University of the Philippines Student Rejects the RH Bill

Choose self-control, shun birth control – youth

MANILA,
July 16, 2011–A student from the University of the Philippines, a
school long regarded as among those going with the flow when it comes to
support for the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, gave a hopeful picture
of  how much young people are capable of understanding.

John Juat, a member of the group UP Against the RH Bill, saw through
the supposedly good intentions of the RH bill, citing the dangers that
the P3 billion-a-year measure posed on the youth.

What’s wrong with birth control?

Focusing on taxpayer-funded distribution and procurement of birth
control supplies, he said that “the youth are in danger of accepting the
idea that it is responsible to use contraceptives, when it is clear
that by using these, we go against the real design of sex which is for
intimacy of the couple and openness to life.”

The bill also misleads young people into “believing that
contraceptives are safe, when there are more than 60 documented
side-effects of contraceptives. The youth are  in danger of thinking
that contraceptives will protect us from different STDs, when the only
real solution is chastity and self-control,” pointed out the
21-year-old, who was among the students who took part in the July 1
silent protest against the RH bill in UP Diliman.

Confusing love with lust

Juat added that a birth control measure will make it even more
difficult for the youth to recognize love and to differentiate it from
lust.

“Contraceptives degrade the dignity of a person, making that person a
mere object of pleasure and making sex selfish rather than self-giving.
Contraceptives will make men predators rather than protectors of women,
and women objects rather than persons,” he lamented.

The solutions to the country’s problem lie in proper allocation of funds and in strengthening our values, he said.

“We
are a nation that is pro-life, pro-family, and pro-God. We must be
strong in these values…and every law made should be for the common good.
As a youth and as a concerned citizen who loves our country dearly, I
know that the RH bill will only make our country’s problems worse.

“Let us not sacrifice morality for money. Let us instead work on
reviving our Filipino values, protecting the family and valuing life,”
Juat concluded.

Juat was one of the panelists at the press conference held by the
Interfaith Pro-Life Coalition, which has issued a call for moral
recovery and threw its support behind the government’s fight against all
forms of corruption.

The group—composed of Catholics, Baptists, evangelical Christians and
Muslims–is leading a “Congress of the Faithful” on July 25 to manifest
the people’s perspective on the real state of the nation. (CBCP for
Life)