UPDATE. UPDATE. UPDATE.

I received some interesting messages recently:

The first was this from some girl named A*****:
Subject: Paul VI Was Right

A response to: Under the Influence of Contraception
In his book, "Morals for Lay People" (1950s), Father Birngruber wrote: If artificial contraception becomes widely accepted, abortion on demand will follow as a natural consequence. We should continually remind people how right Pope Paul VI and the Catholic Church has been about the terrible consequences of artificial contraception. We need the data at our fingertips, e.g. the divorce rate among those who practice Natural Family Planning is miniscule. Not so with those who use condoms and chemicals.

David A. Hogg

To which I replied:

STOP SENDING YOUR CATHOLIC DOGMA TO ME. I AM A CATHOLIC BUT YOUR VIEWS ARE MYOPIC AND I'M SORRY...JUST PLAIN WRONG. PASS THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL NOW!! JOIN THE CAUSE.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE:
http://www.petitiononline.com/rhan2008/petition.html

Then she wrote back:

"I am praying for you everyday that someday you will realize what you are saying is not true."

a***** d*l*c***

Well, unfortunately for this poor misinformed self-righteous lady who doesnt' realize that contraception IS NOT ABORTION, I also received this text a few days ago from my friend Beth Angsioco who is a leading light in this advocacy:

"Today is a historic day for RH advocates, The HOR session (in Congres) saw the sponsorship speeches of Representatives Lagman and Garin on the RH bill after more than ten years of unrelenting advocacy work. Sponsorship speeches shall continue next week after which the debate shall continue. Rep. Lagman says that this is the start of the irreversible process of approving the bill."

Nevertheless, good news aside, a lot of work still needs to be done to show Congress that there is massive public support for this bill. Over 90%, if Pulse Asia is to be believed. Apparently, even the president secretly supports this bill.

So please, if you can, sign the petition above (or better yet, sign the hardcopy petition itself - I can send you copies to bring around your neighborhoods). Or join the plenary hall session (M-W 4pm onwards) to show your support. You can contact Mags Lopez at lopezmags@yahoo.com to see how you can volunteer in Congress.

Don't allow the Catholic Church to use heavy handed tactics to get their way again. The separation of Church and State in this country is in the constitution. Don't let them drag us back into the days of Noli Me Tangere again.

Remember, the bad guy was Padre Damaso.