Why the Anti-RH Camp is loosing its Battle for a Coherent Argument

Yesterday showed again why the Anti-RH camp is really, seriously loosing it's case against the Pro-RH advocates as it becomes clearly apparent without doubt that it's opposition is essentially rooted in its quest to uphold Catholic precepts on family planning, nothing else. For one, Atty. Luisito Liban, the lone Anti-RH lawyer who spoke in yesterday's argument against the lifting of the TRO on R.A. 10354's implementation, argued that the law is 80% about contraception and asserted that by making  sex education mandatory in public schools, the government is discriminating against (I assume) Catholics.

First things first, by what measure is R.A. 10354 about contraception? And even if it were about contraception, how could it be contravening the constitution? I do not know why Atty. Liban is saying that the RH law is more about contraception, indeed, reproductive health is about contraception, as it is the crux of the matter, you cannot discuss family planning without contraception, for indeed it includes both artificial and natural just as one cannot discuss about war without talking about the army or weapons for that matter. It is as if by saying that R.A. 10354 is about contraception that contraception in and of itself is already bad, for if that were the case, then even natural contraception is bad. But of course, the Catholic Church sanctions natural methods of family planning as the only acceptable method of family planning. So I am lost as to Atty. Liban's implied repugnance of contraception itself.

Second, R.A. 10354 can never be against the 1987 constitution as it does not force the Filipino family, impliedly or otherwise, to follow only, and only one approved family planning method, nor indeed does it require in any conceivable way the Filipino family or couples to use artificial family planning. I think Atty. Liban does not even truly understand what R.A. 10354 says on this matter, Section 2, paragraph a of R.A. 10354 says to wit: "The State shall defend: The right of spouses to found a family in accordance with their religious convictions and the demands of responsible parenthood." As if this is not enough, the same law adds in Sec. 3, paragraph h, "The state shall respect individual's preferences and choice of family planning methods that are in accordance with their religious convictions and cultural beliefs, taking into consideration the State's obligations under various human rights instruments."

And speaking of "various human rights instruments" to which the Philippines is a signatory, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of the United Nations, under Art. 6 mandates the protection of life by decreasing infant mortality, maternal mortality and access to adequate health care services for pregnant women. R.A. 10354 is anything but for the promotion of a dignified and respectable life for the Filipino family by ensuring that women and couples are given adequate access to credible reproductive health services. The insistence of the Anti-RH camp on an almost apocalyptic, conspiratorial modus for the RH law's enactment speaks only of one thing - these people are really fighting for no one and nothing but the entrenchment of Catholic medieval teachings and ideologies regardless of evidence to support the need for the RH law.

It is obscene and hypocritical, to say the least, that the Philippines is held hostage to the retrograde ideologies of a historically morally dubious church, who not only killed thousands during the Inquisition for merely speaking an alternative opinion about reality, but has consistently shown to disregard the findings of science that does not fit well with its self-created interpretation of reality.