RH bill no longer needed, says CBCP exec

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on Sunday appealed to lawmakers to reconsider the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill, saying the measure was no longer needed since the Philippines was making progress in reducing the number of maternal deaths.

CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Family and Life executive secretary Fr. Melvin Castro drew attention to studies which he said strengthened the Catholic Church’s position that the RH bill was not necessary if its avowed intention was to save more mothers’ lives.

“I wish our leaders in the government would see this and would not force the approval of the new law,” Castro told reporters.

A recent report said researchers from the University of Washington studying maternal deaths in 181 countries found that the maternal mortality rate in the Philippines had dropped by 81 percent from 1980 to 2008.

Separately, the 2010 report, “Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2008” by the World Health Organization, UN and World Bank placed the Philippines’ maternal mortality rate at 4.6 deaths a day. Jerome Aning