Potshots at the RH Bill

After much deliberation, I have come to the following conclusions regarding the RH bill

1. The proposition that a developing country needs population control to improve its standard of living flies in the face of economic theory, empirical evidence, and basic common sense. The only thing that population control achieves is (imperfect) population control. The only thing that China’s one-child policy has brought is death – death and its consequences.

2. However, the educational system has the obligation to inform those who pass through the schools of the truth and science of human reproduction. When I was in Grade Six, our class was taught the human reproductive system, after being taught the respiratory system, the excretory system and all other basic aspects of the human anatomy. Note that this was in a private school run by Catholic nuns of the Religious of the Virgin Mary. Of course, hissing and catcalls ensued in the classroom, but that happens every time the reproductive system is discussed. I think public-school students should also get the same access to information starting at the same age. (Naturally, in high school, more detail was given in class – and this was in another Catholic school, this time run by Jesuits.) This should be the venue for such questions as, “Is it true that you don’t get pregnant if you do it standing up?” or “If I drink Seven-Up before and after sex, I wouldn’t get pregnant, right?” and all other stupidities. 

3. It is a disgrace that three billion pesos per year are being earmarked for the purchase of condoms and birth-control pills, as a “tool” to combat poverty through improved health care. How do we know that the purchase of prophylactics and birth-control pills is not the solution to better health? Because it could be the purchase of tuberculosis medicines. Or it could be the purchase of anti-cancer medicines. Or it could be the purchase of MRI machines or CT scan equipment for government hospitals. Or it could be the purchase of food, of antibiotics, of a thousand other things that are bankrupting the working relatives of a sick family member. Looking only at poverty of health, three billion pesos go a long way towards the well-being of sick and healthy family members alike. The sick don’t have to rot in government hospitals, while the healthy are free to purchase food and shelter and clothing and other things that keep the economy afloat. 

4. Nobody ever thought of telling Dolphy or Ramon Revilla Sr. or Joseph Estrada that they should have had fewer children. This is a powerful reminder that what matters is NOT the number of your children – it is the number of your panganay. Just kidding. What matters is not quantity, but quality. If you have only one child but you like to spend your time drinking alcohol, there is little doubt that your family will end up miserable. If you have 77 children and yet you work hard (etc.), you will end up having your children follow you in the movies and in the Senate. Poverty is independent of the number of children. 

5. The number of children is also independent of the number of prophylactics you distribute. I know of some guys who will never, never wear a condom, for a variety of personal reasons. More information will not sway them: they have Master’s and other post-graduate degrees already. This is another reminder that an obsession with artificial contraception all too often forgets the human element. The creation of life involves a relationship – always imperfect and sometimes a dangerous and “transactional” relationship – between two people. If you want to make them stop having more babies, make that relationship less mechanical and more human. 

6. All this population control madness emits an Orwellian stench in its logic. If you want to improve life by stopping the formation of life . . . well, first, stop to think about that. 

7. I have not yet heard of a non-ad-hominem argument in favor of the RH Bill. Do you know Lucy Torres? She’s against the Bill, and she’s very articulate. Care to match her point for point? 

8. To sum up, the RH bill is right to spread information, wrong to spend money, and just about in the middle of dividing Filipinos against each other. Unlike Noynoy, who is wrong on everything.