Transcript Partial-Birth Abortion

Principle of Human Dignity
• Human person is made in
the image of God.
• All are equally persons,
have the same human
rights, and have the same
claim to justice, dignity
and respect.
• Every person must be
valued as a unique,
irreplaceable member of
the human community
Jesus preached the good news of God’s love for
the “little ones,” the outcasts rejected by
secular and religious authorities, including
powerless little children, whom he declared
should be given special respect in the
Kingdom of God.
Mk 9:33
Principle of Autonomy
• recognizes the rights of individuals to
self determination
• acknowledges patients' personal liberty,
and their right to decide their own
course and follow through a plan that
they freely agree on.
Principle of Autonomy
• NOT ABSOLUTE!
• Assumes rational thinking on the part of the
individual & may be challenged when the
rights of others are infringed upon by the
individual.
Principle of
Beneficence
Principle of
Non-maleficence
• To do good to the
patient, or what
will further the
patient's interest
• To avoid harm to the
patient, or what
would be against the
patient's interests.
Principle of Cooperation
• Cooperating or approving in an evil act
regardless of full knowledge of the action.
– Formal Cooperation
• Participate readily in the act
– Material Cooperation
• Not freely participating in the evil act
– Immediate – performing something essential to the act.
– Mediate – participating in a nonsense or accidental
manner.
Principle of Informed Consent
• person’s right to make decisions regarding
medical procedures based on a sufficient
knowledge of the benefits, burdens, and
risks involved.
• Elements
– Competence
– Disclosure
– Understanding
– Voluntariness
Principle of Double Effect
• The intention must be morally and
intrinsically good.
• The intention must cause more good effect
and avoid as much as possible any bad
effect.
• The foreseen beneficial act must not be
achieved by the evil act.
• The benefits of the action must be equal or
greater than the foreseen harmful effects.
is one that is
induced with the
immediate purpose
of destroying the
human fetus at any
stage after
conception
Arthur Bagabag
• Spontaneous abortion
(miscarriage)
• Induced abortion
• Fetal loss due to natural cause before the 20th
week of gestation
• risk of spontaneous abortion decreases sharply
after the 8th week
• This risk is greater in those
– with a known history of several spontaneous
abortions or an induced abortion
– with systemic diseases
– over age 35
Other causes
• infection (of either the woman or
fetus)
• immune response
• serious systemic disease
• accidental trauma
abortion that has been caused by
deliberate human action
a. medical
b. surgical
Medical and Surgical
Methods
• Medical Abortion
• Surgical Abortion
Medical Termination
• The drugs used to terminate pregnancy
act by
– inhibiting the synthesis of progesterone
– inducing myometrial contractions
– antagonizing the action of progesterone
– inhibiting the development of the trophoblast
•NEJM, 2000
Mifepristone/Misoprostol
Mechanism of Action
•Progesterone Blockade
•Decidual
•Necrosis
•Rhythmic
•Uterine
•Contractions
•Detachment
•Cervical
•Ripening
•Expulsion
•Abortion
Mifepristone
• Anti-progesterone
• Binds tightly to progesterone receptors
• Causes conceptus to separate from the
uterine wall
• Causes capillary leakage in uterine wall
• Enhances contractility of uterus
• Softens and dilates cervix
Misoprostol
• Increases contractility of, and induces
contractions in, the uterus
• Readily available in US
• Teratogen, category X
Times of Expulsion in Women Using
Mifepristone/Misoprostol
•Source: Spitz, NEJM, 1998
Adverse Events with Medical
Abortion
•
•
•
•
Most common is excessive bleeding
Incomplete emptying of the uterus
Pain
Infection
1 in 4 women - have a surgical procedure
(Php 4,000-15,000)
•Surgical Termination
Surgical Abortion
First Trimester
Procedure
• Dilation
• Suction
Cervical Dilation, Uterine
Manipulation and Evacuation
Passage of mechanical dilators through the
cervix generally will cause some level of
discomfort for most women
Pain generally tends to increase toward the
end of the procedure as the uterus contracts
after emptying
Instruments
Dilation
• Chemical (misoprostol)
• Osmotic (laminaria or synthetic)
• Mechanical
Osmotic Dilators
Manual Dilation
Suction
• Electric vacuum aspirator
• Manual vacuum aspirator
Electric Vacuum Aspiration
Cannulae
•Medgyn.com
• Flexible
Rigid
Rigid
th
•8
week preborn
•Suction Abortion
•performed using a smaller tube
• requiring little dilation of the cervix
•"menstrual extraction.“
•fetal remains are not removed,
• infection results ands needs scraping
•8th week
•Suction
•Aspiration
• most common method
•suction curette (hollow tube with a
• knife-edged tip) is inserted into the
• womb
•then connected to a vacuum machine
• by a transparent tube
•8th week
•Suction Aspiration
•vacuum suction, 29 times more
•powerful than a household vacuum
•cleaner, tears the fetus and placenta
•into small pieces which are sucked
•through the tube into a bottle
•and discarded
•8th week
•Dilation
•& Curretage
•Similar to suction method
•added insertion of a hook shaped
•knife(curette) which cuts the baby
•into pieces
•pieces are scraped out through
• the cervix and discarded
•12th week
Second Trimester Abortion
Options
• Dilation and Evacuation
• Intact Dilation and Evacuation
• Labor Induction
– Hypertonic Saline
– Urea
– Oxytocin
– Prostaglandins
Mid to Late Second Trimester
Abortion
• One, two or three day process
• Dilation (Day 1 and sometimes 2)
– Laminaria
– Misoprostol
• Intrafetal injection (Day 1)
– Digoxin
– KCl
• Evacuation of the uterus (Day 1, 2 or 3)
– Suction
– Forceps
•18th week
Dilation &Evacuation
•a pair of forceps is inserted into the womb
•to grasp part of the fetus
•The teeth of the forceps twist and tear the
•bones of the unborn child
•This process is repeated until the fetus
•is totally dismembered and removed
•Usually the spine must be snapped
•and the skull crushed in order to remove
•18th week
•Salt poisoning
•(saline injection)
•long needle injects a strong salt solution
•through the mother's abdomen into the baby's sac
•baby swallows this fluid and is poisoned by it
•acts as a corrosive, burning off the outer layer
•of skin and normally takes somewhat over an
• hour for the baby to die from this
•within 24 hours, labor will usually set in
• and the mother will give birth to a dead or dying baby
•6th month
•Prostaglandin
•Chemical Abortion
•chemicals developed may cause the uterus
• to contract intensely, pushing out
• the developing baby.
•The contractions are more violent than
• normal, natural contractions, so the unborn
• baby is frequently killed by them –
• some have even been decapitated.
•6th month
•Prostaglandin Chemical Abortion
•6th month
•Hysterectomy
•Or
•Caesarean
•mainly in the last three months of pregnancy
•womb is entered by surgery through the wall of
• the abdomen
• The technique is similar to a Caesarean delivery,
• except that the umbilical cord is usually cut while
• the baby is still in the womb, thus cutting off his
• oxygen supply and causing him to suffocate.
•6th month
•Hysterectomy
•Or
•Caesarean
•Sometimes the baby is removed alive
•and simply left in a corner to die
•of neglect or exposure.
Mechanical Procedure
• “hilot” - a masseuse with a difference: her caress is
used to abort fetuses
•
•
•
•
rough strokes, pincer-like grips and pounding of the
lower abdomen
150 pesos
>20% of poor women approach hilots or insert catheters
in their vaginas
At least 800 women are estimated to die every year
from complications
Partial-Birth Abortion
• first coined by the National Right to Life
Committee (NRLC) in 1995 to describe a
recently introduced medical procedure to
remove fetuses from the womb
• "dilation and extraction," or D&X, and
"intact D&E"
• removing the fetus intact by dilating a
pregnant woman's cervix, then pulling the
entire body out through the birth canal
Partial-Birth Abortion
• In 1995, Rep. Charles Canady (R-FL)
included the term as part of a bill he
proposed that would make it a federal
crime to perform a "partial-birth" abortion
• Two abortion physicians, one in Ohio and
one in California, independently developed
variations on the method by extracting the
fetus intact
Partial-Birth Abortion
• It involved dilating the woman's cervix,
then pulling the fetus through it feet first
until only the head remained inside
• Using scissors or another sharp
instrument, the head was then punctured,
and the skull compressed, so it, too, could
fit through the dilated cervix.
•Partial-Birth Abortion
Partial-Birth Abortion
Partial-Birth Abortion
Partial-Birth Abortion
Partial-Birth Abortion
Dr. Bernard Nathanson,
once the head of the world's
largest abortion clinic,
explains (with the help of
ultrasound technology)
the true horror and evil of
abortion. Viewers of The Silent
Scream will be stunned to see
a 12-week-old 'fetus‘
becoming desperate while
attempting to escape the
abortionist's suction curette.
The tiny baby's heart rate
doubles during the procedure
that ends its life.
Reference: http://www.silentscream.org/
Martin Arcilla
Direct Abortion
 One that is induced
with the immediate
purpose of destroying
the human fetus at
any stage after
conception
Indirect Abortion
 One in which the
direct, moral object of
the action is therapy
for the mother, but in
which the death of
the fetus is a side
effect that cannot be
avoided
 Termed indirect when the pregnant uterus
itself is excised because its condition is
such that its removal is medically
necessary;
 If the uterus contains a living and
nonviable fetus, the fetus will of course
inevitably die;
 There is no direct attack upon the fetus;
 Its death is merely permitted as a
secondary effect of an act which needs to
be performed and which it is permissible
to perform.
 The reason for the removal is that the
pregnancy, added to some pathological
condition from which the mother is
suffering, increases her difficulties or even
lessens her chances of survival.
“Nothing hinders one act from having two
effects, only one of which is intended,
while the other is beside the intention.
Now moral acts take their species
according to what is intended, and not
according to what is beside the intention,
since this is accidental.”
Four conditions for invoking this principle:
1. The directly intended object of the act must
not be intrinsically contradictory to one’s
fundamental commitment to God and
neighbor.
2. The intention of the agent must be to
achieve the beneficial effects and as far as
possible to avoid the harmful effects.
3.The beneficial effects must not be achieved
by means of the evil effect.
4.The foreseen beneficial effects must be equal
to or greater than the foreseen harmful
effects.
• First condition is fulfilled
– The operating surgeon's intention is to save
the life of the mother.
– He foresees the death of the fetus, but he
does not desire this evil effect.
• Second condition is fulfilled
The surgeon's act consists in ridding the
woman of a diseased part of her body which
is jeopardizing her life.
The presence of the living fetus in the
diseased womb does not alter the nature of
the act which the surgeon performs.
If the fetus were not present, the surgical
operation of removing a diseased and
dangerous part of the woman's body would
obviously be an act which of its nature is not
evil.
• Third condition is fulfilled
The evil effect (the death of the fetus) does
not cause the good effect (saving the life of
the mother).
Whether the fetus were harmed by the
operation or not would make no difference in
regard to producing the good effect.
• Fourth condition is fulfilled
Safeguarding the mother's health is a
proportionately grave reason for permitting
the death of the fetus.
• A complication of pregnancy in which the
fertilized ovum is implanted in any tissue
other than the uterine wall.
• Most occur in the Fallopian tube but can also
occur in the cervix, ovaries, and abdomen.
• The fetus produces enzymes that allow it to
implant in varied types of tissues
• An embryo implanted elsewhere than the
uterus can cause great tissue damage in its
efforts to reach a sufficient supply of blood.
• The fertilized ovum lodges in some part of
the Fallopian tube.
• The reason that it does not continue its
descent into the uterus may be the
pathological condition of the tube itself or
of the ovum.
• Once the fertilized ovum takes up its
nesting place in the tube, it begins to bore
into the wall of the tube, seeking as it
does life-giving nourishment.
• This "boring-in" action on the part of the
tiny embryo perforates the inner layers of
the tube and the tube soon becomes
weakened by internal hemorrhaging.
• There is present a pathological condition
of the tube, caused by the erosive action
of the trophoblast which is destroying the
muscle wall and penetrating blood
vessels.
• The growing fetus causes the tube to
swell, and this swelling dangerously
stretches the tube's outer wall.
• Left in this condition, the tube will
ordinarily rupture; and unless surgery is
performed very soon after the rupturing,
the mother may die.
Virtues of a
Catholic Health
Care Giver
Desiree Argana
Ob/Gyn Association
Pushes “abortion
agenda” on Pro-Life
Doctors
• Washington DC, Dec 12,
2007 / 11:55 am (CNA).- An
association of Christian
doctors has harshly criticized
a national organization of
obstetricians for supporting
ethical codes that will force
pro-life physicians to violate
their consciences by
referring patients to other
doctors for abortions.
"The Limits of Conscientious Refusal
in Reproductive Medicine"
• The American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologysts (ACOG) Committee of Ethics’
position paper
• targets pro-life physicians
• insists that doctors who object to abortion must refer
a patient to a physician who will perform abortions
CMA PROTEST LETTER
• "Many physicians had been realizing that because of
their aggressive abortion lobbying, ACOG officials do
not represent the values of most physicians and
mainstream medicine.
• Advocating policies to prevent us from exercising our
life-affirming values
• “If you don't toe the ACOG line on abortion, the
'morning-after pill,' and the application of reproductive
technology, then you shouldn't be practicing
obstetrics--and if you do, we're going to do everything
in our power to force you to accommodate our
abortion agenda."
“My conscience can no longer support
their lack of conscience. ACOG's
strategy seeks to marginalize dissenting
opinions. I as an obstetrician have a
moral obligation not only to act in my
patient's best interest, but also in the
best interest of the developing baby, and
of society as a whole.”
- Christian Medical
Association (CMA) Executive
Vice President Gene Rudd, MD
“A Catholic hospital cannot refer
people for abortions - they can't say
you can't have it here but there's a
place just round the corner”
-Archbishop of
Westminster's
spokesman
VIRTUE
• A good operative habit
• the person good and the action
good
VIRTUOUS PHYSICIAN
• Is one whose actions are in
conformity with the nature
of his profession based on
the practice of the
corresponding code of
ethics and principles and
observance of the moral law.
Health Care Provider
• “Health care is a
ministerial instrument of
God’s outpouring love for
the suffering person… and
it is an act of love of God
shown in the loving care
for the person.”
- (Charter for
Health Care
Workers)
Roles of Health Care Provider
• considers the patient as an integral part of
a family and the community
• provides high standard clinical care
(excluding and diagnosing serious illness
and injury, managing chronic disease and
disability)
• personalized preventive care within a long
term, trusting relationship
Virtues of Health Care
Professionals
• Theological
Virtues
– FAITH
– HOPE
– CHARITY
Virtues and Values of a Catholic
Physician
• Prudence
•Diligence
•Humility
• Fortitude
•Brotherly Love
and charity
• Justice
•Meekness
COMPETENCE
• The physician must have scientific
competence.
• It presupposes diligence in research,
updating of medical knowledge and
consultation with peers when the
condition is not within our expertise
which needs humility, patience and
perseverance
Compassionate
• gives rise to an active
desire to alleviate
another's suffering.
• the principle of
compassion: Do to
others as you would
have done to you.
• act of charity
GREAT HEART
• Includes respect, public
spiritedness, integrity, humility.
• It would include all the bioethical
principles of health care
• Public spiritedness- medicine as a
vocation
• Integrity - uprightness and
wholeness of character
– we should tell the truth, we should not
lie or give wrong information or
deceive people
Committed health care providers
• 'A unique responsibility belongs to health care
personnel: doctors, pharmacists, nurses,
chaplains, men and women religious,
administrators and volunteers. Their profession
calls for them to be guardians and servants of
human life. ... Absolute respect for every
innocent human life also requires the exercise of
conscientious objection in relation to procured
abortion and euthanasia.(Evangelium Vitae,
n.89)
Committed health care providers
• As Catholics we in fact only occasionally are
obliged to stand up for what we believe. The
majority of what is accepted as medical
ethics.
• career structure where one's progress is
almost entirely dependent upon the
approval of consultants, refusing to
participate can and, on occasion, does lead
to failure of progression of one's career. In
other words being truly Catholic can be
profoundly career negative
Linacre Institute of the Catholic Medical
Association Position on Various
Bioethical Issues
• Since there is no incompatibility
between science and religion, it is
possible to provide the high standards
of medical care without compromising
Catholic principles.
• Life of every individual is created in the
image and likeness of God and is
therefore sacred and must be
respected from conception to natural
death.
Situation: What if the life of the
mother or of the child to be born is
in danger?
• one obligation: to make every effort to save the
lives of both, of the mother and of the child.
• the finest and most noble aspirations of the
medical profession to search continually for new
means of ensuring the life of both mother and
child
Linacre
• The patient’s autonomy does not supersede
the conscience of the physician. Therefore
the physician must be free to refuse to
participate in immoral procedures, and free
to refuse to refer to other physician who
might be willing to perform such procedures.
Linacre
• Abortion is an unspeakable crime and
no catholic physician should cooperate
formally or materially to its
performance.
• The life of an individual is a great good
which is good of the person and not
just a good for the person. Life is not
merely instrumental to other goals- it is
an intrinsic good.
4. In the context of his primary responsibility
to his patient, the physician, must consider
the concerns of other groups, including the
patient's relatives, other health care
providers and the community in which he
lives.
5. The physician also has duties to the
community in which he lives as well as to
the profession of which he is a member.
CODE OF ETHICS OF THE
MEDICAL PROFESSION
2. The physician belongs to a noble profession whose
primary purpose is to provide competent and
compassionate medical care.
3. In the pursuit of his profession, the physician's
primary objective is the best interest of the patient,
respecting human dignity regardless of stage of
development, socio-economic status, religion, gender,
political beliefs, racial background or other
circumstances.
The Hippocratic Oath
A.D. 1995 Restatement of the Oath
of Hippocrates (Circa 400 B.C.)
I SWEAR in the presence of the Almighty and before
my family, my teachers and my peers that
according to my ability and judgment I will keep
this Oath and Stipulation:
TO RECKON all who have taught me this art equally
dear to me as my parents and in the same spirit
and dedication to impart a knowledge of the art of
medicine to others. I will continue with diligence
to keep abreast of advances in medicine. I will
treat without exception all who seek my
ministrations, so long as the treatment of others
is not compromised thereby, and I will seek the
counsel of particularly skilled physicians where
indicated for the benefit of my patient.
The Hippocratic Oath
A.D. 1995 Restatement of the Oath of
Hippocrates (Circa 400 B.C.)
I WILL FOLLOW that method of treatment which
according to my ability and judgment, I consider
for the benefit of my patient and abstain from
whatever is harmful or mischievous. I will neither
prescribe nor administer a lethal dose of
medicine to any patient even if asked nor
counsel any such thing nor perform act or
omission with direct intent deliberately to end a
human life. I will maintain the utmost respect for
every human life from fertilization to natural
death and reject abortion that deliberately takes
a unique human life.
The Hippocratic Oath
A.D. 1995 Restatement of the Oath of
Hippocrates (Circa 400 B.C.)
WITH PURITY, HOLINESS AND BENEFICENCE I
will pass my life and practice my art. Except for
the prudent correction of an imminent danger, I
will neither treat any patient nor carry out any
research on any human being without the valid
informed consent of the subject or the
appropriate legal protector thereof,
understanding that research must have as its
purpose the furtherance of the health of that
individual. Into whatever patient setting I enter,
I will go for the benefit of the sick and will
abstain from every voluntary act of mischief or
corruption and further from the seduction of
any patient.
The Hippocratic Oath
A.D. 1995 Restatement of the Oath of
Hippocrates (Circa 400 B.C.)
WHATEVER IN CONNECTION with my professional practice or
not in connection with it I may see or hear in the lives of my
patients which ought not be spoken abroad I will not divulge,
reckoning that all such should be kept secret.
WHILE I CONTINUE to keep this Oath unviolated may it be
granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art and
science of medicine with the blessing of the Almighty and
respected by my peers and society, but should I trespass and
violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot.
Adapted and endorsed by 35 inter-faith ethicists and physicians.
Copyright, 1995, Value of Life Committee, Inc.; P.O. Box
35279; Brighton, MA 02135.
“Honourable and skillful doctors are
therefore worthy of all praise when
they make every effort to protect and
preserve the life of both mother and
child... On the contrary, those who
encompass the death of the one or the
other, whether on the plea of medical
treatment or from a motive of
misguided compassion, act in a
manner unworthy of the high repute of
the medical profession,"
-Pius XI, Encyclical Casti Connubii, Dec. 31,
1930.(18)
Abortion is crime against society, says
Pope Benedict
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -Abortion is a crime of
aggression not only
against the unborn, but
also against society,
Pope Benedict XVI
said.
"Children have the right
to be born and to grow
in the midst of a family
founded on matrimony,
where the parents are
the first educators of
children in the faith and
where they can grow to
full human and spiritual
By Cindy Wooden
maturity," the pope said
Catholic News Service
Thank You!
Responsible Parenthood and
Population Management Act of
2005
(short title)
House Bill No. 3773
Arnold Aquino
House Bill No. 3773
• An Act Providing for an Integrated and
Comprehensive National Policy on Responsible
Parenthood, Population Management and
Human Development, Creating a Responsible
Parenthood and Population Management
Council, and for other Purposes
• Thirteenth Congress (2005)
• Rep. Edcel Lagman, Josefina Joson, Juan Ponce Enrile
Jr, and 48 other representatives
•Policy and Guiding Principles
•House Bill No. 3773
• Right to equality and equity, development,
reproductive health, education
• Choose and make independent decisions
on the number, spacing and timing of their
children in accordance with one’s religious
convictions, cultural beliefs and the
demands of responsible parenthood
• Freedom of choice fully guaranteed
•Policy and Guiding Principles
•House Bill No. 3773
• Sustainable human development is better
assured with a manageable population of
healthy, educated and productive citizens
• Limited resources...to service a burgeoning
multitude makes allocations grossly
inadequate and meaningless
• Manpower is the principal asset...ensure birth
of healthy children and promote responsible
parenting
•Policy and Guiding Principles
•House Bill No. 3773
• Parents and couples, including
unmarried individuals, should be
afforded free and full access to
relevant, adequate and
enlightening information on
reproductive health and human
sexuality and should be guided
by qualified State workers and
professional private practitioners
•Policy and Guiding Principles
•House Bill No. 3773
• Respect for...reproductive health rights
promote not only the rights and welfare of
adult individuals and couples but those of
adolescents’ and children’s as well
• While the full range of family planning
methods, techniques and devices shall be
made available, abortion shall remain to
be penalized under the Revised Penal
Code and relevant jurisprudence
•Definition of Terms
•House Bill No. 3773
• Family Planning (route of responsible
parenthood)
– Enables couples to decide, freely and
responsibly, the number and spacing of
children
– Provision of information...to have informed
choice and access to a full range of safe and
effective family planning methods, techniques
and devices, excluding abortion which is a
crime
•Definition of Terms
•House Bill No. 3773
• Reproductive Health
– State of complete well-being in matters
relating to the reproductive system, its
functions and processes
– Satisfying sex life, capability to reproduce
– Freedom to decide IF, WHEN and HOW
OFTEN to do so
•Definition of Terms
•House Bill No. 3773
• Reproductive Health Rights
– Right to decide the number, spacing and
timing of children, and other decisions
concerning reproduction free of
discrimination, coercion and violence
– To have the means and information to carry
out decision and attain the highest standard of
sexual and reproductive health
•Definition of Terms
•House Bill No. 3773
• Reproductive Health Care
• - Availability and access to a
full range of methods,
techniques and services that
contribute to reproductive and
health
– sexual
Preventing
and solving reproductive problems
in order to achieve enhancement of life and
personal relations
•Definition of Terms
•House Bill No. 3773
• Reproductive Health Care
– Elements include:
• >family planning services
• >prevention of abortion
• >prevention and management of RTIs/STIs,
and reproductive disorders
• >education on sexuality and sexual &
reproductive health
•Definition of Terms
•House Bill No. 3773
• Reproductive Health and Sexuality
Education
– Acquiring information on the reproductive
system and processes of human sexuality
– Forming attitudes and beliefs about sex,
sexual identity, interpersonal relationships,
affection, intimacy and gender roles
– Critically evaluating moral, religious, social,
cultural dimensions of such issues, including
contraception and abortion
•Definition of Terms
•House Bill No. 3773
• Population Management
–Encourages limitation to two children per family
–Attain optimum fertility rate for equitable
allocation and utilization of resources
–Realize a balanced spatial distribution,
discouraging migration to urban centers and
thickly populated areas
–Conduct studies on and provide incentives for
the deceleration of population growth
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Responsible Parenthood and Population
Management Council
–18 members from different
governmental departments
(NEDA, DOH, DepEd, DOLE,
etc), local government units, and
non-government organizations
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Ten percent (10%) of the Gender and
Development (GAD) budget of all government
departments, agencies, bureaus and offices
funded in the annual General Appropriations
Act...shall be allocated to support the
operations of the Council
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Functions of the Council
– To facilitate the involvement and participation (of
public and private organizations) in reproductive
health care service delivery and in the production,
distribution and delivery of quality reproductive health
and family planning supplies and commodities to
make them accessible and affordable to ordinary
citizens
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Functions of the Council
– Information drive on responsible
parenthood and on all methods and
techniques to prevent unwanted, unplanned
and mistimed pregnancies, releasing
information bulletins to all government
departments and agencies, non-government
organizations and the private sector, schools,
public and private libraries, tri-media outlets,
workplaces, hospitals and concerned health
institutions
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Functions of the Council
– To direct all public hospitals in the country to make
available to the indigent mothers who deliver their
children in these government hospitals upon the
mother’s request the procedure of ligation without cost
to them
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Mandatory Reproductive Health and
Sexuality Education
– Reproductive Health and Sexuality Education in an
age-appropriate manner shall be taught by adequately
trained teachers starting from Grade 5 up to Fourth
Year High School
– Sexuality Curriculum, as formulated by the Council,
common to private and public schools, based on the
following subjects and standards:
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Mandatory Reproductive Health and
Sexuality Education Subjects/Standards
– Reproductive health and sexual rights
– Reproductive health care and services
– Attitudes, beliefs and values on sexual development,
behavior, and health
– Proscription and hazards of abortion and
management of post-abortion complications
– Natural and modern family planning to prevent
unwanted/unplanned/mistimed pregnancies
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Mandatory Reproductive Health and
Sexuality Education Subjects/Standards
– Responsible Parenthood
– Use and application of natural family planning
methods
– Use and application of modern contraceptive
devices
– Abstinence before marriage
– Prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, Breast,
Cervical, Prostate Cancer and other gynecological
disorders
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Mandatory Reproductive Health and
Sexuality Education Subjects/Standards
– Safe sex
– Maternal, Peri-Natal and Post-Natal education, care
and services
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Ideal Family Size
– State shall encourage two children as the ideal
family size to attain the desired population growth
rate; the provision is not mandatory or compulsory,
and no punitive action may be imposed on couples
having more than two children. Children from these
families shall have preference in grant of scholarships
at tertiary level, considering financial need and
academic aptitude
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Private Practitioners’ Support
– Private reproductive health care service providers,
including but not limited to gynecologists and
obstetricians, shall endeavor to render such services
free of charge or at reduced professional fee rates to
indigent and low income patients.
•Provisions
•House Bill No. 3773
• Employers’ Responsibilities
• Multi-Media Campaign
• Mobile Health Care Service
• Capability Building of Barangay Health
Workers
•Prohibited Acts
•House Bill No. 3773
• For healthcare providers (private or public)
•Knowingly withholding information, or restricting
the dissemination thereof, and/or intentionally
providing incorrect information regarding
programs and services on reproductive health
including the right to informed choice and access
to a full range of legal, medically-safe and
effective family planning methods
•Prohibited Acts
•House Bill No. 3773
• For healthcare providers (private or public)
•Refusing to perform voluntary sterilization and
ligation and other legal and medically-safe
reproductive health care services on any person
of legal age on the ground of lack of third party
consent or authorization:
•Provided, That in the case of abused minors as
certified to by the Department of Social Welfare
and Development, and pregnant minors, no prior
parental consent shall be necessary
•Prohibited Acts
•House Bill No. 3773
• For healthcare providers (private or public)
•Refusing to extend quality health care services and
information on account of the person’s marital
status, gender or sexual orientation, age, religion,
personal circumstances, and nature of work:
•Provided, That all conscientious objections of
health care service providers based on ethical and
religious grounds shall be respected:
•Provided, however, That the conscientious objector
shall immediately refer the person seeking such
care and services to another health care service
provider
•Penalties
•House Bill No. 3773
• Imprisonment ranging from one (1) month to six
(6) months or a fine of Twenty Thousand Pesos
(P20,000.00) or both such fine and
imprisonment at the discretion of the proper
court.
• In addition, violators of this Act shall be liable to
the offended or injured parties, women and/or
couples for civil damages the amount of which
shall be subject to the discretion of the
competent court
•Opinion
• UN Population Fund Country Representative
Suneeta Mukherjee
- 10 Filipinas die every day while giving birth
- Of ~3 million pregnancies each year, half are
unplanned, and one out of three unplanned
end in abortion
- Need for a national policy on population
•“What we want is informed choice and
responsible parenthood”
•Feminist Majority Foundation
•http://feminist.org/
•Opinion
• HB3773: Lessons to be Learned
•Ireland, 1951. The Mother & Child Scheme (Noel
Browne)
•“The Church will deny you your right to proper
healthcare if your continued health impedes its
own interests. The Church isn’t looking out for
you; its interests are not the same as yours”
•“Nonexistent ‘culture of death’”
•Reason is the Reason
•http://micketymoc.bluechronicles.net/?p=20
3
•Opinion
• Getting Medieval in the City of Manila
•“Atienza has pursued a rabidly pro-Church, anticontraception program in his city that hurts his
constituents more than it helps; religion is
coercive, and will allow no other choice. It’s a
throwback to the medieval past, and a
dangerous portent of a Church-dominated
future.”
•Reason is the Reason
•http://micketymoc.bluechronicles.net/?p=20
3
•Opinion
• Fidel Ramos: GMA’s population policy
lacks political will
-
“The poverty gap and deprivation further worsens
as family size increases.”
• - “PGMA has muddled population issues by her
anachronistic policy of providing Government
support only for natural methods...has put mothers’
and babies’ lives at risk for the sake of political
expediency and religious traditionalism.”
•Reason is the Reason
•http://micketymoc.bluechronicles.net/?p=20
3
•Opinion
• Wrong reasons for opposing HB 3773
- “To say that (Mayor) Atienza’s group’s, as
well as the Catholic church’s, opposition to
HB 3773 is based on the reference to two
children and the mandatory health and
sexuality education is a gross
oversimplification.”
- “The state encourages two children as an
ideal family size, which is not mandatory or
compulsory. Res ipsa loquitur.”
•House on a Hill, April 6, 2005
•http://houseonahill.net/wrong-reasons-for-opposing-hb-3773/
•Opinion
• Wrong reasons for opposing HB 3773
- “It is the responsibility of the state to provide
people with all the tools, including
information, to make informed choices. The
state, through HB 3773, is doing its
responsibility.”
•House on a Hill, April 6, 2005
•http://houseonahill.net/wrong-reasons-for-opposing-hb-3773/
•Opinion
• The Basic Assumptions of House Bill 3773
are all wrong
- “The words ‘reproductive health’ are false
propaganda; contraceptives are all risky.”
- “Philippines is not overpopulated: Japan now
has 125M people, almost 43M more.
Singapore is more densely populated, yet
pay their women to have more babies.”
•JUNK HOUSE BILL 3773
•http://adrian.i.ph/blogs/adrian/2005/08/03/junk-house-bill-3773-contraception-billthat-penalizes-non-adherents/
•Opinion
• Culture of Death: House Bill 3773
- “The bill is pro-abortion because it condones
abortion by legalizing and institutionalizing
‘post-abortion care’, even though it
specifically mentions that it does not endorse
abortion as a means of birth control”
- “’Reproductive rights’ is a deceptive term
used by pro-abortionists and in other
countries includes abortion, or ‘access to
abortion’ in particular. ”
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-SeTkW9ohaanms151mj5EXi1C6o4KUUSDQg--?cq=1&p=220
•Opinion
• Culture of Death: House Bill 3773
- “It suggests a 2-child policy for the
Philippines...and does discriminate against
people with more than 2 kids”
- “It mandates sex education from grade 5
using government-approved modules only;
un-Christian, immoral, unbiblical sexeducation propaganda from pro-abortionists
will be taught to young children.”
•http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-SeTkW9ohaanms151mj5EXi1C6o4KUUSDQg--?cq=1&p=220
•Philippine Population
• National Statistics Office
- 88.75M Filipinos in 2007 (results of latest
Census of Population as of Aug. 1, 2007)
- Lowest population growth rate since the
1960’s: 2.04% annual population growth rate
for the period 2000 to 2007
•National Statistics Office
•http://www.census.gov.ph/data/pressrelease/2008/pr0830tx.html
•CBCP Stand
- “Anti-Life Bill”
- “The government has been pushing for the
use of artificial birth control methods such as
intrauterine devices, pills and Depo Provera
injectables, which the Church has strongly
opposed” (Manila Times, July 13, 2008)
•Evangelium Vitae (Pope
John Paul II)
•It may be that many people use
contraception with a view to excluding the
subsequent temptation of abortion.
•Negative values inherent in the
"contraceptive mentality“, very different from
responsible parenthood, lived in respect for
the full truth of the conjugal act, are such
that they in fact strengthen this temptation
when an unwanted life is conceived.
•Evangelium Vitae (Pope
John Paul II)
•Contraception and abortion are often
closely connected, as fruits of the same
tree. They imply a self-centered concept of
freedom, which regards procreation as an
obstacle to personal fulfillment.
•The life which could result from a sexual
encounter thus becomes an enemy to be
avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes
the only possible decisive response to failed
contraception.
•Current Status
• 14th Congress (filed 07/01/2007 – present)
• House Bill 17 "Reproductive Health,
Responsible Parenthood and Population
Development Act of 2007"
• Bill Status: Pending with the Committee on
Health since 2007-07-24
•“Sweeter even than to have had the
joy of caring for children of my own
has it been to me to help bring about
a better state of things for mothers
generally, so their unborn little ones
could not be willed away from them.”
•- Susan B. Anthony, 1889