[update] just some thoughts/apparently there's a lot to be headachey about in my country these days;
I feel compelled to state this, because I just want to make things clear for the record:
I grew up in a Catholic school that has a reputation for being at the forefront of Women's Studies. I hold my tongue at declaring myself a hard Feminist because that particular movement has degrees and gradations and my personal stands may both align and contradict with certain principles. I do know though, that I believe in the Right to Life, but I am also a supporter of the Right to Choice.
Now, as a retweet on my Twitterfeed put it so succinctly: I absolutely hate that these MEN think that they have the right to decide what WE WOMEN should do in a situation that they will NEVER be in. ( post via @vivatregina)
Whenever the CBCP (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) opens their collective mouth on the subject of the RH Bill and the issue of making various methods of contraception available, I always have to hold myself back from tearing my hair out. And while I know this does not affect anyone else outside of my country, I do believe that this topic is relevant to people in general, and not just women.
To give you a brief background on what I'm talking about, the CBCP has threatened President Noynoy with excommunication if he pushes through with his move to push that artificiail contraceptives be made available to the public. To quote directly from that linked article, Bishop Nereo Odchimar, current president of the CBCP has said this: "Well, being the President of all, you must consider the position of the Catholic Church because we are approaching these issues from the moral aspect like the unborn. Abortion is a grave crime. Excommunication is attached to [it]. That is an issue of gravity, that is a violation of God's commandment."
What ticks me off isn't so much the generalized assumption that all forms of contraception are equivalent to abortion -- because I've pretty much been ticked off over that in every single year that I heard that particular excuse used.
While I don't want to go into full detail and discussion on contraceptives (I quite possibly need to dig up my notes from my undergrad major concerning Reproductive Development from the standpoint of a Behavioral Scientist/Sociologist), I will say this: yes, it is true that some forms of contraception do abort the fertilized ovum from the womb, but these are not the only ones that the public can avail of, nor are they the most popular forms to date.
Hearkening back to a class discussion in college, there have been moves to make intrauterine devices (IUDs) available to women in impoverished areas to help in preventing children who these women and their families would be incapable of supporting and providing ample care for.
(Infodump: IUDs are long-term and have a smaller percentage of failure rate. Moreover, these are used as a treatment for women experiencing menorrhagia or abnormally heavy bleeding. If me memory does not fail me, these IUDs don't come cheap, but the project that my professor was a part of was partnered with a medical firm who wanted to supply these IUDs for free to certain areas in Manila.)
Now I don't mean to be demeaning in any way to those who do live below the poverty line. But while the CBCP constantly harps over being the only moral pillar concerned with the Filipino people's soul, I've read through statistics and studies that only prompt me to roll my eyes.
(They actually said that btw. That if the President pushes through with this, he will be selling the souls of Filipinos in exchange for money provided by foreign countries. WHAT. I don't evenaslkfjhasdflkj.)
The Church is crying foul and saying that the passing of the Reproductive Health Bill is immoral. They say that by pushing for Sex Ed as a mandatory class will promote 'sinful acts' among the people which will consequently lead to abortion.
I for one, cannot help but wonder if they have even sat down and actually read the bill.
It is fact that family planning is short of an urban myth in areas that are considered below the poverty line. Sometimes, you don't even have to be below the poverty line. The lack of information and the limited availability of any form of contraception (I don't want to count the pills from Quiapo and quack doctors that used to be the only means even as late as the 90s) is a truth that has been an issue for years. And while I hate admitting how slow progress has been on this front in my country, because it does make us sound so terribly backwards, the truth of the matter is, condoms only became available in drug stores and supermarkets a little over five years ago.
Oh, and the guy who pushed for it? Excommunicated. This is how stupid the CBCP comes off to me. Someone thinks ahead and lobbies for condoms to be made available to slow the spread of STDs, and the Church declares the man godless. WTF.
I know the church is supposed to be the masses' hotline to God, but I cannot believe that God -- any god -- would be proud of a people happy to live in ignorance when He clearly provided us brains to think for ourselves and discern the many gradations of gray between the black and white print.
Like this, for example. Has the CBCP not considered where women stand in this issue? Apparently not.
Final Notes:
(because this ranting = headache Noey does not want)
Reproductive Health Bill: Facts & Fallacies. Reposting from Plurk. It's a good and informative read, you should click the link.
RELATED POST: Remember this petition? It made my head hurt. I had to unload my rage awhile back. And having skimmed through the old 2008 entry, my stand has not changed at all.
ALSO: this tweet? Very relevant. This reactionary post? Still valid.
CLOSING SPIEL: I wanted to put my own voice out there on this issue, because it is an issue that matters a great deal. For my part, I hope that the President isn't cowed by the CBCP's threats. And ss for the rest of the people out there, I hope you have enough sense to think for yourselves on this issue. I don't want to say 'most especially the women', because while yes, the RH Bill will most definitely benefit women, this is an issue that everyone should be involved in.
Lastly, I have nothing against Religion and Faith and God. These are three things that I am in awe of and believe in. What I do take issue with are the institutions who try to use these to keep people in the dark, thus inhibiting progress and broader views on topics that while controversial, are relevant to human beings.
/END RANT
And now, I'm going to go back to watching my copy of Final Match Rikkai First, and bask in the pretty that is Taito and Masa as Fuji vs. Niou.
Addendum / October 2, 2010
“I cannot believe that the God who said, "I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly..." could say this applies to a woman who has 14 living children spaced barely a year and some months apart. Who with her husband must somehow nourish and educate on combined salaries that would barely sustain one spouse, let alone two spouses and all those children.
This is not to discount the psychological stress on the part of the men, who (unless they are absolute cads) must surely feel the pain of having to want better lives for the children; but men do not carry the babies for nine months, go into labor, and breast-feed into the bargain. And that's just the physical aspect.
To blithely say "the Lord will provide" and not consider what it costs a woman mentally and physically to carry and birth a child is the real sin. I maintain that the Lord's provision is the option for artificial birth control, should such an option be in agreement with the consciences of both spouses.
And this whole excommunication business is insane. Just because the president is a Catholic, there's no call to try and use moral blackmail to influence his secular decisions that will also have an impact on the non-Catholic section of the total population. Why should non-Catholics be forced to submit to the desires of the Church?”
-- cindyg, quoted with permission from this thread
Addendum / October 3, 2010
Arroyo to fight RH bill, says Pampaga bishop.
MANILA, Philippines-The Catholic Church has found an ally in former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in its fight to stop the distribution of artificial contraceptives to poor Filipinos.
Pampanga Archbishop Paciano Aniceto said Arroyo and the province's three other congressmen have expressed to him their opposition to the reproductive health bill. [READ MORE]
Frankly. I have never been more pissed off as a woman. So effing glad she's not running the country anymore.
Addendum / October 4, 2010
Civil disobedience still a CBCP option
Bishops say they have moral authority to call for
MANILA, Philippines-As Church and State moved to avert a collision, Catholic bishops Sunday said civil disobedience remained “a moral option” for Catholics if the Aquino administration pushed for the distribution of artificial contraceptives to couples who want to use them.
The bishops said they had the moral authority to call for such an action if the government promoted an action contrary to the teachings of the Church.
“The Catholic Church in the Philippines can do that if it decides to do that because for one thing, civil disobedience is a moral option, one of the moral options,” said Msgr. Juanito Figura, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Figura made the statement in an interview with the CBCP News, the official news service of the Church hierarchy. His remarks were posted on the CBCP website under the headline: “Church leaders say ‘civil disobedience’ a possibility.”
Church officials say contraception is a type of abortion, which the Church says is a grave crime and is banned by the Constitution. [READ MORE]
YES, ABORTION is banned by the Constitution. No one is contesting that. NOW. Get it into your damned heads. We are discussing prevention, not abortion. Here, CHECK the damned definition: via MedicineNet.com, Merriam-Webster.com
Condoms are NOT a vehicle of abortion because there is no fetus to begin with. In words I said late last week: If we are to loosely go with the terms the CBCP is working with, can I ask in all my wide-eyed earnestness "So if people ABSTAIN, since it prevents the opportunity for the UNBORN not yet even there child, OMGOSH. IT'S ABORTION!" /end sarcasm
P.S. CBCP. I find it very insulting to the memory of Luther King and Ghandi that you would consider their efforts along the same lines as your own. Reread your damn history. You are NOT on the same metaphorical page as they are.
Addendum / October 4, 2010, 7:49PM
A Call for Holy Disobedience
"We want our right to choose. The right to choose to do the right things. The right to choose to do the wrong things. The right to know what these choices entail, and the right to determine which choice is which.
In case the church has forgotten, God Himself gave us that right to screw up. Who are we to challenge His own design?" [READ MORE]