Akbayan representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, one of the staunchest supporters of the Reproductive Health Bill, replied to a Pastoral Letter released by the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) last January 30. On Rep. Hontiveros’s Facebook page, she addresses the letter read by CBCP president Nereo Odchimar and says that the bishops must “have not been listening intently or understanding with empathy” because the issues named in the CBCP letter have been answered and clarified multiple times before.Rep. Hontiveros takes special note of a section of the CBCP letter that says, “Advocates also assert that the RH Bill empowers women with ownership of their own bodies… without the dictation of any religion.” She counters by asking “Whatever gave you the idea that we decide about our bodies or anything else in life without anchoring in our deepest inspirations, whether faith or humanism or the sheer sense of being a woman?”
In what is perhaps the most scathing part of Rep. Hontiveroz’s letter, she pointedly asks this of the CBCP, “As a Conference of men located outside women’s experience, good Bishop, could you not show a little more respect for us?”
Rep. Hontiveros’s response comes at the wake of President Aquino’s de-prioritization of the RH Bill, a move that presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda defends by saying that they will not be introducing the bill until “after they have conferred with the bishops.”
(Photo courtesy of PEP.ph)
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