‘No such thing as safe abortion’
SC Diocese, CHO refute safe abortion
Diocese of San Carlos remains firm against abortion amidst the
World Health Organization's (WHO) urge for nations to adopt safe abortion
policies to reduce maternal deaths caused by unsafe practices.
"We still hold the stand of the Catholic Church that as an
institution we will always be against abortion. Abortion is always
killing." Very Rev. Fr. Dan Parcon, administrator of the Diocese of San
Carlos, said.
The WHO published a document titled "Safe Abortion:
Technical and Policy Guidance for Health Systems." In its introduction, it
mainly addresses countries which already legalized abortion but continues that
since one-third of the world's nations already passed it into law, it is
encouraged that others should follow.
WHO further reported that of the 210 million pregnancies that
occur per annum, 46 million or 22 percent end in induced abortions and that
"20 million of these are estimated to be unsafe." These unsafe
abortions are blamed for 13 percent of all maternal deaths worldwide.
However, Parcon contended these do not justify putting abortion
in a safe hospital-clinic environment. "That's a lot of non-sense."
"There is no such thing as safe abortion," stated Dr.
Arniel Lawrence Portuguez, head of the City Health Office (CHO). Even though
abortion is handled by professionals like doctors and nurses, risks are still
not eliminated.
Portuguez explained that while therapeutic abortion is
sometimes performed, it is done on very exemplary cases where the mother's life
is at stake. In these cases, the mother already has pre-existing conditions
that would make giving birth fatal for her and the physician would usually
prefer to save the mother's life over her child's. "I haven't met such a situation," the health chief
however admitted.
He assured that the Department of Health (DOH) is always
against abortion and never has the department resorted to promoting abortion in
order to control the population. "Wala gyud gi-promote ang abortion. There
are many ways to control the population. Education is the key."
He added that DOH has even mandated that family planning should
not be forced upon a couple and that during seminars and counselling both
artificial and natural methods should be explained thoroughly.
Amidst the WHO's stand on abortion and even though the
Philippines is a United Nations member, Portuguez believes that it is
"very impossible for a Catholic country like us" to legalize abortion
and adopt safe abortion policies as promulgated by the WHO.
For the Diocese of San Carlos, Parcon calls on parents to
"monitor their children" because parental responsibility is the key
to helping teenagers stay away from pre-marital sex which often leads to
pregnancy and abortion.
He also added that as far as the Church is concerned, it is
educating people on values formation during homilies, Catholic schools also
emphasize values, and that youth programs are in place to gather the young to
the Church and engage them in wholesome activities. These, he explained, are
the ways they use to help mitigate the rising number of abortion cases in the
country.
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