Primacy of Conscience in Catholic Theology Co-Sponsorship Speech
THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ACT, Part 1: Primacy of Conscience in Catholic Theology Co-sponsorship speech of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago on 1 August 2011 As principal author, I am now tasked to co-sponsor Senate Bill No. 2865, officially titled “An act providing for a national policy on reproductive health and population and development,” also known as the Senate version of the RH bill. It is the companion bill to House Bill No. 4244, which is undergoing plenary debate in the House of Representatives. Reproductive health bills have been passed by the majority of Catholic countries, particularly by Catholic developing countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico. Other countries include Italy, Poland, Paraguay, Portugal, and Spain. When the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), now known as the UN Population Fund, profiled 48 Catholic countries, only six countries did not have a reproductive health law. The Philippines is one of them. In our country, the Catholic church is the only major religion that opposes the RH bill. Other major Christian churches have officially endorsed the RH bill, and in fact have published learned treatises explaining their position. They are: o Interfaith Partnership for the Promotion of Responsible Parenthood, 2007 o National Council of Churches in the Philippines, 2009 o Iglesia ni Cristo, 2010 o Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, 2011 The position of these Christian churches is supported by the most authoritative body of Islamic clerics in the Philippines, the Assembly of Darul-Iftah of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. These Islamic clerics constitute the top-ranking ulama who are deemed to have the authority to issue opinions on matters facing Islam and Muslims.
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