I used to collect teen magazines when I was younger. Actually, when I started working I still bought one every so often—but no longer monthly like I used to when I was in college. I just realized that magazines of this type did me little good, especially when it came to priorities in life. Very little, if there was any, was written about the importance of one’s spirituality. The pages were mostly worldly, though that was already expected since we’re living in a “material world,” and “material girls” dig that stuff. It’s what sells. I still have my magazine collection at the bottom part of my book shelf, and when I browse them sometimes, I realize they’re all the same—three-fourths advertisements, one-fourth real content, how-to-get-the-guy articles, interviews of boys who easily got their 15 minutes of fame just by enrolling in a well-known school (the most boring part of the magazine for me), how-to-copy-this-celeb’s-look articles, and lots of pages about mixing and matching clothes and putting on makeup (my all-time favorite part). There are also sensible stories from which the reader would learn life lessons. But there are stories that simply don’t make sense at all, like the ones that mislead readers by making opinion sound like fact, just like the following articles published by Meg, Chalk, and Maven magazines.
Meg Magazine (by Mega Publishing Group) November 2010 issue, Chalk Magazine (by ABS-CBN Publishing) July 2011 issue, and Maven Magazine (also by ABS-CBN Publishing) July-August 2011 issue, all have something in common: an article about the RH Bill that urges you (the reader) to “know the facts about the Reproductive Health Bill” (Meg), “make an informed choice” (Chalk), and to “rethink your stand” (Maven), based on the information they presented—information that favored only one side.
Meg Magazines’s “Basic Right” article by Monica Guerra, labeled some statements about the RH Bill as fallacies, such as “the bill is anti-life,” “the bill legalizes abortion,” “the bill will prohibit pregnancy and will promote contraceptive mentality,” “sexuality education will give birth to a culture of promiscuity.” She claimed that these were not true and countered them with these answers: “It [the RH Bill] is actually pro-life,” “the bill still believes that abortion is a crime,” “contraceptives are used to prevent unwanted pregnancies,” and “education of sexuality will empower the youth to make wise decisions.”
Darwin Chiong, who wrote the article, “Understanding the RH Bill” for Chalk Magazine, had the same claims as Guerra’s, only he added that the RH Bill prioritizes the poor by granting them “universal access” to reproductive health services, which include contraceptives.
Lastly, Elizabeth Angsioco, a known proponent of the RH Bill, compiled statistics that were supposed to make readers “rethink [their] stand.” Obviously, she was addressing only us, pro-life (anti-RH) readers, in particular. I don’t think she would want the pro-RH to still rethink their views.
And I thought these journalists took an oath to tell only the truth and to present issues without bias. Looks like they failed at both. As if publishing unquestionably prejudiced articles in their magazines weren’t enough, one even got a die-hard pro-RH personality to fill an entire page. Survey results that show more and more Filipinos oppose the RH Bill must have gotten their knees shaking. One publishing company (ABS-CBN Publishing), two different magazines (Chalk and Maven) of the same month issue (July 2011), and one extreme RH supporter as author… hmm, sounds desperate to me.
Filipinos are wiser now; thank God we no longer believe everything we see on TV or hear on the radio or read from glossy magazines! Also, thank God there are individuals and groups who know the truth and do not keep it to themselves. The RH Bill is TRULY anti-life, as hormonal contraceptives may prevent the implantation of the fertilized ovum (a new life!) into the mother’s uterus, hence depriving the embryo of the right environment to survive—clearly, an early abortion. (Read: Embryology Books Ask: Philippine Medical Association) And they say the RH Bill recognizes that abortion is illegal? Also, studies have already proven that wherever condom use is prevalent, there the higher rates of HIV/AIDS are. (Ask: Edward Green, Harvard AIDS expert; Read: Thailand) Promotion of contraception does not prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortions. 54% of those who aborted their babies were using contraceptives. (Ask: Guttmacher Institute and George Akerlof) Contraceptives fail and abortion is used as the back-up method. (Read: China) The RH Bill does not empower women; they kill our women with breast cancer, cervical cancer, venous thrombosis, and generalized infection. Zero maternal mortality is possible without contraceptives in the recipe. (Read: Gattaran, Cagayan; Ara-asan, Surigao del Sur; Isalan, Sultan Kudarat) “11 women die of childbirth everyday,” they say, while 75 Filipinos die of tuberculosis everyday, 216 Filipinos die of heart disease everyday, 2.9 million Filipinos are unemployed by April 2011, 3 million Filipino FAMILIES experienced hunger in the last three months (mostly from scarcely populated Visayas and Mindanao regions)— even a first-grader can tell which is urgent. Angsioco said 23% of the youth has engaged in premarital sex—hence the need for an RH Bill? Go to the United States where they have an RH Law and see that premarital sex is already a culture there. And yes, they have mandatory sex education, too. Epic fail.
I just gave you tidbits of the real deal about the RH Bill. You’ll find other articles on the web that elaborate on these facts. If only we had the money, we could have also published these write-ups in popular magazines. Unfortunately, we don’t get funds from Obama and the European Union. So until our pro-life advocacy gets international funding, it looks like we’ll just have to continue to Facebook, Twitter, and Hail Mary our way to spreading the truth. ;-)
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