“Regardless of their religion, Filipinos are God-fearing and family-loving. This bill will change that culture”The Philippines population is increasing by more that 2% per year, one of the highest in Asia. According to the Guttmacher Institute 54 percent of the 3.4 million pregnancies in the Philippines in 2008 were unintended. These unintended pregnancies lead to an estimated half-million abortions (despite the procedure being illegal). Most of these abortions are done in unsanitary conditions or many women resort to crude methods such as jumping down stairs and herbal concoctions. And the Catholic Church still opposes access to cheap birth control for the Philippines poor.
An increasing population does not justify legalizing abortion in a country with a majority who believe that abortion is wrong. Responsible values of not having pre-marital sex (Catholic rationale: true love waits) and periodic abstinence in marriage can prevent both a “skyrocketing population” which contraceptive (especially the ‘unsanitary, crude’ abortion methodology) promoters love to capitalize on, and would also respect the Catholic Christian faith of the Philippines. Condoms and pills are not the answer to the plight of the Filipino.
First there is no move to legalise abortion in the Philippines. Neither the article or I adovcated abortion (mind you I do believe that it is the women’s choice and politicians and others should keep out of the decision process).
Second you idea that abstanance is all that is required is niave in the extreme. If abstanance worked, then Catholic priests would never be up on pedophile charges, or be fathering children.
Third the article was not about pre-marital sex. It was discussing the plight of married women who have as many children as they can economically afford to support, falling pregnant again.
The article is about choice. Birth control could and should be available to all (currently in the Philippines it is basically limited to the rich) and then people can make up their own mind, based on their own morals and faith. Currently the situation is that people like you are preventing people (specifically women) access to safe birth control and as a result women are having unwanted pregnancies which they try to terminate via unsafe abortions resulting in their injury or death.
From the outside it looks like your happy to let people die rather than be a bit more flexible in the practise of your theology. Not very, well, Christian.
