Download the Bill in pdf format. Click here: hb-5043-reproductive-health-and-population-devt-act-of-2008

A.       Access to a full range of contraceptives
The bill gives women the right to choose between natural and artificial methods of birth
control and guarantees access to the full range of “(h)ormonal contraceptives, intrauterine
devices, injectables and other allied reproductive health products and supplies.”
It has been repeatedly pointed out in medical articles and bulletins, including the pro-
contraception and pro-abortion literature from Alan Guttmacher Institute of the Planned
Parenthood foundation of the U.S.1 that, contraceptive drugs and devices have two modes of
action. They may prevent ovulation, or if ovulation takes place because of the phenomenon of
breakthrough ovulation, they prevent uterine implantation. The use of these contraceptives,
including intrauterine devices, renders the endometrium (lining of the uterus) hostile to the
fertilized ovum (product of fertilization or ovulation) and prevents its implantation in the
endometrium as a consequence. Deprived of shelter, the growing embryo – a precious little,
defenseless human being – is thus expelled from the uterus. This is plain and simple abortion!
The bill creates what otherwise is a sealed path to abortion by not only advocating, but
in fact, mandating, universal access to a full range of family planning methods, techniques,
devices, and services, and information thereon. While, as claimed by its proponents, the bill
does not legalize abortion, it does, in fact, promote abortion.
In addition, the bill transgresses the constitutional mandate for the State to “equally
protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.”
B.       Prohibited Acts are criminally penalized
The bill imposes imprisonment and/or fine on:

1.      Any health care service provider, whether public or private, who shall:
a. Refuse to provide reproductive health care services to duly DSWD-certified abused pregnant minor on whose case no parental consent is necessary.
b. Refuse to perform voluntary ligation and vasectomy and other legal and medically- safe reproductive health care services on any person of legal age on the ground of lack of spousal consent or authorization.
c. Knowingly withhold information or impede dissemination thereof and/or intentionally provide incorrect information on reproductive health programs and services.
d. Refuse to extend reproductive health care services and information on account of patient’s civil status, gender or sexual orientation, age, religion, personal circumstances, and nature of work: Provided, That all conscientious objections of health care service providers based on religious grounds shall be respected: Provided, further, That the conscientious objector shall immediately refer the person seeking such care and services to another health care service provided within the same facility or one which is
conveniently accessible.
2.      Any public official who prohibits or restricts, personally or through a subordinate, the delivery of legal and medically-safe reproductive health care services, including family planning.

The penal provisions bring to the fore various constitutional concerns.

Firstly, the bill makes a mockery of the “natural and primary right and duty of parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency and the development of moral character” by granting to abused or pregnant minors the right to avail of “reproductive health care services” which by definition, include sterilization and ligation and a full range of techniques, services, devices, and contraceptives, without need of parental consent.

Secondly, the bill undermines the “sanctity of family life” and violates the constitutional
mandate for the State to “protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social
institution” by allowing the spouse to undergo “voluntary ligation and vasectomy and other
legal and medically-safe reproductive health care services” without the consent or authorization
of the other spouse.

Thirdly, the bill defies the “free exercise of religion” clause of the Constitution. It has
been said that the religion clause of the Constitution is designed to protect the broadest possible liberty of conscience, to allow each man to believe as his conscience directs, to profess his beliefs, and to live as he believes he ought to live, consistent with the liberty of others and
with the common good. It is only the existence of a grave and present danger of a character both grave and imminent, of a serious evil to public safety, public morals, public health or any
other legitimate public interest compelling enough for the State to intervene that will justify
restraint on religious freedom. The challenge of the moment is to determine and identify that‘compelling state interest’, if any, that will justify infringement of the religious freedom.

C. Huge budget appropriations
Substantial amounts appropriated in the annual General Appropriations Act for reproductive health and family planning under the DOH and POPCOM, together with ten
percent (10%) of the Gender and Development budgets of all government departments, agencies, bureaus, offices and instrumentalities, and such additional sums as may be necessary, shall be made available for the effective and full implementation of the Act.
The appropriation of billions of pesos will contribute to further economic degradation of the nation by diverting the scarce government funds to the implementation and promotion of the population control program, rather than to education and basic social services to improve
the quality of life and promote the well-being of every Filipino.

Other Key Comments in PDF Files:

PP vs. HB2753

PP VS HB 17 and HB 812

PP VS Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2007 Funding

HB 5043 Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008

More Reasons to Oppose HB 5043

Protect Our Families, Protect Our Children. Dump Reproductive Health Bill No. 5043
For more information on how you can oppose this bill go to www.cfcffl.org

1. As employers, do you agree to be compelled to provide free reproductive health care services, supplies, devices and surgical procedures (including vasectomy and ligation) to your employees, and be subjected to both imprisonment and/or a fine, for every time that you fail to comply?
Section 17 states that employers shall provide for free delivery of reproductive health care services, supplies and devices to all workers more particularly women workers. (read the Definition of Reproductive Health and Rights Section 4, paragraph g, Section 21, Paragraph c and Section 22 on Penalties)

2. As health care service providers, do you agree that you should be subjected to imprisonment and/or a fine, if you fail to provide reproductive health care services such as giving information on family planning methods and providing services like ligation and vasectomy, regardless of the patient’s civil status, gender, religion or age?
(Read Section 21 on Prohibited Acts, Letter a, Paragraph 1 to 5 and Section 22 on Penalties)

3. As a spouse, do you agree that your husband or wife can undergo a ligation or vasectomy without your consent or knowledge?
(Read Section 21 on Prohibited Acts, Letter a, Paragraph 2)

4. As parents, do you agree that children from age 10 to 17 should be taught their sexual rights and the means to have a satisfying and “safe” sex life as part of their school curriculum?
Reproductive Health Education will be mandatory from Grade 5 to the end of High School (See Section 12 on Reproductive Health Education  and Section 4 Definition of Family Planning and Productive Health, Paragraph b,c and d)

5. Do you agree that you should be subjected to imprisonment and/or pay a fine, for expressing an opinion against any provision of this law, if such expression of opinion is interpreted as constituting “malicious disinformation”?
(See Section 21 on Prohibited Acts, Paragraph f and Section 22 on Penalties)

If you answered No to any of the questions above, then you are not for Reproductive Health Bill No. 5043. Read the bill.
You will find more objectionable provisions such as losing our parental authority over a minor child who was raped and found pregnant (Section 21, a, no.3), reclassifying contraceptives as essential medicines (Section 10) and appropriating limited government funds to reproductive services instead of basic services (Section 23).

Protect our families. Protect our children. Dump Reproductive Health Bill No. 5043.

see: http://xavyniceday.multiply.com/journal/item/420

1.Pray daily for the defeat of the Reproductive Health Act.  This is the most necessary step – without it, the others will not succeed.

Besides praying daily, do one or more of the following – prayer alone will not be enough to defeat the bill:

2.Call the House of Representatives trunk line at 02-931-5001.  Ask to be connected to your representative’s office.  Ask the person who answers the phone in your Representative’s office to tell the Representative that you oppose the Reproductive Health Act.  You can ask to speak to your Representative directly if you would like to, but this is not necessary.

3.You can write to your Representative at:
The Honorable [Representative’s Name]
House of Representatives
Batasan Hills
Quezon City, NCR 1126

Be sure to include your return address, so your Representative will know that you live in his or her district.
Your letter can be very simple, just that you oppose the Reproductive Health Act.  On the other hand, it is better to include some of the reasons why you oppose it.

4.Sign the online petition against the Reproductive Health bill, at
http://www.petition online.com/ xxhb5043/ petition. html

5.Distribute this information sheet and the others available from ALFI to friends via e-mail.

6.Write a letter to The Editor of your newspaper.  The address should be on the paper’s letters page, or the editorial page.  If not, you can call the paper to ask what it is.  Include some of the information about what it will do to our society in your letter, so that readers will understand what will happen if this bill becomes law.  Make your letter fairly short and fairly simple – otherwise it is not likely to be printed.

7.Print out this information sheet, and the others available from ALFI, make copies, and give them to your friends.

8.Also give the other information sheets to your parish priest, and any other priests you know.

9.If you know your bishop, speak to him from your heart about this, as one of his flock.

10.Your parish should have a Family Life Ministry.  Tell your parish priest that you want to volunteer for the ministry to defeat the Reproductive Health bill.  Collect signatures after Masses for the anti-Reproductive Health bill petition of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ ECFL (Episcopal Commission For Family and Life).  Your diocese Family Life Ministry can provide copies of the petition.

11.Refer your friends and others to the Alliance For the Family website: www.alfi.org.ph

12.If you can, fast from something – food, or something else that you value – as another form of prayer, and offer it to our Lord for the defeat of the Reproductive Health bill.

13.Pray, pray, pray, every day until this bill is defeated.

2.The so-called Reproductive Health bill places technology at the center of human reproduction: the creation of our children, the future members of our society.  Catholics believe in God and in His authority over human life and death.  It is a violation of this authority to attempt to substitute technology for the human will in the procreation of human life.  Yes, technology is a great gift of God – it has allowed us to conquer our environment, and offers the promise of a life without privation, and even material abundance for everyone.  Yet it is a two-edged sword.  Technology is also what has allowed our forests to be denuded, our fish and wildlife to be depleted, and our air to be polluted by the emissions of the machines which serve us.  In other words, it has appropriate uses, and inappropriate uses.  Giving it control of the sacred act of the transmission of human life, upon which the continued well-being and even existence of humanity depends, is to apply it to something where it clearly does not belong.  We tamper with the creation of life at the peril of our own welfare.  The Bible tells us that “my ways are not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks.  Yes, the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.”  If we try to substitute technology for exercise of self control of our own behavior, as this bill will attempt to do if it becomes law, it will, in the natural order of things, come back to harm our people and society grievously, as it has in every other country which has taken this path.  Europe, the Anglo countries – except the U.S. with its massive immigration, Japan, China, and even the Latin countries are all on a path to demographic suicide.  All because of placing technology between man and woman.

3.The Philippine Legislators Committee for Population and Development received foreign grants of 150,000 U.S. dollars from the Ford Foundation in 2003, 300,000 U.S. dollars from the Packard Foundation also in 2003, and 400,000 U.S. dollars from the Ford Foundation in 2006. If contraception is so important to our Filipino people, why was it necessary for some of our Representatives to obtain such large grants, totaling about forty-two million pesos at the current exchange rate, from U.S. foundations which have been greatly involved in suppressing the birth-rates of non-white peoples for decades, in order to support it?  Will this be good for the Philippines, or for those who think that more births in non-European countries are a threat to their lifestyle?

4.We read the following in St. Luke’s account of the Passion of Jesus, as he walked the road to Calvary: “…Jesus turning to them said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.  For behold, the days are coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed!”  Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us”; and to the hills, “Cover us.” For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?’”  This passage has long been a source of mystery as to what events Jesus was referring to.  The world has experienced the greatest economic boom in the history of mankind over the past six decades, yet families have far fewer children, and the wealthiest nations have the fewest.  Now we are at the start of what we are told will be the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Birth rates fell significantly during the Great Depression.

Click to download 7 page PDF document exposing RH5043 and giving clarifications.

Know more about HB 5043

- HB 5043 – Full Text of Bill (click to download full copy)

HB 5043 “An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development, and for Other Purposes”, or “The Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008”

HB 5043 is the Substitute Bill that consolidates the four Bills on Reproductive Health originally proposed by various authors in the 14th Congress. These 4 Bills were:

1. HB 17 by Rep. Edcel Lagman (An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development, and for Other Purposes)

2. HB 812 by Rep. Janette Garin (An Act Providing for Reproductive Health Care Structures and Appropriating Funds Therefor)

3. HB 2753 by Rep. Narciso Santiago III (An Act to Protect the Right of the People to Information About Reproductive Health Care Services)

4. HB 3970 by Rep. Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel (An Act Providing for Reproductive Health Care Structures and Appropriating Funds Therefor)

ALFI submitted its Position Papers against the Bills to the Committee on Health on April 29, 2008. (click to download Position Paper vs. HB 17 & 812, and Position Paper vs. HB 2753) and to the Committee on Appropriations on August 6, 2008. (Please download – PP vs. Reproductive Health and Population Dev’t. Act Funding)

The Committees on Health, Population and Family Relations, and Appropriations submitted Committee Report No.1156 recommending approval of HB 5043 in substitution to HB Nos. 17, 812, 2753 and 3970 to the House of Representatives on September 3, 2008.

HB 5043 was approved by the Committee on Rules and calendared for Plenary debates on September 9, 2008. The bill is now at Plenary.

1.HB 5043 is based on flawed data on population growth rates and fertility levels. It ignores the negative impact on the economy and society of an ageing population, as experienced in many developed countries.  If we spend our scarce resources towards birth control, we would be promoting the undesirable outcome of depopulation.

RP’s Population Growth Rate has declined since the Year 2000 Census of 2.36%. The correct PGR is lower. UN states it at 1.8%, whilst the NSO reports 1.94% for its 2005-2010 projection. RP’s Total Fertility Rate is not 3.5. It is 2.6 (based on UN) or 3.2 (based on NSO). In a few decades, fertility rate will be at replacement level of 2.1, and will still continue its irreversible decline, leading to impoverishment of the elderly, and economic decline – which history shows will lead to further decline in fertility.

2.HB 5043 places an overwhelming emphasis on contraception at the expense of all other values, including medical care for the sick and the dying. Top 10 causes of Morbidity/Death in the Philippines lists Pneumonia, Bronchitis, Diarrhea, Influenza and Hypertension as the highest ranking causes of death among women. There is a distortion of human values if we prioritize the prevention of procreation over saving lives.

3.HB 5043 promotes abortion. HORMONAL CONTRACEPTIVES ACT AS ABORTIFACIENTS. They do not prevent ovulation 100% of the time and thus, fertilization can still occur.  When the fertilized ovum is prevented from implanting in the uterus because of the effect of the pill, this ovum is expelled. This is plain and simple abortion. (Note:  Research shows that ovulation still occurs during pill use in 6 out of 210 menstrual cycles. Even among women who observed strict compliance with pill intake, break-through ovulation rate could be as high as 34.28 ovulations for every 100 women taking the pill for one year. Hence, there remains a grave risk of the abortion of undetected pregnancies.)

4.It is not true that widespread use of contraceptives will reduce illegal abortion and help control the spread of HIV/STD. In every single country where contraceptives became widely available, cases of abortion, teenage pregnancies, HIV/STDs increased because of the contraceptive mindset being promoted in society.

5.HB 5043, with its 2-child ideal (Section 16), will result in social stigma and discrimination against large families. The ideal family size is what parents responsibly decide. This is not to be mandated nor encouraged by the State.

6.HB 5043 legislates mandatory reproductive health and sex education from Grade V to 4th year high school (Section 12). This includes the discussion of topics on how to “prevent unwanted, unplanned and mistimed pregnancies”, “use and application of natural and modern family planning methods”, “desired family size”, etc. Teaching youth about abstinence and, at the same time, discussing how to avoid pregnancies sends mixed messages that will, in the end, lead to serious consequences for many. It also undermines the right of parents to be the primary educators of their children and “the right of spouses to found a family in accordance with their religious convictions and the demands of responsible parenthood”, as stated in our Constitution.

7.HB 5043 provides that any person who publicly or even privately disagrees with its premises, conclusion or implementation is subject to fine or imprisonment (Section 21.e.). It also imposes a tax burden on taxpayers, who, in the exercise of their religious conviction, are opposed to the RH bill.

8.HB 5043 seeks to classify hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine devices, injectables etc. as “essential medicines” (Section 10) even if they pose health risks to women. The World Health Organization has also concluded that HORMONAL CONTRACEPTIVES CAUSE CANCER, Warning Level 1, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

9.HB 5043 forces all health care service providers, including private doctors, nurses, clinics and hospitals, to make referrals for the provision of abortifacient drugs and devices (Section 21.a.5.). Refusal will be punished by fine and/or imprisonment. This is a violation of a person’s freedom of conscience.

10. HB 5043 violates the Constitutional safeguards for life and family (Article II, Sections 12 & 13; Article XV, Sections 1 & 3). It allows anyone to avail of RH services like vasectomy or ligation without the consent of the spouse (Section 21.a.2.), thereby creating artificial conflicts between spouses and thus effectively destroying the meaning of marriage. Similarly, an abused pregnant minor may also avail of any of the “reproductive health care services” without the need of parental consent (Section 21.a.3.).

11. Poverty and hunger is not caused nor aggravated by overpopulation, but by the wrong economic policies, poor governance and systemic corruption. Numerous economic studies have shown that there is no correlation between population, the incidence of poverty and GDP growth.  FAO statistics indicate that food supply in the Philippines has even outpaced population growth rate between the years 1960 to 2002.

12. Finally, HB 5043 ignores the mandate of Section 12, Article II of the Constitution, which provides as follows:

Sec.12.The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.

This provision leaves no room for the State or any of its agencies to get involved in any family planning program that promotes CONTRACEPTIVES that endanger the health of the mother and the life of the unborn from the point of conception.