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A pastoral letter released by the Catholic Bishops Conference (CBCP)
of the Philippines for Family Week last month accused the government
of providing the wrong solution to overpopulation. The letter
states, “Legislation in public office has caused a tremendous
danger to family life in the contentious congressional bills that
propose to legalize abortion, prostitution and divorce.”
The CBCP refers to House Bill 3773, the
Integrated Reproductive Health and Population Reduction Bill.
Church-backed organizations, such as Pro-Life and Couples for
Christ, could not agree more with the CBCP’s stand on the
proposal, saying the bill is synonymous to “promoting promiscuity,
legalizing abortion, anti-life, and will ruin the family, the basic
political and religious unit.”
Authored by 51 lawmakers, the bill espouses all
methods of family planning, including the use of natural and modern
methods, such as condoms and pills, and the formulation of a sound
national policy on reproductive health.
Rep. Gilbert Remulla of Cavite, one of the
bill’s authors, said the CBCP should be alarmed that the
population has reached 84 million and is rapidly growing at an
annual rate of 2.36 percent.
“I do not want to remind the CBCP officials
that four babies are born every minute, only 8 of 100 babies born
are planned, 20 are unwanted and some 400,000 fetuses are being
aborted every year,” Remulla said. “Three of five babies die
even before they reach the age of five. These statistics are just
too alarming to be ignored.”
He added that the bill is meant to lessen, if
not eliminate, abortion in the country. “The bill is
antiabortion,” Remulla said.
But the CBCP disagrees. It reiterates that the
use of birth-control methods, such as contraceptives, pills,
condoms, injectables, IUD, permanent sterilization (tubal ligation,
vasectomy and others), are “strictly forbidden” by Catholic
teachings.
“Contraceptives such as pills and condoms kill
the babies and tubal ligation for women and vasectomy for men are
considered acts of ‘mutilation,’” the CBCP letter says.
“These birth-control devices are anti-life.”
Thus, these acts, which may seem “harmless”
and bloodless to some, are a commission of a “mortal sin,” the
CBCP added.
“For the Catholic Church, there can be no
compromise. The hard-line position is that the only acceptable
method is natural family planning.”
The CBCP pastoral letter says the moment God
created Adam and Eve, He also gave them duties and responsibilities
to fulfill. One of their responsibilities is bearing of children and
their nurturance demands responsibility from parents that we call
“responsible parenthood.”
The CBCP letter adds, “Chemical agents and
mechanical gadgets that make up the cluttered display of
contraceptive methods of birth control have caused serious damage
[to] family relationships, disrupting the unity and openness that
build family life by the effects that accompany the contraceptive
culture which include extramarital relationships, adolescent
pregnancies, and even the hideous, murderous act of abortion.”
--Sherryl Anne G. Quito
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