ARE YOU PROLIFE OR PROHEALTH?

I STAND NO TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL – mjmq, rn (Photo courtesy of 100% Katolikong Pinoy)

    This is a timely message.  After having a conversation with my colleagues in twitter, I found this message from a best friend from my elementary days.  I was touched and enlightened with my conviction.  This is only from my humble opinion and sharing a blog from Manila Bulletin by Father Roland.

Darker colors indicates that these areas are thickly populated. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
*Compare the DENSITY MAP versus the POVERTY LINE MAP and see the relationship.  More population does not really mean very poor.
Darker colors indicates areas with more poor people and are below poverty line. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

     When I was still working in the hospital as a staff nurse, I had a client who will give birth to her 14th child at the age of 48.  For clients like her or to those with 3 or more children, we usually advise them to go for family planning like  ligation or vasectomy of their husband.  I remember vividly how I play god, with the doctor beside me playing like a greater god.  We don’t just advise them, actually we convince and encourage them to undergo these procedures because we greatly believe as medical practitioners that health is the most important of all.

      

  I have also encountered teens as young as 16 years old who have undergone abortion.  Or 13 year olds who have given birth. And young girls sexually abused by their family members since they were 8 years old. Or very old mothers almost died giving birth to their first child at age 45.  We pity them.  Parents curse them.  The society hated them.  Trauma was set for the mothers, their parents and the society.
The World Health Organizationannounced scientific findings that the pill causes cancer and kept it in its list of essential medicines (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

     It has always been an ethical dilemma for me.  Being a nurse educator for 7 years already in the university, I am very lucky to have the opportunity to teach Bioethics and Maternal and Child Nursing for two consecutive years both in the undergraduate studies and during speaking engagements. I am blessed to be given a chance to share my knowledge about the beauty of life, the bond of the mother and the father and the bond of the parents to their child.  I was able to share my expertise as a nurse during ethical dilemmas guided by the standards of nursing and the norms of the society.  After these fields of study, I was tasked to teach Psychiatric Nursing and Medical Surgical Nursing, still related to trauma, abuse and medical conditions that may happen to a young mother.  It is not a surprise for me that the favorite topic of all time in these fields is abortion and sex education. 
   I am never an advocate of family planning.  My husband and I never practiced family planning with the fact that we are both nurses, probably the reason why we are contributing to the growth of population in the Philippines with 3 lovely daughters.  I can never imagine myself reminding my daughters to bring their condoms if they would go for a date or tell them not to forget their pills since I know these have harmful effects.  My eldest daughter who is 9 years old is aware of sex education but I cannot trust any other person to teach her this.  Sex is sacred. Sex should be taught at home and never in school.  Adults are the ones that should be taught about the sanctity of sex and not grade five students.  If we teach sex in school and teach them how to use contraceptives while having sex, we may be teaching these kids the wrong purpose of sex.  Sex is for procreation, which is to create life.  If we teach them contraception, we may be teaching them that sex is for pleasure.  This is the primary reason why condoms have flavors because of pleasure.  Earthly pleasures like sex may lead to premarital sex and sexual abuse.
71% of Filipinos are in favor of the RH bill (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

     The blog shared by Fr. Roland further speaks about my humble opinion.  Some of you reading my blog may not be Catholics.  I believe that this conviction is not really about religion.   Everything that envelopes this issue is about poverty.  As I have always believed, poverty is best seen by killing the poorest of all human beings and that is the unborn child.  Unborn children does not only speak abortion but also speaks about children who are prevented to be born due to contraceptives.  Poverty is just a perception.  We can never play god and dictate others of what they need to do.  They know better.  
Pro lifers refer to Nobel prize winner George Akerlof who found out that wide use of contraceptives led to premarital sex, illegitimate children, undomesticated men, crimes and abortions (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
     Faith, hope and love is what we really need.  A priest once told me that in every sacred sexual activity of a man and a woman, God’s love and presence is always there if the woman conceived because of the intercourse.    This is the reason why we call our children as fruits of our love because God gave the life  and because God is love.  Our love for our partners and the love of God has created the greatest love of all, a human being born in His likeness.  This is the beauty of life.  And I am happy that you are born by your parents and is currently reading my blog today.  You are a blessing, you are a gift. Be what you are born to be.  Read on…



Tanya’s story

Through Untrue
By FR. ROLANDO V. DE LA ROSA, O.P.
April 2, 2011, 10:18pm

MANILA, Philippines – Last Saturday, I presided over the graduation ceremony of the University of Santo Tomas College of Education. Of the 452 graduates, Tanya Judyn Co, who received the highest general average of 1.22, and graduating Magna Cum Laude, delivered the Address of Thanks that reduced many to tears.

While pregnant with Tanya, her mother contracted a disease that doctors said would most certainly cause congenital defects in the unborn child. The doctors advised her mother to undergo abortion in order to “save” Tanya from being condemned to a life of misery. Her mother went from one doctor to another, seeking a different opinion, but they all gave her a similar advice. The unborn Tanya had to be aborted to “save” her from being born with a wide range of genetic disorders.

Desperate times call for desperation.

But this was not the case with Tanya’s parents. Together, they did what most people do during crisis. They prayed. They prayed for discernment.

They prayed that they be given the ability to understand their situation in the light of faith. They prayed for the strength to make the right decision, and the courage to stand by it no matter what happens.

Utterly simple in their religious outlook, they know that a “calculating faith” is no faith at all. So, instead of conjuring apparently insurmountable difficulties regarding Tanya’s future, and the enormous expenses, effort, time, and sacrifices they would face, they bravely welcomed Tanya into their life. They agreed that since it was their decision to allow Tanya to be born, they would shower her with the love and care that she deserves.

Last Saturday, as she stood onstage to deliver her Address of Thanks, Tanya tearfully told everyone: “I thank my parents for their strong faith, a faith that makes even what seems impossible, possible.” She thanked her mother for deciding according to her religious conviction, despite the moral and practical dilemma that had confronted her.

Tanya seemed to be telling everyone in the audience that although some doctors, scientists, demographers, and legislators play gods on the question of birth and population, they have no right to dictate on people who is to be born or not. People justify the murder of millions of unborn children every day through the medical, economic, legal, political, and moral niceties discussed in various forums.

How many more Tanyas will be deprived of a glorious future just because of the vociferious and morally anesthetized women and legislators who constantly parrot the worn-out lines of anti-life advocates? Life is too precious to be messed with.

Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/312575/tanyas-story


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