Abortion

Abortion, which is legal in the United States, was on center stage a few months back. The controversy stemmed from the rulings of three appeals courts that declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 as unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court agreed to review the declaration of unconstitutionality of said law.

According to BPnews: The law in question bars a grisly procedure [among others] used by some doctors in which an intact baby is delivered normally feet first until only the head is left in the birth canal. The doctor pierces the base of the infant skull with surgical scissors, then inserts a catheter into the opening and suctions out the brain. The technique, which provides for easier removal of the baby head, normally occurs in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy.”

By way of background, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the leading case of Roe vs. Wade (1973), ruled that a state criminal abortion statute that excepts from criminality only a lifesaving procedure on behalf of the mother, without regard to pregnancy stage and without recognition of the other interests involved is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court provided the following guidelines:

(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman attending physician.

(b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health.

(c) For the stage subsequent to viability, the State in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.

In the Philippines, abortion is, of course, illegal and punishable by imprisonment. This became the subject of a lively debate back in 1999 when House Bill No. 6343 (An Act Legalizing Abortion on Specific Cases) was introduced (it did not became a law). The bill sought to allow abortion when:

(a) the conception was a result of rape;
(b) the conception was a product of incestuous relationship where the conceived mother was lured into the relationship by force intimidation, or fraud;
(c) the conceiving mother is infected with a disease that shall prejudice to the health of the unborn child;
(d) the conceiving mother is of good health, the unborn child is determined by medical specialists to be infected with a terminal disease or shall be borne abnormal without hope of any medical correction, and
(e) the conception brings danger to the life of expectant mother. The Church opposed the bill.

Read the position paper of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

Contraception

There was also a showdown between the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the sponsors/supporters of House Bill 3773 (Responsible Parenthood and Population Management Act of 2005), which espouses all methods of family planning, including the use of natural method and modern methods such as condoms and pills.

Lilke the CBCP, Pro-life Philippines is actively opposing the bill. See also the articles on contraception and abortion from Catholics for a Free Choice.