Cojuangco defends RH bill
FIFTH District Rep. Kimi Cojuangco said she and many other congressmen remain hopeful that the controversial House Bill No. 4233 – or the Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2011 – will be put to a vote and passed soon in the House of Representatives after lengthy debates on the floor.
Cojuangco, speaking during the Policy Forum on Responsible Parenthood Reproductive Bill held Aug. 19 at the Lyceum Northwestern University organized by the Philippine NGO Council on Population Health and Welfare, stressed that the passage of the bill is of utmost importance in improving the health of mothers and their children as well as contributing to better lives for Filipinos in general.
The bill is among the 13 recently certified as urgent by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).
She added that one of the main focuses of House Bill 4244 is to make all methods of family planning, whether artificial or natural, available to all Filipinos.
“It is important to note that under House Bill No. 4244, abortion is still and always will be illegal,” Cojuangco explained, adding that what the bill does however is to ensure that “a mother who suffers from post-abortion complications will be given medical treatment in a humane way, without judgment or discrimination.”
Cojuangco is among three legislators from Pangasinan who signed as co-author of the RH bill. The others are 2nd District Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil and Abono Partylist Rep. Raymund Estrella.
The other speakers in the forum were Dr. Eden Divinagracia; PNGOC executive director Benjamin De Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning and Development; and Director Oscar Mabalot of the Population Commission.
Mabalot noted that in Region 1, the most number of people adopting family planning methods are those with income and education, while the poor who have no access to information usually have six or more children, some of whom are usually malnourished.
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