A sequel to an article I wrote about the RH Bill that mentioned the seminar conducted by the City’s Population Commission Office titled Orientation cum Coordinative Meeting on the Establishment of Information &Service Delivery Network for Adolescent Health and Development.
I have always been a critic of the Reproductive Health law even before it was passed on Dec. 21, 2012. However, I am realistic enough to recognize the few commendable provisions which I think deserve support such as the provision of services for maternal health, safe delivery of healthy children and their full development and responsible parenting (Sec. 3-c), the condemnation of abortion and the provision of treatment and counseling to women with post-abortion complications (Sec. 3-i), the achievement of development by means of policies, programs and projects that seek to uplift the quality of life of the people, more particularly the poor, the needy and the marginalized (Sec. 3-m), the employment of adequate number of skilled midwives (Sec. 5), the establishment of Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care facilities in every province and city (Sec. 6), the provision of at least one (1) Mobile Health Care Service in each congressional district (Sec. 15), and the conduct of Capability building interventions for Barangay Health Workers (Sec. 19).
There is one provision though that I think has been exaggeratedly-abused, most especially by the PopCom agencies themselves. I am referring to the provision on reproductive health information and care by both the national and local governments (Sec. 3-g).
I say this has been abused because it appears that government agencies have taken this to mean relaying to young people the many methods of contraception, and how these can be used properly to prevent pregnancies.
But the provision does not say that contraceptives is the only topic that needs to be talked about. It is not solely about condoms, pills, and IUDs.
Sex education is about a lot of other things. It is about human life in general, about human anatomy, it is about values, conscience, responsible parenthood, and being responsible per se.
Unfortunately, this field of study has become solely a method of knowing how to properly use contraceptives, and how not to become pregnant.
The issue, as I see it, is that education about human sexuality is “uncertain”. It can be the conveyor of two tenets, good and bad. The core of this uncertainty is the character of human sexuality itself as it is simultaneously a physical and natural event, and also a personal and spiritual event.
These two are integrated so as to form one reality. If these two constituents were alienated, then “sex education” does not really become genuine education but simply “information.”
And as we all know, information can be botched, and end up with miserable and cataclysmic repercussions. Here we have the destructive value of such “education.”
Individuals who know a little of history are aware that this is what transpired in the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s. Schools began providing their students sex education with the ensuing disquieting headways in teenage pregnancies and abortions, notwithstanding information about how to sidestep pregnancies through contraceptives.
Personally, I believe that what will really contribute to the good of young people is education about affection, life and responsibility, an education which will not only provide them the facts of life but also the whole perspective within which these facts add to human contentment and self-actualization.
And that context is the calling to marriage, true love (which is founded on God’s unconditional and unfailing love), chastity and mature responsibility.
Thus, we must not just offer information about facts but rather move into the domain of educating the youth in virtues.
Undeniably, parents have the prime obligation of implementing this kind of education because of its very personal and intimate nature, and naturally, schools can join forces with them in this undertaking.
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