The specter of a grand deception

FIFTY PERCENT of Filipinos want the late Ferdinand Marcos buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Over 60 percent, according to Ricky Carandang, are in favor of the Reproductive Health bill. Yet none from the pro-RH side are now screaming that we join the “bandwagon” to go ahead with a Libingan burial for Marcos.

That simply tells us that surveys not only have a selective clientele. It is also a simplistic instrument incapable of measuring how informed a people are in making choices. For instance, are we aware that the “corpse” with the finely chiseled features we see in the crypt in Batac, Ilocos Norte is not really Marcos but a mere wax model? A close associate of the Marcos family had whispered to me, after visiting the crypt for the second time, that Marcos’ real remains had long been buried underneath the sarcophagus. Do the survey respondents know that?

So, what do we bury in the Libingan? The wax model in Batac? Our legs are being pulled.

The so-called bandwagon survey results for the RH bill is as absurd. Do people now have an informed choice so as to make them educated to answer a survey question on the bill? The recent statement of Catholic Ateneo de Manila University faculty only reveals that ignorance.

The Ateneo professors do not have to belabor their point. A book published just last year by Eternal Perspective Ministries based in Sandy, Oregon is an exact mirror of how one can advocate for artificial contraception without knowing the true scientific facts precisely because it has become a “popular” issue.

Randy Alcorn, author of “Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?” is not even Catholic and was a self-proclaimed “pro-lifer” even when he and his wife were into birth control pill use. In fact, he had previously written a book in 1991 on “Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments,” something not remote from a current-day group that calls itself “pro-choice Catholics” or “Catholics for the RH bill.”

Alcorn relates that after many years of birth control pill use, he heard someone suggest that birth control pills can cause abortions. He was immediately skeptical. “I wanted, and still want, the answer to this question to be ‘No.’ I came to this issue as a skeptic. Though I heard people here and there make an occasional claim that the Pill caused abortions, I learned long ago not to trust everything said by sincere Christians, who are sometimes long on zeal but short on careful research.”

“My vested interests were strong in that Nanci and I used the Pill in the early years of our marriage, as did many of our pro-life friends. Why not? We believed it simply prevented conception. We never suspected it had any potential for abortion. No one told us this was even a possibility. I confess I never read the fine print of the Pill’s package insert.”

Alcorn is no doctor or scientific researcher, he readily admits. What he has done is to research on existing documentation from both sides, examining medical journals and other scientifically oriented sources—everything from popular medical reference books to highly technical professional periodicals. “I’ve checked and double-checked, submitted this research to physicians, and asked clarifying questions of pharmacists and other experts. Few of my citations are from pro-life advocates. Most are physicians, scientists, researchers, pill manufacturers and other secular sources.”

Contrary to what the Ateneo faculty statement sneers at as “outdated data” by pro-life advocates, Alcorn in fact says that “monthly, new research appears to illuminate further the emerging medical discipline associated with fertilization and implantation technology.” It should instead boggle our mind that these new research data elude a people of scholarship.

As a pastor, Alcorn had, in fact, recommended the pill to his congregation. “In fourteen years doing considerable premarital counseling, I always warned couples against the IUD because I’d read it causes early abortions. I typically recommended young couples use the Pill because of its relative ease and effectiveness.” What he found was considerable documented medical information linking birth control pills and abortion. “The evidence was there.”

“I came to this research with no prejudice against the Pill. In fact, I came with a prejudice toward it. I certainly don’t want to believe I may have jeopardized the lives of my own newly conceived children, nor that I was wrong in recommending it to all those couples I counseled as a pastor. It would take compelling evidence for me to overcome the reluctance I brought to this, and to change my position.”

“Some forms of contraception, specifically the intrauterine device (IUD), Norplant and certain low-dose oral contraceptives, often do not prevent conception but prevent implantation of an already fertilized ovum. The result is an early abortion, the killing of an already conceived individual. Tragically, many women are not told this by their physicians, and therefore do not make an informed choice about which contraceptive to use.”

“Many are not told this by their physicians.” Neither are we told by Rep. Janet Garin, who is a medical doctor. Isn’t that a grand deception by the RH bill?

“On the matter of controlling family size by killing a family member, we all ought to agree. Solutions based on killing people are not viable.” I thought that should have been easier seen by faculty teaching in a Catholic university. Others who are not even Catholic see that.

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