Rene Q. Bas, Editor in Chief
Manila Times

Many experts say the debate is mainly between the Catholic objection to artificial contraception and the urgent need to arrest Philippine population growth through an effective, aggressive birth control policy

Others see the debate between Rep. Edcel Lagman, together with co-authors, and opponents of the bill as one pitting Faith (and adherence to the doctrine of the Catholic Church) versus giving every woman an Informed Choice about whether to be pregnant or not. If not, then the choice is of what method of contraception to use and being informed about what each of these methods entails. (See related story “Facts about birth control” by Rony Diaz.)

Since abortion is illegal—criminal—in the Philippines, there is theoretically no choice between aborting and not aborting a baby in the womb. In reality, however, the number of illegal abortions must be rather large. Filipinos take pride in the Philippines being a country whose population is 85 to 90 percent Catholic, yet the number of dead fetuses found in garbage cans, public and mall toilets is appalling.

Faith vs. Pragmatism

Some see the debate between those who are for HB 5403 and those who are against as one on the issue of Faith versus Pragmatism.

The article of Faith is that God gives a soul to the human being at the moment of conception—that this moment is when the woman’s egg is fertilized by the man’s sperm. It does not matter to the believer if the tiny fetus cannot survive by itself. It is a human being because it has a soul from God Himself.

This being the case, then all the utilitarian messages—about the country getting better chances of vanquishing mass poverty or being doomed to poverty forever by its large population—mean nothing to the believer. These messages don’t even mean anything to the wife of the husband who is always drunk and requires her as a sex object every night.

Chemical contraceptives and IUDs, too, are anathema. They prevent the fertilized egg from being implanted in the womb. Not having found his or her connection to the uterine wall, the tiny fetus—already a baby in the mind of the faithful and of the Church—will die in a “miscarriage” which is in reality an abortion because pills or devices were used to prevent that human being from properly being linked to his or her mother.

Pragmatists are frustrated because they cannot win assent from the believer to allow the abortion of embryos resulting from rape and incest. They must understand that the believer—and the priests and bishops—can never agree because that offspring of a criminal sexual act is a human being, a being with a God-given soul. Why should the baby be blamed for the evil act of the incestuous relative or the rapist?

How then to deal with the poor mother carrying an unwanted child? How about her right to rid herself of an “intruder”?

Only in societies where people have ceased believing that the smallest fetus is already a human being are laws passed allowing her to dispose of the being she carries in her womb because it is “a foreign object.” As long as the fetus is a human being, it cannot be killed, which is what abortion is. It cannot be prevented from growing in the womb.

The Catholic Church, and those who respect its teachings, believe as the Catechism says: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.”

This belief is validated by the words in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 1:5) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.”

And in the Book of Job (10:8-12): “Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.” And Psalm 139:15: “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.”

Catholics against HB 5403 also talk about its illegality, the unsoundness of socioeconomic plans to make poor people prosperous by having less of them and other purely materialistic wisdom, the danger of the Philippines being afflicted by the West and Japan and Korea and Singapore’s “empty cradle” situation.

But the most important issue of all is the belief (which others may deem either loathsome or laughable) that fetuses are human beings. That is why they will not allow the bill to pass without a fight.