippines and is composed of 25,000 evangelical churches, 66 denominations, and 150 community and mission organisations.

Addressing concerns of the Catholic Church that the bill would promote a 'culture of death' by allowing artificial contraceptive methods, Tendero had this to say: 'Life begins at fertilisation. Therefore if there is no fertilisation, there is no life yet. The use of artificial contraception is not taking away life because life has not yet started.'

Eduardo V. Manalo, executive minister of Iglesia ni Cristo to the Committee of Population and Family Relations, said that many of society’s worsening ills could be traced to families 'growing so large that an increasing number of parents cannot provide the most basic human needs to their families.'

'The Bible states that a parent who does not provide for the needs of his own household is worse than an unbeliever. (I Tim 5:8),' Manalo said. 'Since modern methods of contraception - by preventing married couples from having unwanted pregnancies - assist in supporting this Christian principle, we support their use,' according to the statement.

Iglesia ni Cristo is the largest entirely indigenous Christian religious organisation in the Philippines, and the largest independent church in Asia. Bishop Rodrigo Tano of the Interfaith Partnership for the Promotion of Responsible Parenthood (Interfaith) claimed that if the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) professed to value the dignity of every human person, they should have more respect for human rights.

'To allow the deaths of mothers and babies because of a lack of a national policy is almost criminal,' said Tano, citing figures of maternal and infant deaths in the country.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), maternal deaths in the Philippines are one of the highest in the region. An estimated 11 women die every day in the country due to complications during pregnancy - most of these deaths are preventable. The problem is said to be particularly severe within the Muslim communities in Mindanao, where as many 320 mothers died per 100,000 live births according to the UN.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service