Prostitution is cliché-ishly called the oldest profession in the world but surely it is promiscuity which predates the flesh trade.
I raise these points the context of the raging, albeit, replayed debate over abortion and how the controversial reproductive health bill is bannered by progressives as the need of the times given the Philippines’ exploding population.
There is also the very aggressive advertising of the use of condoms, with the funding coming from manufacturers and entities like international planned parenthood groups active in the Third World.
The advertising push focuses on the macho component of being sexually active but practicing ’safe sex’.
Understandably the Catholic Church is at the forefront of the assault, lambasting the reproductive health measure as pro-abortion and “an attack on the moral foundations of “the only Catholic nation in Asia.”
This writer believes it is now time for the Philippines to discard this slavish adherence to dogma and rescue millions of Filipinas from the bondage of failed marriages and the ban of abortion.
Both conditions are ANTI-POOR and constitute a clear and present danger to women who will any way go to abortionists or take dangerous abortifacient concoctions to get rid of unwanted pregnancies.
Legalizing abortion and divorce will give genuine primacy to FREEDOM OF CHOICE, while setting strict, very strict parameters on how safe abortions can be performed and by whom.
On the matter of legalizing divorce, it may, of course, also be argued that suing for divorce would still be a costly proposition, with lawyers being the ultimate beneficiaries.
But getting a divorce can be made affordable, is mechanisms are put in the law.
The reforms will also give equal protection of the law to women, and men, imprisoned in “till death do us part” marriages with their children caught in the cross-fire.
As things stand, only those who can afford expensive annulment proceedings can free themselves from destructive marital bondage with estranged partners become consigned to lives of misery and illicit relationships.
These problems fester while we witness news of criminally aborted fetuses being thrown in esteros, dumped in shoe boxes and minors ‘discarded’ by their parents roaming the streets as beggars and juvenile prostitutes preyed upon by crime gangs and purveyors of filth and moral degradation in honky-tonk joints and brothels disguised as spas and massage parlors.
The other face of this situation is the utter failure of both the government and the Church to help women in distress.
In Baguio for example, a recent report said health authorities are worried about the rise in AIDS because more and more young school-age women resort to ‘prosti-tution’ to get through school.
The snapshot is the same in such other urban cities as Cebu, Bacolod, Ioilo, Davao and General Santos.
The Church can muster all its influence in the current battle in Congress, and may win.
It is the responsibility of the State to give our people freedom of choice while giving them protection under the law.
Eliminate the anti poor bans on abortion and divorce now.
Tags: abortion, annulment, divorce, population explosion
Start with divorce first. But I doubt this whether this would benefit the poor. The poor do get legally married but have few qualms about “dissolving’ their marriage. They have no properties or even alimonies to bother about. They are poor!
As for abortion, I haven’t met a woman from a poor community that is pro-abortion. Most of the pro-choicers I have met can afford coffee at Starbucks! The poor women would rather have the child for adoptions. And that is what they do.
Thus remove the anti-poor provisions on legal adoptions. While understandably the requirements were meant to curb child trafficking, the requirements make the poor just informally adopt. The state has now way whether adoptions were meant in good faith.
well, the woman who was pregnant for nine months stands to lose opportunities, even income, wouldn’t she?
i don’t know, really. this is something i’d like those who’ve really studied this issue to speak up on.
The State really ought to treat a marriage for what it is: a contract between 2 consenting adults. It should get out of the business of defining marriage altogether and leave the sanctity or lack thereof to the religious beliefs or unbeliefs of the contract parties. The contract should define the marriage.
But terminating a contract isnt quite the same as terminating a life, and in the secular faith which we all share, in that a human life has intrinsic value, terminating a life is not taken lightly. In any case, preventing conception in the first place would take care of the abortion issue.
Edit that to ‘two or more consenting adults’.
Ordinary divorce is a lot better than Catholic annulment, which makes bastards of children by the mental contortion that there never was a marriage to begin with.
im pro divorce. to begin with i grew up from a broken family. and many filipino families are broken too. ratio is alarming.. and many women prefer to have children without a husband than getting married and have children. and yet they are bragging that the philippines is a predominantly catholic country?? in what moral sense? now in my adult life i understand. if only there s a divorce my parents could have been happy. my parents and others deserve a partner that best for them with out committing the act of concubinage, adultery, etc.
Let’s start first with the passage Divorce and the Reproductive bill. The constitution is very clear about the separation of Church and State, the state gives options and choices to its constituents while the church shepherds its “flock” in their houses of worship. The intervention of the Church is a modern day “frailocracy” that is happening in our country, such action is the height of hypocrisy of this “folk catholicism”. Giving a choice to the individual citizen should be protected by the state at all cost, it should not be influenced by these “peddlers” of morality. By the way, if they are so “concerned” in running a morally upright government, they should have an obligation that every working filipino has – pay taxes and run for election.
[...] of the Reproductive Health Bill in a series of posts by several contributors (1, 2, 3 , 4, 5) primarily from the legal, philosophical, political and scientific standpoints. However, [...]
i am from gabriela women’s party and we refiled the pinoy style divorce bill through rep. liza maza and luz ilagan this 14th congress. the bill hopes to institutionalize divorce as an option for individuals or couples, especially those in abusive or violent relationships. right now, a network to support the bill is being organized. if you want to join and support the bill, please contact joy solomon at 9316268 or through pinoystyle_divorce@yahoo.com. Many thanks!