Senate panels release consolidated RH bill

(Updated 3:41 p.m.) The Senate committees on finance, health and demography, and youth, women and family relations on Monday released a consolidated version of the Senate's version of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill. Sen. Pia Cayetano, health committee chairperson, said the Senate's version of the RH bill is a consolidation of Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago's Senate bill 2378, Sen. Panfilo Lacson's Senate bill 2738 and her Senate resolution 238. But Cayetano said the measure will still need the signatures of majority of the three committees involved before it can be officially filed as a committee report and eventually be brought to the plenary for interpellation and a vote. "I'm confident that I will have the votes. I intend to sponsor the same (bill)," she told reporters on Monday. Cayetano said she hopes to sponsor the bill before Senate goes on break this week. Cayetano said the Senate's RH bill seeks to "provide information and access, without bias, to all methods of family planning which have been proven safe and effective in accordance with scientific and evidence-based medical standards such as those set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and registered and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)." "The bill prohibits any public officer from restricting the delivery of legal and medically-safe reproductive health care services, including family planning, or from coercing any person to use such services," read the bill. At the House of Representatives, the RH bill is being discussed in plenary. The Catholic Church has consistently opposed the use of artificial birth control methods like condoms and birth control pills, saying it only supports "natural" family planning methods for married couples. President Benigno Aquino III, however, had said that the couples would be in the "best position to determine what is best for their family" and the methods that they can use. Essential medicines The proposed Senate measure specifically states that legal and effective family planning supplies like hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine devices, and injectables shall be included in the government's list of essential medicines purchased by national and local hospitals, provincial, city, and municipal health offices. But to ensure the safety of contaceptives, the measure said the FDA shall be required to issue strict guidelines with respect to their use, taking into consideration side effects or other harmful effects. It likewise does not amend the penal law on abortion but mandates the government to ensure that all women with post-abortion complications be treated and counseled in a "humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner." It also says that local government units and the Department of Health shall be required to employ an "adequate" number of midwives and other skilled health professionals for maternal health care and skilled birth attendance. Under the measure, the government shall also be required to "equip" each parent with the necessary information in order to determine their ideal family size. The state shall likewise be required to provide "age- and development-appropriate" reproductive health education to students. The bill says the amount needed to implement the act shall be sourced from the funds in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA) for reproductive health and natural and artificial family planning under the DOH and other agencies. Cayetano said she did not specify the age appropriate for health education and the funds needed to implement the act because she wants the Senate to determine that as a whole. "Naniniwala naman ako na di lang ako ang tama" (I believe that I am not the only one who is right)," she said. — RSJ, GMA News