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Date Posted: 02:29:57 10/02/12 Tue
Author: IMRD
Subject: Oct 1-2, 2012 news

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/280174/ateneo-and-the-rh-bill

Ateneo and the RH bill
By Queena N. Lee-Chua
Philippine Daily Inquirer
7:26 pm | Sunday, September 30th, 2012
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Back in college, my friends and I immersed ourselves in the communities of Smokey Mountain. We marvelled at the scavengers’ ingenuity in creating products from scrap, but we despaired over the appalling living conditions and the enormity of the task of providing healthcare and education for so many children.
Mothers tearfully said they did not want any more kids, but abstinence was out of the question, and they knew next to nothing about natural family planning. Two decades later, nothing seems to have changed.
I knew of an upper-class mother who seemed to be healthy enough, but who suddenly died. Rightly or wrongly, her family attributed her death to the use of the pill (or something like it) to regulate her monthly periods.
Searching the Internet, they found out that the medication could lead to bleeding, strokes or heart attacks.
I refrained from writing about the RH (reproductive health) bill because I had not yet made up my mind and heart. But I followed discussions, especially the Inquirer columns of Ateneo Law School dean emeritus Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J., and University of the Philippines sociology professor Randy David.
Last month, Ateneo colleagues urged me to sign their letter of support for the RH bill. Though I found the message credible and reasonable, I did not sign because I was still undecided.
As a semi-public figure, I also did not want anyone to sensationalize or misinterpret my stand.
I was not going to air my views until some bishops started excoriating the professors who signed the letter.
Fresh air
Born years after Vatican II, I have been influenced by the religious who, though toeing the official Church line on reproductive health, never damned our souls for future sins. My classmates and I dutifully memorized bits of “Humanae Vitae,” but we also learned about “Humanae Salutis” and Pope John XXIII’s call for the Church to open its windows to let in fresh air.
I never felt any conflict between science and religion, and considered my faith so vital that I chose Ateneo over UP (my parents’ alma mater). I reveled in the intellectual discourse under brilliant and compassionate theology, philosophy and history professors, several of whom were Jesuits.
Faith is not blind obedience to dogma, I learned, but a reasoned reflection on multiple perspectives, followed by a stand born of prayer, conscience and study.
In class and in individual discussions with Jesuit professors, I wrestled with thorny issues like the Church and Galileo. The Church may be divinely inspired, my advisors replied, but practitioners are human, with foibles big and small. My faith strengthened under their wise guidance.
The professors who signed the letter have studied intensively the economics, science and politics of reproductive health. They have wrestled with their conscience and their faith. Some have worked for years with the poor. They did not write the letter lightly.
When Ateneo president Fr. Jose Villarin, S.J., said as a university Ateneo did not support the RH bill, news reports highlighted this clause: “I ask all those who engage in the Christian formation of our students to ensure that the Catholic position on this matter continues to be taught in our classes, as we have always done.”
The rest of the message was ignored. Villarin did not order faculty to keep quiet but said, “I enjoin all in the Ateneo community to continue in-depth study of the present bill, and to support amendments to remove provisions that could be ambiguous or inimical from a legal, moral or a religious perspective.”

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=Withdrawal-method&id=59347

Withdrawal method


Fence Sitter
A.R. Samson

WITHDRAWAL TAKES many forms, as this act of drawing out, retreating, taking away, or removing has different contexts and applications.

The eponymous one has to do with the RH Bill, indirectly. Supposedly, the least reliable option for avoiding pregnancy after sex, less reliable and even less satisfying than rhythm, is the withdrawal method. This rather primitive sexual mode of avoiding babies, whether loved or unloved, is not mentioned by advocates of reproductive health, since it has no lobby group working for it. The withdrawal method, also going by the crudely descriptive name of pullout, is mentioned in the Old Testament, though even here, not in a positive light.
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In Genesis, the tradition of continuing the male line is illustrated in the story of Onan, the younger brother of Er who died and left his wife Tamar a widow. Onan was ordered to lie with his sister-in-law which he did but without completing the reproductive process opting instead for spilling his seed to the ground. Thus is the word for spilling out to the ground or anywhere else, save the usual receptacle, coined after Onan who is struck dead for being wicked.
Withdrawal is also a banking transaction. (This is just to assure you that I am aware I am writing for a business paper.) This may entail having made a deposit first sufficient to honor the amount being withdrawn or, if not, a credit line to back up a drawdown.
Leaving too can be a political move, as in the case of the parliamentary system when withdrawal of support by a party in a ruling coalition can mean the downfall of government followed by a no-confidence vote which leads to a new election. This type of stunt in a presidential form of government such a ours leads only to TV moments when a member of a party walks out to avoid answering questions and declares himself as no longer with the majority coalition. There is no fall of government or even a change of leadership in the institution that was abandoned in such dramatic fashion. Even as front-page news, such withdrawal of support lasts only a few days.
Endorsements of candidates for an election can also be withdrawn. A list such as senatorial slate can have last-minute changes as names are withdrawn and replaced.
Militarily speaking, withdrawal can be a strategic move. A retreat can lead to defeat when executed pell-mell. However as a way of massing depleted forces to regroup and re-launch an attack, withdrawal from the field can lead to victory. In the case of Napoleon’s attack on Russia, the withdrawal of the fleeing Russian soldiers was prolonged and involved destroying first and then abandoning the capital and stretching out the supply lines of the invader to defeat him. This strategic retreat is the backdrop of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
Clearing operations of informal settlers usually telegenic enough for prime time TV news even though of little national import involves a series of attacks and withdrawals, say when the fire hoses run out of water. These otherwise insignificant assertions of private property rights which are always portrayed as a kind of persecution of the poor, even if these are slum lords themselves hiring their own goons, routinely feature in the news with the obligatory statistics of injured individuals clutching their belongings, even if they never lived there.
The most common type of exit involves the withdrawal of affection. While this seems to be a purely emotional thing, such parting of ways involves all the support systems and collateral attachments this entails. Partners who stray find that the cost of a loss of affection involves more than the waning and eventual disappearance of frequent meetings previously anticipated with much longing and endearments expresses in text messages. Parting also leads to ceasing the payment of rent, allowances, and shopping money. The car given with such ceremony on an anniversary celebration turns out to be still unpaid with a collection team pulling it out of the garage after the payments had stopped.
Parting of ways entails many unfinished businesses presumed to still push through even with the now absent partner. Alas, it is best for the one left behind to accept the “status quo ante,” the way things used to be. Often, this entails adjusting to a scaled-down lifestyle which seems so far back in the past as to elude memory. Not to worry, this will now be part of the present, creeping further and further into the future.
Actual experience quickly and relentlessly replaces a fading memory.

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