Inadequacy in all but perfect RH Law

I would like to react to the article “RH oral arguments: What wasn’t reported” (Opinion, 7/22/13).

Although I had a mere mental picture of the scenario at the hearing in the Supreme Court on the Reproductive Health Law or Republic Act No. 10354, my immediate reaction was that it was a repeat performance of the many debates we had in both houses of Congress, on television interviews at the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society and in other forums where the RH bill was discussed.

As I have repeatedly contended, the ordinary contraceptive pills are not abortifacients but medications effective in preventing ovulation; that is why they are prescribed only to women during their reproductive ages. When taken under doctors’ supervision and correctly, the pills prevent women from producing eggs. Since no ova are produced, then there is nothing for the sperms to fertilize. The pills then, strictly speaking, are not contraceptives but anti-ovulation.

Because of specialized technology, electromicroscopy and molecular biology, scientists have defined particulate matters and their movements in living cells. They have identified egg contents and sperm substance when the two are mixed together in fertilization. The moment of truth occurs in the process of fertilization when a homogenous mixture results from normal sperm and normal egg substance.

If in the mixture the sperm material dominates, no normal zygote results, no normal pregnancy occurs. Likewise, if the egg materials predominate in the mixture, no fetus (baby) develops.

It is only when the sperm material containing 23 somatic chromosomes and a sex chromosome teams up with ovum material containing 23 somatic chromosomes and a sex chromosome that a human embryo is formed. Subsequently it migrates through the fallopian tubes to settle or implant inside the lining of the uterus, which is specially prepared by hormones into a decidua, a nutritious lining that will nurture the embryo.

There are pills that can prevent the development of the decidua so that the implantation of the embryo may not occur or the environment and nutrition needed for growth may be deficient. These pills are banned in the country.

The RH Law legitimizes contraceptive pills but does not specify what kind. In this section of RA 10354, the banned pills may escape unnoticed. They can cause abortion and may inadvertently be included in the “contraceptive pills.” I brought up this information in Congress and in the Department of Health meetings that produced the implementing rules and regulations, where I represented the Philippine Medical Association. I also mentioned this to Director Harington Go. I am hoping that this information will be considered in time to address an inadequacy in an otherwise perfect law.

—DR. SANTIAGO A. DEL ROSARIO,

former president,

Philippine Medical Association