Thank you Ma'am Church

Reconciling Church objections on responsible parenthood bill

The Catholic Church has, so far, no more objections to making the responsible parenthood bill a priority legislation by the administration. Malacañang hopes the Church will drop its opposition to the bill entirely when discussions are completed.

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said government officials met with Church representatives for the second time this week to reconcile differences on the responsible parenthood bill. The first meeting was held last year after the Church voiced its opposition to government moves to promote artificial methods of family planning, believing some contraceptives to be distributed by the government are abortifacients.

Present during the meeting aside from Lacierda were Health Secretary Enrique Ona, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, and Presidential Management Staff chief Julia Abad. Ona is expected to come up with a draft of the responsible parenthood bill before the meeting of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) so President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III could present it to Congress. It was agreed that all methods of family planning will be discussed with the public.

The Church has no objections on this.