Tuesday, July 9, 2013

A Closer Inspection at the Reproductive Health Legislation in the Philippines

One of the pressing issues the government has been dealing for a long time is how to manage the population growth in our country. Ranked as the 12th most populated country in the whole world, the Philippine population has already reached 105.72 million. According to CIA or the Central Intelligence Agency, 61% of this population is men and women from the ages 15 to 64. Based on 2009 predicted population, Manila has the most number of individuals with about 12 million persons, followed by Davao, Cebu and Zamboanga. Looking at these stats, we can say that Philippines indeed has a issue with this population growth as more and more individuals are being considered under the poverty line level. Due to this, the government has made step to make actions to control the population; so, the legislators have pushed the Reproductive Health Bill in the Senate.



The House Bill 4244, authored by Rep. Edcel Lagman, was an act that would have a comprehensive guidelines on accountable parenthood, reproductive health and population and development. As it was pressed to the Senate, it took over as Senate Bill 2865 trying to provide a national rules regarding reproductive health and population and development. Until recently is has become the Republic Act No. 10354 or also known as the Reproductive Health Law which makes certain universal access to methods, birth control method, fertility control, sexual schooling and maternal care.



Selected contraceptives would be made into an essential medicine and family planning techniques and surgical operations like ligation and vasectomy would be made available in any government hospitals. This bill would reduce the number of children in the family into two. The bill aspires to safeguard the women’s reproductive health and men would be made liable for reproductive troubles. Furthermore, youngsters would be informed regarding family planning on the 5th grade until high school. Additionally, to-be-married couples would go through family planning seminars before the issuance of their marriage contracts. To sum it up, the bill goals to manage the population for the economic progress of the country.



Studying the bill closely, citizens of this country will realize that individuals below the poverty line would be significantly damaged with this introduction. As research advocate, most Filipino families who have more than three children come from this family who have almost no income. If the government utilizes this, there will be plenty of money to be budgeted for the information drive and for the services that the residents should take advantage.

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