kathsanz-blog

[kathsanz-blog]

Abortion: A Stigma in the Philippines

Clara Padilla’s main idea in her article: “The Reality of Abortion in the Philippines” comes simply stated: The author believes that unplanned pregnancy can make women feel like Amy from the television show Parenthood who truly believed that the child inside her could ruin her whole life and that anti-abortion laws are denying women of personal decisions and privacy which would eventually lead her to perform self-abortion which is unsafe and causing many deaths. Abortion should be legalized in the country to save the lives of these women. I disagree to this.

There were a few arguments in the article that I do not agree with due to the heavily biased points that were stated in the article.  

First, the religious aspect of the country, particularly the Catholic Church, is negatively affecting the rights of women. The country of the Philippines, a Christian dominated nation, has always had strict laws against abortions. This is mainly due to the fact that it was once colonized by Spaniards during the 1800s where Catholic priests or friars basically had control over many matters including politics which was portrayed by the political novels written by Jose P. Rizal, the national hero of the country, Noli Mi Tangere and El Filibustirismo. With the great influence of the Catholic Church in Filipino culture, abortion is simply negatively viewed by many because of the ‘immorality of the act.’ Padilla’s claims focus heavily on the fact that the religious aspect of the country has hindered the different actions that the government could have taken in order to save the lives of women who do not want their unborn children. This tells me how little of an understanding she has for the role of the Catholic Church in the lives of the people. The Catholic Church is an institution that teaches about morality and not on political agendas. It preaches for the people to be morally good and value life as something very precious that no human can decide upon—only God has such authority. The Church tells us that we can simply look to reproductive health education, natural family planning and campaigns in order to decrease unwanted pregnancies before it happens and not resort to killing a life because of the preference of the mother. The Catholic Church states that children should not have to make up or suffer for the shortcomings of their parents. No matter the political errs of the Church, it’s main purpose is to teach what is morally good and morally right. It should not have to bend its beliefs for political reasons or goals. It is present in the world with the mission to spread common good and not what it politically good. That is why I do not agree to Padilla’s reasoning.

Second, women are the only ones affected with unwanted pregnancies and abortion. Surely, women are the ones that bear children and give birth to them but they are not the only ones affected. Padilla emphasized that women are the only ones that need the help. This is not entirely true. When conceiving a child, it takes two parents—a sperm cell from the father and an egg cell from the mother. The authority over what happens to the baby (fetus) does not or should not only concern the mother but also, the father. Padilla forgot to tell us what would happen if the father would want to keep the child. This shows how gender discriminating some points were from the article. Padilla wanted to advocate for eliminating discrimination yet the article was heavily centered on women and their rights. There was no true voice of men who would want to keep their unborn children but are unable to do so because their women do not want to.

Lastly, Legalizing abortion is equal to saving the lives of women all over the country. The oversimplification of the issue in the article is quite disappointing as not being able to be with your lover on the raft that you were holding on for your dear life and seeing him pass away after the ship you were on, sunk after it hit an ice burg. The statement, “Making abortion safe and legal will save the lives of women,” gives me the impression that everything will be solved as long as abortion is safely done and legalized. Padilla repeatedly pointed out that once abortion is legalized then women who do not want to keep their children would not die. This oversimplifies things since there are many accounts that need to be taken into consideration. For example, financial status. Having abortion legalized does not mean that all women would be saved. This is because safe abortion causes money and not everyone is capable of that. In order to have the best post-abortion care, as well as the proper and safe procedure itself, one must be able to pay for it. Yes, the government will be able to provide some assistance, but to ensure that one gets the best then financial capacity is needed. The health-care system in the Philippines still need great improvement and existing programs still need to be fully realized, so legalizing abortion is also not that easy. There is no reassurance that by legalizing abortion, mortality rate of women would greatly decrease because a great percentage of women who do not want to keep their unborn children are from the marginalized sector of society that do not have the financial capacity to really make sure that they get the fully safe package of having abortion. This cannot be pushed entirely to the government but to the whole of society itself.

I understand that Padilla’s views on the issue of abortion do have some grounds because of trending but overlooked practice of unsafe abortion that lead to women risking their lives just for the procedure. However, legalization of abortion in the country is not a very simple manner. It would be very easy for us to blame the Catholic Church for the rampant issue of unsafe abortion, push anti-abortion laws as discrimination against women and stating that as long as abortion is legalized then all women would be safe but we should also take into consideration the many things that go with the issue. For example, many factors like poverty, lack of education ,and insufficient awareness of the effects of unwanted pregnancy could be looked into more closely by the government, as well as private institutions, in order for unwanted pregnancy to happen in the first place (with the exceptions of rape, incest, threats to the life and/or health of the mother, or serious malformation of the fetus). As a community, each one of us should make each and every person feel like they belong and respected so that no one will feel like they are being ostracized for the shortcomings that they have which can result to harming oneself or others—physically or mentally and bring devastating effects. As fellow human beings, we should be the ones to understand each other the best.

[kathsanz-blog]

"when I think of you, I have alot of things to do, but of all the things, YOUR my only love..."

[kathsanz-blog]

simply me!! STOLEN PIC....... haha! :D