Why Should Catholics Oppose HB96 (RH Bill)?

The Parish of the Holy Sacrifice and the Family Life and Ministry will have a forum on "Why Should Catholics Oppose HB96 (RH Bill)?" on Saturday October 30, 2010 at the Fr. John Delaney Hall, Holy Sacrifice Parish, U.P. Diliman.

RH Bill: -"fertility control bill" says bioethics experts

Source: CBCPNews

MANILA -- The much hyped controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill 5043, that is being deliberated in Congress, is more of a “pregnancy prevention” or "fertility control bill" than maternal health bill, say bioethics experts.

In a colloquium held November 13 at the Dominican-run University of Santo Tomas (UST) - Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, leaders of the Southeast Asian Center for Bioethics, Medicine's Department of Bioethics, the Bioethics Society of the Philippines, Catholic Physicians' Guild of the Philippines, and the Philippine Nurses Association made a "consensus statement" that opposed the RH Bill in its present form.

The bill cleverly, although erroneously, styles itself as anti-abortion while promoting birth-control methods that are "potentially abortifacient agents," said bioethics experts comprising doctors and other health professionals.

Fr. Fausto Gomez, OP, president of the Southeast Asian Center for Bioethics and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life of the Holy See, said maternal health problems should be solved not by an "anti-birth policy" but by "means that are socially and economically based."

Gomez added that all the means to be employed should respect the dignity of life and of persons, citing the consensus statement:

"In the pursuit of the authentic common good, let us appreciate the obligation to ensure that no other aims or goals, no matter how pressing, obscure will overshadow our value of and respect for life and the dignity of the person and the family."

"The advocates of the RH bill exaggerate maternal health problems contrary to the government's own statistics that show pregnancy complications are not a leading cause of death among Filipino mothers," UST's student paper, The Varsitarian, reported.

As health professionals, the bioethics members said they are of the same intention in protecting the mother during her reproductive years. "This bill, however, does not address the problems of reproductive health in a holistic manner and focuses mainly on pregnancy prevention," a statement said.

They also criticized that the bill "must consider the rights of others involved, specifically the unborn, and those tasked with their care." The statement also stressed that "the anti-abortion stance of the bill is contradicted by the promotion of contraceptive agents (IUD and hormonal contraceptives) which actually act after fertilization and are potentially abortifacient agents."

The bill is self-contradicting on abortion but advocating methods that hinder conception, said Dr. Josephine Lumitao of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and UST Hospital, which is a country's premier health service institute.

While the bill denies support for abortion, it promotes hormonal contraceptives and intrauterine devices, which prevent conception, and abortifacients, that destroy the fertilized egg, Lumitao said. She explained that hormonal contraceptives, in the form of a pill, skin patch, or injection -- all widely available in the market -- contain hormones that prevent ovulation, and render the outer layer of the uterus
unfavorable for implantation of the fertilized egg, which leads to its death due to lack of nutrition.

Intrauterine devices, a contraceptive placed inside the uterus, prevent implantation.

"Is it not contradictory if the bill promotes abortifacient methods?"

Pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be denied Communion, prelate says

From CBCP News

OZAMIZ CITY, July 13, 2008 – Reiterating the Catholic Church stand against abortion Ozamiz Archbishop Jesus A. Dosado, CM said pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be denied Holy Communion until they bring to an end the objective situation of sin.

In a pastoral letter released today, Dosado said a Catholic politician who consistently campaign and vote for permissive abortion should be instructed on Church’s teachings and informed by parish priests that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin or otherwise he will be denied the Eucharist.

Quoting from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts Declaration “Holy Communion and Divorced, Civilly Remarried Catholics” [2000], number 3-4, the prelate stressed that when these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they where not possible, and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.

Dosado added that this decision, properly speaking, is not a sanction or a penalty. Nor is the minister of the Holy Communion passing judgment on the person’s subjective guilt, but rather is reacting to the person’s public unworthiness to receive Holy Communion due to an objective situation of sin.

Citing the General Principles of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), June 2004, titled “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion” Dosado said taking Communion should be a conscious decision, based on a reasoned judgment regarding one’s worthiness to do so. The practice of indiscriminately presenting oneself to receive Holy Communion merely as a consequence of being present at Mass, is an abuse that
must be corrected.

Dosado stressed not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion.

“For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war, but not about abortion,” he added.

The local ordinary said apart from an individual’s judgment about his worthiness to present himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, the minister of Holy Communion may find himself in the situation where he must refuse to distribute Holy Communion to someone, such as in cases of a declared excommunication, a declared interdict, or an obstinate persistence in manifest grave. (Wendell Talibong)