The Philippines House of Representatives is currently arguing over House Bill 5043 also known as the Reproductive Health Bill. The arguments center around whether or not the bill will help those living in poverty (good) and whether or no the bill is “immoral” (not the point). An article from the Pinoy Press cites the National Statistics Office, which illustrates the need for family planning with these statistics (start these out with “In the Philippines”):
* There are three babies born every minute
* Almost two thousand babies born every hour
* Almost four thousand babies born every day.
* This year, the National Statistics Office projects the population to balloon at 92 million people, making the Philippines one of the most populous countries in Asia (Twelfth most populous in the world).
* The population density is 277 per square kilometer.
Woah, slow down Filipinos! It’s not even that serious!
A short time ago, the 2009 national budget was approved at P 1.414 trillion (US $ 29,559,672,243.76). How much of that do you think is going to organizations that offer social services, including those like family planning and abortion counseling?
Department of Health: P 27.9 billion ($583,249,721.36)
Department of Social Welfare and Development: P 10.5 billion ($219,544,501.32)
Apparently, the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s budget has had a 177% increase from last year, which was a paltry 4.8 billion ($100,367,808.02), but most of this money will be going to “dole-out programs, such as donations and subsidies.”
Did I mention that the military was given P 56.5 billion ($1,181,414,548.04), and “debt servicing programs” will receive P 252 billion ($5,269,319,596,831.62)! I agree that debt is awful and sometimes people need help, but you’re ignoring basic social services, not just my pet project!
The article, written by the Council for Health and Development, ends with this:
Reproductive health must be viewed and not separated from the overall context of people’s health. As the economy worsens, the state of the public health system also deteriorates. And with it, women’s health, especially those belonging to the marginalized sectors become all the more at stake. Year in and year out, the government continues to fail in its efforts to address people’s health problems. Consequently, many women’s and children’s lives are endangered.
Moreover, the government’s hell-bent efforts to push for the privatization of public health facilities have made matters worse (e.g. collection of out-of-pocket fees in public hospitals) for poor women’s access to a comprehensive health care including reproductive health.
The debate on reproductive health vis a vis population can go on and on. But at the end of the day, it is the government’s responsibility to ensure accessible health services including reproductive health services. In particular, women should be provided with necessary information regarding reproductive health including all types of family planning methods to guide them in their decisions.
I’m afraid we’ll continue to see this as the global economic meltdown continues. “This” being governments that forget about basic health needs to try and “solve” debt. Um, just so you guys know, when people get bored/have no entertainment/little information by way of family planning, something big happens. It comes out nine months later, and you’re back at square one.
What say you?
Currency conversion by Xe.com
