Reproductive Freedom

Reproductive Freedom
By: Diana Rueda

Introduction
Jutta Burgraff, a well known German feminist, had enumerated to the world some accounts and reasons on how women had been oppressed since the start of ancient civilizations. And, indeed, history had shown us the horror stories of how gender disparity had prevailed in the world as shown from the past wherein women had been looked down too often.
No one can ever forget how history narrated Euripides, Greek poet in the fifth century, told the whole world that “one man is worth more than ten thousand women.” More so that Aristotle, one of the greatest Greek philosopher, held that masculinity is the perfection of humanity.
However, the Greek were not alone, history also shows us how society was being molded into patriarchism. Notions of patria familia, a law which bestows absolute power to a father over his children, and lex Julia de adulteriis, a law which made a husband hold the life of his wife, were enacted in the Roman Empire.
And even in Israel, by the time of Christ, women were treated with much difference from men. A daily prayer was put into these phrases:
“Praise the Lord for not creating me a heathen! Praise the Lord for not creating me a woman! And Praise the Lord for not creating me ignorant!”
Moreover, the study of Torrah was exclusively for men only. It was even worse when a contemporary rabbi of the Apostle John held that “the words of the Torrah should be burned before being entrusted to a woman.”
Indeed, the world was developed towards patriarchy which had not ceased to stop. That is, that even at the times of the so-called “progressive Europe,” discrimination was still persisting. Women were separated from men—there were less opportunities being offered in education and in professional life as they were being stereotyped accordingly.
In the time of enlightenment in which scholasticism was booming, society had still not digested yet equality for women. Lessing (1729-1781) even said that “a woman who thinks is as disgusting as a man who uses makeup.” It was even doomed when two leading scholastics at that time, Kant and Rousseau, stated that women are immature and dependent .
Hence, it is not very wondering why women had been very dissatisfied and started fighting for their rights. As the concept of rights circulated around the civilization of Europe during 1789, women’s liberalization started as an extension of human rights. Women realized that they, just like the emancipated slaves, are also entitled for their rights as citizens and individuals.
And so as women fought for their rights, women found themselves winning. This movement had greatly achieved a lot. Suffrage for women are now common concepts in various nations in the world, women are being given equal career ladder in the business world as proven by the various powerful women CEOs (Corporate Executive Officers).
And as scholasticism brings more and more ideologies and philosophies about rights, there are more women’s movement towards liberalization and breaking-free of barrier gender. Today, legislation also backs the empowering of women and the recognizing of their roles in the society as it protects their rights.
However, as new ideologies came for the rights of women, some movements were said to be questionable. One of which is the concept of “choice” in terms of reproductive health.
Reproductive health is perhaps one of the very delicate issues which hover around the society. Such sensitivity of the topic is not only governed by freedom and will, but more importantly by religion.
In the 14th Congress, House Bill No. 5043 entitled “An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development,” a controversial bill which aims for reproductive health has been the topic of heated debates for various months. As its author’s intention reveal, it is a bill which promotes poverty alleviation and education by promoting contraception and aiding reproductive health to poor women.
With such intriguing issue, this study will explore the non-ascetical reasons why contraception is against women.


Importance of the Study
As the world revolves towards technological and ideological progression, various countries (especially the developed ones) promoted contraception and other means of reproductive choices.
As the Philippines started its Third Republic on 1987, various bills had been continuously pending in the Congress advocating contraception. However, due to the dominion of the Catholic Church and other religion which disagree in contraception, none yet had been passed. And ever since then, the media and various campaigns successfully disseminated were only limited to the benefits of those who support contraception—leaving those who are against it with only ascetical rebuttal.
As the researcher bestows sound and legal reasons on how contraception is against women through her deciphered philosophical and legal reasons, it is her aim to inform the public of the other side of the story.
Limitation of the Study
Since this topic is of so much broad and with so much intrigue attached, the researcher focused on House Bill No. 5093, more popularly known as the Reproductive Health Bill, which promotes contraception. More so, the researcher limits her study in only two premises. First, is on how contraception makes a woman not realizing her ethos. Last, is in the focus on the intent of the authors of such bill—which is alleviation of poverty. Moreover, the contraception being referred in this study is limited only to artificial contraception.
Review of Related Literature
Contraceptives
Ut non concepire, so that one might not be conceived.
The idea of contraception has been present at the time of the development of societies more than 100 years from now. In 1900, the link between ovulation and pregnancy was then fully established. Ludwig Haberlandt of the University of Innsbruck in Austria was the first doctor to demonstrate (through laboratory mice) how fertility could be hindered through oral taking of ovarian extracts.
In 1920, Haberlandt worked with Outfried Otto Fellner, a Viennese gynecologist, in establishing steroid extracts in inhibiting fertility. In 1930, they proposed the use of hormones as contraception. However, Haberlandt died on 1931 and Fellner disappeared as Austria was succumbed under Hitler.
As the concept of oral contraception has been annunciated by Haberlandt, various scientists and doctors had partaken in this saga of contraception which led to the efficacy of various modern contraceptives.

Oral contraceptives contain estrogen and progestin. Such prevent ovulation through the inhibition of “gonadotropin secretion via an effect on both pituitary and hypothalamic centers.” The presence of these two steroidal substance makes cervical mucus becomes thick and impervious to sperm transport.
Like oral contraceptives, transdermal contraceptives are also composed of hormones. Norelgestromin is the main active hormone which metabolite through liver metabolism. “The resulting metabolism is highly bound to sex hormone-binding globulin, limiting its biological impact. ”
On the other hand, transvaginal contraceptive, or more commonly known as the NuvaRing, is a flexible, soft, transparent 4mm in thickness and 54mm in diameter. It inhibits ovulation by producing circulating progestin and estrogen.
In the United States, the most commonly used contraceptives are the implants and the depot-medroxy-progesterone acetate (Depo-Provera). These two have the same mechanism effect—by releasing hormone levonorgestrel that hinders the luteinizing hormone used in ovulation .
Intra urine devices (IUD) are one of the early contraceptive devices which was said to be used during the days of caravans in which caravan drivers used IUD like substance to their camels to stop pregnancy while in travel.
First IUD adopted by doctors was said to be structured to make the lining of the uterus thinner. However, modern IUD today added hormone such as levonorgestrel.
Barrier methods are composed of diaphragm, cervical cap, contraceptive sponge, spermicide and condom. Diaphragm is a flat metal spring or a coil spring which remains in straight line when pinched at the edges. Cervical cap is like diaphragm but could be harder to insert since it must be placed precisely over the cervix.
Contraceptive sponge and spermicide work together. Contraceptive sponge is a “sustained-release system for spermicide” it absorbs and blocks the semen before it enter the cervical canal.
Jellies, creams, and other soluble films are spermicides which are used to inactivate the sperm before it go up to the vagina.
RH Bill
House Bill No. 5043, “An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development,” or more commonly known as the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill is the bill which promotes and mandates contraception as a basic (or necessary) medicine.
Dubbed by the authors and co-authors, it is the pro-poor measure which will (as they always affirm) be the real solution of problems in high fertility among poor families, high maternal mortality rate, high infant mortality rate, the increasing number of unintended pregnancies and abortion, and increasing number of teenage pregnancies. As the researcher analyzed the bill and the intent of its main authors, the researcher had synthesized that the bill presupposes two essences—reproductive rights of women and poverty alleviation.
According to Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, who is the main author of the bill, the bill actually seeks the following:
• RH is about the right of mothers and children to good health.
• RH is about the right of women not to die from childbirth or pregnancy-related causes.
• RH is about the right of children to improved quality child care and better development outcomes.
• RH is about the right of parents to have the prospect of investing more on the health and education for their children.
• RH is about the right of women for more income generating activities and educational opportunities as they are liberated from unremitting pregnancies.
• RH is about the right of women to avoid making the unbearably painful decision of having an abortion because they and their husbands simply cannot afford to raise another child.
• RH is about everyone’s basic human right to exercise reproductive self-determination.
• RH is about people-centered development that upholds human dignity.
And in order to achieve such goals, contraception is one of the agents this bill entails to promote.

Discussion

On Natural Law
In an excerpt of The Hideous Strength of C.S. Lewis, one of the books of his space trilogy, “falsest lady of any” was then referred by Merlin to the lady who used contraception. In natural law, false means something which is not true to the nature. Just as in the excerpt, the use of contraception defies the ethos or being of a woman. When contraception is used, bearing of a child is being rejected through artificial means. This rejection actually rejects as well the real essence of motherhood—which entails a distinct femininity of a woman.
The concept of natural law emanates and flourishes its essences when the concept of eternal law has been established. Eternal law is not simply theological. Even if Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas de Aquinas presupposes the existence of eternal law through theological arguments, St. Thomas still insisted that such is a philosophical truth as well since it is “one which the philosopher with his means alone can reach and establish. ”
A study conducted by Kelly Shircliff revealed that such falseness of a woman is attributed by her fertility—which is the capacity to bear a child. This is a truth to her feminine human person which actually transcends from the sphere of biology. Hence, just what Shircliff stated, “femininity includes openness to life and the openness to nurture the life that has been conceived in her express the truth that, spiritually speaking, femininity is characterized by dynamism of openness to receive the other and to love the other within her very being. ”
As various philosophers had affirmed that the body is not a merely physical reality but as an expressive and integral part of the human person. Hence the human person is characterized as a social being who does not survive his life by being in isolation from the world. Being social, the human person’s ultimate fulfillment is when he makes himself a gift to another. Often characterized by marriage, the fruit of the unity of the gift to another person is also another person.
Hence, Edith Stein characterized this dynamism as rooted to the femininity of a woman. Characterized by motherhood, it all boils down to the dynamism carried out in nurturing of a child in the womb and after birth.
There are forms of contraceptives which manipulates certain physiological characteristics of women. One of which is the manipulation of hormone of women. Just as affirmed in reproductive technologies, such manipulation results to the lack of control over the body. Hormones are chemicals released by cells and affect other cells in the body. It basically transports signals from cell to cell. Therefore, these are natural occurrence of the body which, if neither altered nor contrast, ‘falsify’ the ethos of a woman.
Moreover, there are contraceptives which thin the lining of the uterus. Such event makes the uterus a disposable place for the formation of life—rejecting whatever natural tendencies it may have. Being the uterus the central formation of life which is a natural occurrence to women, it therefore ‘falsifies’ motherhood and womanhood.

Philosophical Perspective: Freedom and Rights
Elizabeth Moen, in Women’s Rights and Reproductive Freedom, said that presence of contraceptives is not an indication of reproductive freedom at all. It is then to be found “more in their participation in decisions about aggregate reproductive goals than in access to birth control.”
Hence, the researcher further studied and delineates two important aspect which affects man and woman’s decision in reproductive matters--freedom and human rights.
Contemporary definition of freedom connotes an absolute definition. However, philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Discartes refute such notion since freedom can never be absolute due to the inexorable constraints in the society.
Just as in the context of Immanuel Kant, the will is the core which constitutes freedom of every human being. Such freedom is accompanied by reasons. Man and woman, being rational beings, fulfill their identity when “we free our conduct from determination by merely natural factors such as inclinations and desires and determine their conduct and by adhering with the universal law and reason. ”
Since man and woman are finite creatures, both desire happiness which is deemed by a natural stimuli or incentives to action. And being rational creatures, it is therefore natural to man and woman to achieve decisions which adhere to the universal law—affirming nature.
It has been said that fertility is in so much importance that the state cannot give all the decisions to individuals since the life and death of a society depends heavily in its population.
Contemporary delineation of right entails liberty. However, if the underlying philosophical basis is considered, such notion is ‘off beam’ or skewed. In the legal environment, rights are not created by laws; these are inherent materials of the state which the law regulates—being protected and being regulated.
In the words of Justice Holmes: “a right was indeed a kind of metaphysical substance which was supposed to underlie the empirical fact that public force would be brought against those who contravened it.”
Further delineation of such right reveals that it is beyond conscious act like choice and decision. Just as said by Lewis, we can actually say: ‘Your choices did violence to your rights. ’ Natural rights are expression of natural facts. In this case, there are no other alternatives, since man and woman are rational being, man and woman are with certain drives. Hence, a society which does not adhere with the natural right “frustrates an ultimate desire in us to an extent not warranted by objective material circumstances. ”
Moreover, as we delineate rights, it is then unnatural not to touch human dignity as it is, just what various philosophers had confirmed, inherently attached to human rights. Just as in the Declaration of Human Rights:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Human dignity dominantly presupposes social, legal value and legal concepts of person, personality, attribution and responsibility. Lewis further explained that:
“This insight reveals why constitutions and human rights agreements protect human freedom of action and the right to develop one’s personality; it is because these rights are necessary for standards of good law—meaning a legal system that is in accordance with the basic facts of human existence. The personality is individualized, because it essentially perceives itself from the first-person perspective – even “John Doe” is unique from his own inner-perspective. ”

Today’s contemporary living, the society defines dignity as a respect towards another person. Therefore, abortion and contraception are seen as agents of such dignity as these avoid the conception of unwanted children who are just going to suffer when they live.
Delineation of its hermeneutical definition bestows us that it is, indeed, respect as it is actually being invoked with human dignity. However, dignity, just like respect, opposes utilitarian thinking which presupposes abortion and contraception. As we used Kant’s reasoning, just as in the previous discussions, he explained that the approbation of man and woman to adhere to the law classifies dignity.

He further explained it by distinguishing ‘objects of respect’ from ‘object of interest.’ Object of respect contains all absolute approbation which object of interest does not have. The sphere of object of interest belongs to the moral law which will only be fully apprehended by considering man and woman as rational being.

“The capacity for such determination is what constitutes human (moral) dignity. In order to realize that determination a human being must first decide to understand himself as a person in the sense of a ‘rationality’ which implies freedom from motives (in the narrow sense of forces acting on his psyche). Only thus can he consider himself morally responsible in the strict19 sense of that term. ”

Hence, it is human dignity which truly comes as a respect to the life of other person. If the real notion of freedom and right are mixed and applied to the use of contraception, the study reveals that it actually violates the real essence of these concepts which had been tangibly attached to human life ever since the ancient time. More so that we can actually say that using contraception makes a person not free and not exercising her right well. Just as said by Joseph Wood Krutch, “we have been prejudice in every theory that reduces the stature of man until he ceases to be man at all senses that humanists of earlier generation would recognize. ”


Demographic Effects
However, the problem of rights underlying the principle of natural and moral law is the diverse views globally. William Schulz presented another principle which does not necessarily use the two aforementioned principles, but if further studied, will just go back to the real notion of freedom and rights. Schulz then presented the notion of cruelty and evil (as empathy is used) as the confirmation agent of rights. Therefore, the demographic effect will come in the picture.
Birth control policies had been conceptualized in various modern countries in order to address the booming population of the world. However, recent studies show how prediction of a booming global population was wrong. Today, winter demographic is being experienced by countries which promoted contraception as these countries’ population drop. And experts attribute such decline to the accessibility and promotion of contraception on women.
As various European countries achieve the peak of its dying population, various historians and economists blame the winter demographic behavior to various reproductive measures that range from abortion to government’s birth control initiatives. However, Timothy W. Guinnane, a professor of History and Economics in Yale University said that contraceptive methods “are sufficient to reduce fertility as high as, pre-transition levels to the 3-4 births per woman that characterize the early fertility transition. ”
In the United Kingdom, a causal effect suggested by Cartwart states that the decrease in the average family size of the couples was largely attributed to the increasing contraceptive methods being used with the aid of other factors such as the choice of the couple to have or not to have children.
The access of contraception and other means of reproductive care like abortion in United Kingdom have a great contribution in the fertility rate of Ireland. Since abortion is illegal in Ireland and since contraceptives are not accessible, various Irish go to United Kingdom for contraceptives and for abortion. A decrease in fertility in Ireland fell up to 1.9 in 2000 and has been continuously dropping.
Moreover, in France, wide use of contraception has been the main cause of fertility decrease. A mentality of booming population if French do not use contraception has been widely known in this country. The use of contraception counted for 40% of the overall decline of the fertility.

Iceland, with a very small population from the start, even reached a dramatic fertility decline. 40% of its women use contraception. On the other hand, in Norway, Sweden, Italy and Spain, contraception had aided fertility decline.
And the same thing went with North America. In Canada which actually experienced baby boom in 1960 with 3.9 children had actually declined to 1.4 in 1985 (specifically in Quebec). Leridon’s study reveals the following in Canada:
“xxx more than half of the women aged 18–19 years were using the pill, and almost 40% of couples where the woman was aged 30–34 years were sterilized. The easy access to these techniques has certainly played a major role in the fall of fertility in this population.”
In the US, the same trend would have had happened, but due to the very active immigration, it had sustained its population.
These countries suffering from aging population had realized the importance of population.
Today, European countries with aging population provides subsidies in order to encourage its citizens to have more children such as maternal leave from employment, child-care systems, etc., low fertility seems resistant to government-sponsored opposition—making demography a social issue.
In other countries like Japan with the same population problem just as the countries mentioned above, private sectors contribute by sending off their employees early twice a week “to encourage baby boomlet. ”
The researcher analyzed the data in two perspectives—economic and philosphical perspective. In the Philippine context, a control in the population which the reproductive health bill wanted to introduce through modern contraceptive methods is harmful not just to the women and family, but also to the economic well-being of the country.
The Philippine economy is mainly being fueled by remittances of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW). Being dependent heavily to the labor being export means that people is its best asset. And demographic winter has no room for the country’s welfare.
The philosophical perspective (earlier discussed) suggests the notion of freedom and rights encrusted by dignity. It has also been said earlier that since there is a diverse view of natural law globally, Schulz suggests the use of evil and cruelty through empathy as a measurement of rights. The demographic data shows how pragmatism, a way of not being with the law of nature, which entails various regulations provide wrong means that would end up at the wrong end. Indeed, it is something which subtly caresses evil and cruelty of mankind towards nature.


Physiological Effects on Women
As some institutions fight contraception, rhetoric arguments had stated that various contraceptives are abortifacients, substances which end pregnancy prematurely and cause abortion. Moreover, contemporary doctors define abortifacients as substances which cause the blocking of the implantation of the embryo. However, recent studies on various contraceptives available in the market today show that such notion is passé.
Dr. Lilia Tinio M.D., the top fellow of the Obstetrical and Gynecological Department of the University of the Philippines in the Philippine General Hospital said that oral contraceptive pills today are not abortifacients. When contraceptive pills were started, such pills were manufactured at high dosages. These high dosages were classified abortifacient since it crossed the line of blocking ovulation. However, in today’s market, contraceptive pills are of different kinds—these are manufactured at low dosages which do not cause any abortion.
Still, as Dr. Tinio pointed out, these methods still possess side effects which are harmful for the body.
In 2005, Dr. Leah Zamora, colleague of Dr. Tinio, presented the side effects of the three types of contraceptives.


Types Examples Effects
Hormonal Oral, (pill)
Weight gain, nausea, vomiting, headache, menstrual changes, increased cervical mucus, vaginal discharge, UTI, decreased breast milk, breast changes or tenderness, change in sexual desire (libido), depression, skin problems, hyperpigmentation, acne, gum inflammation, cramps, risks of cancer after five (5) years of use and risks for birth defects.

(Mini-pill)
Ectopic pregnancy, functional ovarian cysts

Injectible (Depo-provera)
Prolonged amenorrhea, abnormal uterine bleeding, delayed return of fertility after discontinuation of use, loss of bone density in long term users

Implant (Norplant)
Weight gain, nausea, vomiting, headache, menstrual changes, increased cervical mucus, vaginal discharge, UTI, decreased breast milk, breast changes or tenderness, change in sexual desire (libido), depression, skin problems, hyperpigmentation, acne, gum inflammation, cramps, risks of cancer after five (5) years of use, risks for birth defects, Ectopic pregnancy, functional ovarian cysts and blood cloth formation.

Mechanical methods

IUD Uterine perforation during insertion, uterine cramping or bleeding upon insertion, heavy or prolonged menstruation, higher incidence of anemia, ectopic pregnancy, pelvic infections, septic abortions, infertility or sterility, sterilizing infection, risk of HIV infection, IUD displacement or expulsion, and death.

Condom Latex sensitivity, contraceptive failure due to slippage and displacement, and breakage.

Diaphragm UTI, toxic shock syndrome, ulceration of the vagina, latex sensitivity

Spermicide Burning sensation and irritation of the vagina
Permanent sterilization Tubal litigation Anesthetic complications, injury to the uterus or around the fallopian tubes, hematoma, sepsis infection, pulmonary embolish, and death.

Hysterectomy
Anesthetic complications, injury to structures near the uterus,
urinary tract injury, greater intra-operative blood loss,
infection, psychological effects, loss of libido, death and hematoma

Vasectomy Sterility is not immediate, there were considerable amount of failure, unprotected intercourse soon after the procedure, incomplete occlusion of the vas recanalization, hematoma, infection, congestive epididymitis, sperm granuloma.


On the other hand, Dr. Tinio clarified that there are still contraceptive methods which are abortifacient. One of which is the emergency contraception. Emergency contraception is the use of drug or device which blocks coitus. Since the goal of emergency contraception is to create a society which blocks the embryo in implantation. Being taken after the sexual act and being a society that blocks implantation, it promotes spontaneous abortion.
Various developers of emergency contraception said that such pills were enunciated for rape cases. In medical language, implantation of the embryo could be considered as conception of life since it is the immediate cause of fertilization. Therefore, abortifacient substances are outmost discouraged.
In rape cases, according to Dr. Rita Esguerra, a resident psychologist at the Philippine General Hospital says that the best and immediate solution is through vaginal douching. It is the cleansing through flushing away the semen of the aggressor of the victim.
The same notion of emergency contraception is being brought in IUD. IUD makes the walls of the uterus thin which blocks the embryo from implantation. However, a revised IUD is introduced in the market today. Recent IUDs are partly progesterone which make IUDs more than 50% anti-ovulation only.
As the quest of contraception goes on, there is contraception which has shown some side effects in contracepting. Just as known in the medical field, “hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies (close to 1 million) occur each year in the United States because of its failure.” Various cases were related to poor compliance which is heavily due to discontinuation. And a major factor of discontinuation is due to the side effects and fears and concerns regarding cancer, cardiovascular disease and the impact of oral contraception on future fertility.
Conclusion
In 2001, Memorandum Order No. 18 of the Department of Heath imposed ban on postinor, an emergency contraceptive pill since it was held that it is abortifacient. However, it was then reversed as various liberal parties lobbied it.
Indeed, the battle on contraception has not yet truly ceased. That is why as early as 1973, various early contraceptive pills and IUDs have been available in the local market.
Since law is deeply rooted under various philosophical context, the Constitution ensure even that the “state shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature. ”
In the study conducted, it has been proven how contraception defies the ethos or being of a woman, philosophically and physiologically. More so, the researcher had outlined various reasons which defy the ethos of women and the medical complications attributed to the use of contraception.
Since contraception, unlike abortion, is legal, and in order to be loyal in the rhythm and harmony of nature, it is then concluded that the promotion of the state of contraception for better reproductive health and control in population is not the best solution.
Recommendation
Since the intent of the authors of the RH Bill is to address the rights reproductive freedom of women and the control of population in alleviating poverty, it is strongly recommended by the researcher to address the notion by other greater solutions which do not affect the outmost nature or being of women.
In alleviating poverty, instead of investing the trillions of pesos in contraceptives as provided in the RH Bill, it is the researcher’s best advice to allocate this money to other efforts and activities of the government in poverty alleviation. Moreover, there are already existing laws which directly address such issue, but which efficacy has not yet established due to mismanagement and corruption.
One of which is the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act. It is a “multi-dimensional and cross-sectoral approach which recognizes core values, cultural, integrity and spiritual diversity of target sectors and communities. ” It also seeks to help Filipino families in the long run as it mandates livelihood, capital and training to beneficiaries.
In terms of reproductive freedom, since contraception defies the being of women, it is best advice by the researcher to use an alternative that promotes empowerment of women in reproductive matters—abstinence.
There are two kinds of abstinence, the mutual decision of the couple and the unilateral decision of a woman.
Mutual decision of the couple is a “self-imposed celibacy, either continuous or through rhythm method.” There were more approach in this kind of abstinence; one is male continence which makes the husband avoid ejaculation. A more woman-centered approach was later introduced—the avoidance of the climax. These methods require self-control.
The unilateral decision of a woman is, perhaps, the most empowering one. It is the power of the wife to say no to the sexual act with her husband. Through saying no, the woman gains more power in the conjugal act. It is often known as the voluntary motherhood. Just as in the words of Linda Gordon:
“xxx only in this kind of self-control can a woman be free from unwanted sex and repeated and punishing pregnancies and families from the cost of two many children. ”
Moreover, another suggestion is the strengthening of the families which is truly achievable. Under the Family Code, family is defined as:
“The family, being the foundation of the nation, is a basic social institution which public policy cherishes and protects. Consequently, family relations are governed by law and no custom, practice or agreement destructive of the family shall be recognized or given effect. ”
In strengthening the families, it is therefore necessary to start at the marriage of couple since it is the root and foundation of every family.
A city in the province of Bataan is already starting its initiative in strengthening the families. Just as said by its congressman, the family should be the basic institution which the city government is focusing on.
And these initiatives provide basic education in strengthening the relationship deeply founded in the real definition of freedom and right which adhere in the nature.