Commentary
The pastoral and the liberal: Reflections on the RH bill
By Vicente RafaelI spent over 11 hours at the House of Representatives with my friend Lila to watch lawmakers deliberate and finally vote on the reproductive health bill on second reading. The RH debate has been unusual in that it suggests how familial, regional and class interests are at times trumped by what Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello calls “values.” Anti-RH lawmakers announced their opposition to the bill, for example, as a matter of conscience or faith. They painted paranoid visions of contraception as leading to corruption and abortion. Reproductive health as population control assures nothing less than a coming Filipino holocaust. This sort of hyperbolic and extremist discourse coming from leaders of the anti-RH camp has led to the demonization of pro-RH supporters.
