Collision of RH, unborn child bills seen

AN UNSTOPPABLE force versus an immovable object?

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago predicted on Saturday a “head-on collision” between her pet reproductive health (RH) bill and the proposed Protection of the Unborn Child Act, which seeks to ban contraceptives and provides mothers with healthcare.

The Senate committee on health and demography is set to conduct a public hearing on the protection of the unborn child bill at 11 a.m. Monday.

But Santiago said the committee was merely trying to “accommodate” proponents of the measure.

She said that RH bill opponents led by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile filed the measure in an effort to delay passage of her population control initiative.

“The two bills run counter to one another,” Santiago said in Filipino in an interview at dzBB radio. “They’re on a head-on collision.”

Santiago said Monday’s hearing was called to accommodate Enrile’s group so it could not complain that it was disregarded.

Enrile filed Senate Bill No. 2497 as early as Sept. 27 last year. His coauthors were Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada and Majority Leader Tito Sotto.

Sen. Ralph Recto filed his own version of the bill on Nov. 15, 2010. The latest version was filed by Sen. Bong Revilla on Jan. 17.

Santiago filed her SB 2378 on Aug. 11, 2010, while Sen. Panfilo Lacson filed his version of the reproductive health bill only on March 31 this year.

Not a priority

Told about Santiago’s prediction, Sotto sounded combative on saturday, but he insisted the two bills could be consolidated despite the perceived differences.

“We will stick to our position,” he told the Inquirer by phone.

Sotto ruled out the possibility of the RH bill being discussed by senators in plenary before Congress goes on break sine die next week. “We still have to take up many other things. It’s not a priority.”

Santiago said that the proposed bill by Enrile et al. was meant to block the sale of any type of contraceptives in the country in the guise of protecting the unborn child.

“They should have just called it the ‘anti-contraceptive bill’ so it would have been clear to the public,” she said.

Enrile’s bill seeks to “extend the mantle of legal protection to the unborn child from the moment of conception.”

The proposed measure also aims to “enhance the health of the mother by avoiding any means that may adversely affect the viability of the unborn child in all stages of fetal development.”

The bill seeks to guard against abortifacients, which the bill defines as “any device, drug, formulation, substance, practice or procedure intended to damage, injure, interfere with the development, endanger or cause the death of the unborn child or otherwise induce abortion.”

Protracted battle

Santiago foresees a protracted battle for the passage of her pet measure.

She said groups for or against the RH bill would likely go to the Supreme Court for final arbitration. “So we’ll probably see (the bill becoming a law) after the end of 2011,” she said.

For Monday’s hearing, the Senate committee on health has invited 33 resource persons, including Health Secretary Enrique Ona, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, Director Emmeline Versoza of the Philippine Commission on Women, and Chair Loretta Ann Rosales of the Commission on Human Rights.