RH bill won’t solve poverty—Bishops

KEEPING a close watch on the policies of newly-installed Aquino government, the Catholic bishops urged President Benigno Aquino III to scrap indefinitely the reproductive health program as a means to solve poverty and contain the country’s population.

The country’s poor cannot be helped by promoting an immoral program such as reproductive health (RH) bill, the bishops said.

In a press statement issued at the conclusion of the Catholic Bishops’ 101st plenary assembly, CBCP president and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar reiterated the Church’s solid position on various social issues affecting the poor, especially the RH bill and sex education in schools.

“Poverty cannot be solved by promoting contraceptive education and programs,” Odchimar said.

The situation of society’s marginalized sectors was among the various issues discussed by the bishops during their two-day’s meeting leading to the July 10-11 plenary assembly.

Other significant concerns tackled during the two-day caucuses were issues on climate change, large-scale mining and reproductive health bills, the situation of education in the country in general and sex education, including those “that strictly concern governance in the Church.”

Reminding the president of his inaugural promise to listen more to the people, Odchimar said Aquino should now listen to the call of the Philippine Church to abandon the RH bill program and its sex education components.

“We, Bishops from all over the country, call on Pres. Aquino to listen to the call of the Philippine Church that the former program of the government to promote a contraceptive mentality through education and medical practices is immoral and will not bring about a people that is God-fearing, holding on to the sacredness of sexuality, life and the family,” the statement partly read.

Odchimar said the Church will never renege on its teaching regarding the sacredness of human life and the immorality of artificial contraception.

“Human life starts at conception, and conception takes place at the fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Human life is a gift of God and has to be respected and protected from conception till natural death,” he said.