Every year, an estimated 40-50 million abortions happen worldwide.

According to the Population

Institute, 222 million women worldwide want to avoid pregnancy but do not use a modern family
planning method. If those 222 million women's unmet family planning needs were met, 54 million
unwanted pregnancies, 79 thousand maternal deaths, and 1.1 million child deaths would be avoided. To
solve this issue, the government passed a law known as the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive
Health Act of 2012, also known as the Reproductive Health Law or RH Law, which guarantees universal
right to use contraception, fertility control, sexual education, and maternal care. Although many Catholics
are opposed to the law, I believe it will benefit our country and every woman and infant in various ways.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has instructed priests across the country
to relentlessly preach against the reform, claiming that "contraception is corruption" and the RH bill is
"anti-life." It has enlisted the help of allies in Congress, including politicians who claim to be devout
Catholics, to kill the bill. However, RH Law can help to reduce mortality rates of infants and women. It
could also prevent the abortion rates and help women to just use birth control pills instead of having
abortion, which is a big sin against God.
The RH Law has numerous benefits. As we all know, poverty and hunger are universal problems that
are difficult to eradicate. The law can help one country's social, economic, and security development.
Poor countries' economic development is hindered by high population growth caused by poor family
planning and unwanted pregnancies. Their rising populations compete for limited resources such as food,
housing, schools, and employment. Rapid and unsustainable population growth makes nations unstable
and can lead to higher civil unrest. It also avoids the negative impact of large families on poor
families. For many poor families, a large family size results in further poverty and lack of access to
education and health care, among other things. According to research, the eldest or second eldest from
impoverished, large families end up in prostitution to support their families, and many women from large
families are also trafficked.
This law has a positive impact on maternal health and infant survival. It aids in the prevention of early
pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, particularly among adolescents, by helping women and their
children not becoming pregnant too early, too late, or too frequently. Meeting unmet contraceptive needs
would reduce global maternal mortality rates by 35%, and a three-year gap between births in developed
countries would reduce infant and child mortality by 24% and 35%, respectively. This law can also help
to reduce abortion rates, unwanted pregnancies, as well as allowing people and couples to choose when
they want to start a family in a free and responsible manner.
I believe that in different ways, RH Law will benefit our country, and every child and woman,
although it might not what the Catholic church sees in their own perspective. It helps the country's
economic, social, and security development, as this law can prevent unwanted pregnancies that may result
in over-population and impoverish family planning. It also helps to reduce abortion and infant and
woman mortality rates. Lastly, it can prevent early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. These
details show that RH law may not be a bad idea after all. However, as a human, we should be careful and
disciplined in making decisions that can change our whole life, because once we've done it, there's no
way turning back.