The Reproductive Health Bill: January-October 2010 Timeline of Events

What the Reproductive Health Bill all about
According to the section 2 of the Reproductive Health Bill, it upholds and promotes “responsible parenthood, informed choice, birth spacing and respect for life in conformity with internationally recognized human rights and human rights standards.”

It also mentions that it “guarantees universal access to medically-safe, legal, affordable and quality reproductive health care services, methods, devices, supplies and relevant information thereon even as it prioritizes the needs of women and children,among other underprivileged sectors.” (Get the full text here.)


January 2010
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued new election guidelines, then stating “Presidential survey front runner Senator Benigno Aquino is likely to lose major votes if Catholics will seriously take a call from their church leaders not to vote for candidates supporting birth control."

Those against the RH Bill believe that it is anti-life, because the said bill promotes the use of contraceptives, which the CBCP strongly opposes.

The CBCP believes that the RH Bill promotes “anti-family policies, including reproductive health, or any other moral evil such as abortion, divorce, assisted suicide and euthanasia.”


April 2010
Earlier this year, prior to the 2010 May elections, candidates took sides and aired their views regarding the Reproductive Health issue.

Those pro-RH Bill stressed that the program would help alleviate the incidence of fatality and abortion in the country, given that a sizeable number of women give up their babies each year because of unwanted pregnancy.

Those anti-RH Bill emphasized the possibility of it allowing greater influence for America to influence the Philippine government to push for abortion.


July 2010
Bishops urged Pres. Aquino to present his plan regarding family planning for his State of the Nation address (SONA).

Click here to read the rest of the 2010 RH Bill-related events.