Every month of March, the whole world celebrates the International Women’s Month. Women are always given this recognition because of their importance in our society. We all know the sensitivity of the role they portray, and that is serving as the carriers of the next generation. Without women, there will be no off springs; there will be no future doctors, nurses, educators, writers, leaders, etc. In short, there will be no person to occupy our country in the future. There will be shortage of human if there are no women in our society.
That’s why women should be given enough considerations in our country. Their rights must be given to them in full amount. Here in our country, do we have laws that would protect the rights of the women? Yes and no. Yes because we have the Magna Carta of Women or simply known as R.A. 9170 which aims to eliminate discrimination against women by recognizing, protecting, fulfilling, and promoting the rights of Filipino women. No because we still don’t have a reproductive health bill that would mostly guarantee the Filipinos especially the Pinays in full access to methods and information on birth control and maternal care.
Why is it that so? Many are against with the approval of the RH bill and one of them is the Catholic Church. It has been proven in ages that the Church is against the utilization of contraceptive pills and condoms in compliance with family planning. They still want to pursue the use of natural planning and calendar method among the Filipino. They have their biblical reasons to why they don’t want to consider the use of artificial family planning. According to them, the use of condoms, IUD’s and contraceptive pills mean abortion, and abortion is against the word of God.
But what about the health of the women, this is one of the goals of RH bill; to protect women from unwanted pregnancy, sexually –transmitted diseases (STD) and those that may bring hazard to women during pregnancy plus the fact that RH bill also aims for population control. In our country, there are many people especially women who are hiding in the dark because of STD. We cannot deny it, but their number is getting bigger each day, and the reason for this is the unprotected sex, which we all know, is being promulgated by the Church in the mind of many Filipinos.
We are not saying that the Church is teaching us the wrong way of growing our country. But look at the current situation of the Philippines; we are over populated, and poverty –stricken. Our resources are already limited to a few being. It would not suffice anymore the demands of every Filipino here in our country. With this fact, Filipinos are forced to work abroad in order to get hold of greener pasture. But it seems the greener pasture is already being swept away by both natural and ‘man –made’ disasters, just look at what happened to Japan, Chile, China, and New Zealand. Middle East countries are already in the boiling point for war against the prolonged supremacy of their own leaders. Then, we also have the United Kingdom and the United States of America who will initiate a war against Libya. The greener pasture is already fading out its colour.
If the controversial reproductive health bill will be implemented, then there will be a greater possibility for our country to rise from its toes with heads held up high. With the controlled number of population, there will be also enough spaces for the next generation. Out –of –school youths might lessen in the future, and also, crime rates, because poverty will be concluded to minimize if there will be population control. In additional, our society will be protected against the invasion of the killer HIV, AIDS, and other kinds of STD. With this, we can grow our beloved Philippines the way we wanted to.
RH bill is not just about women, actually. It’s about the concern of the whole country. But like Mother Earth which needs enough caring so it can continue to nurture its own inhabitants, the women of our society needs proper caring too. Women are part of the components that comprise our country. So if we are really concern with our future, the law makers should begin implementing the reproductive health bill. What our country needs is a concrete idea of survival in everyday demands of life, not the abstract ones that our Church is trying to take care of. Happy Women’s Month to all women out there!
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