RH Bill: What's Your Stand?

What is your stand on Reproductive Health Bill? Are you caught in between?

This has become a hot issue in the previous years. People on Congress were on hot debate regarding this matter, some even took one's opinion personally. The Church stressed out their defiance against the RH Bill. If you have gone through the full text of House Bill No. 5043, I am pretty sure you have now your stand. I didn't go through the whole issue, I just read the different opinions from those who were able to read it. Some made a responsible opinion while others don't. I really don't know if CORRUPTION has something to do with this. 

My attention was caught on Sec. 12 of the said bill which has the following provisions:

SEC. 12. Mandatory Age-Appropriate Reproductive Health Education. – Recognizing the importance of reproductive health rights in empowering the youth and developing them into responsible adults, Reproductive Health Education in an age-appropriate manner shall be taught by adequately trained teachers starting from Grade 5 up to Fourth Year High School. In order to assure the prior training of teachers on reproductive health, the implementation of Reproductive Health Education shall commence at the start of the school year one year following the effectivity of this Act. The POPCOM, in coordination with the Department of Education, shall formulate the Reproductive Health Education curriculum, which shall be common to both public and private schools and shall include related population and development concepts in addition to the following subjects and standards:

a. Reproductive health and sexual rights;

b. Reproductive health care and services;

c. Attitudes, beliefs and values on sexual development, sexual behavior and sexual health;

d. Proscription and hazards of abortion and management of post-abortion complications;

e. Responsible parenthood.

f. Use and application of natural and modern family planning methods to promote reproductive health, achieve desired family size and prevent unwanted, unplanned and mistimed pregnancies;

g. Abstinence before marriage;

h. Prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other, STIs/STDs, prostate cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer and other gynecological disorders;

i. Responsible sexuality; and

j. Maternal, peri-natal and post-natal education, care and services.

In support of the natural, and primary right of parents in the rearing of the youth, the POPCOM shall provide concerned parents with adequate and relevant scientific materials on the age-appropriate topics and manner of teaching reproductive health education to their children.

In the elementary level, reproductive health education shall focus, among others, on values formation.

Non-formal education programs shall likewise include the abovementioned reproductive Health Education.

I just don't know if teaching such a subject to young elementary students will make a good impact. I am not even sure if they will be able to comprehend such topic. Let's take into consideration item f, the use and application o natural and modern family planning methods... I don't think they will really be able to grasp the importance of such topic when all they could think of was how Spongebob was able to do some tricks on Patrick. Their mind are completely oblivious on this kind of issue. 

I do not know how the Congress and the President himself will be able to deal with this issue... The bill isn't really that bad but I guess it needs to be reviewed once and for all. They should weigh things out before coming up with final decision. Above all, they should take the Biblical truths into consideration.