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To the honorable bishops of CBCP
Peace
We came to your office not to stir up trouble, nor to plead with you
We’re just here to give you a simple message.
Eleven women die every day from pregnancy and childbirth
a continuing tragedy
that can be ended by the RH bill you are blocking.
We know that your opposition is based on a papal encyclical
We do not expect that you can change this encyclical.
We also do not expect you to stop speaking about social issues
even if many people do not agree with you.
But we do expect you to care as fellow Filipinos
who preach about love, especially love for the poor
Despite your elevated social status
we expect you to respect the rights of others
who do not agree with you
We expect that although all of you are men
you have learned affection and empathy
from your mothers, your sisters and women friends
Together with allies and friends
we are more than a thousand women
mostly from the crowded and tangled alleys of Metro Manila
If we could get you to live in our shanty homes
share with you the paltry meals that we have every day
have you witness the upright lives of neighbors who use contraceptives
let you listen to children
longing for the mothers they lost to maternal complications
we would do so to open your minds
about our need for RH
But these are impossible wishes
so we have come to you
It pains us to hear you downplay the deaths of mothers
You and your allies have dismissively said
that many more die from other illnesses
that pregnancy is not a disease
that the government has more important things to fund
that the possible fusion of *** and eggs is more important
than a woman’s life
How many more must die before you are touched?
There is a saying that perhaps you believe in as well
Whoever saves a single life, saves the world entire
Allow us to tell you the true story of a mother whose life...
...could have been saved by programs in the RH bill
Olivia was a quiet woman who kept to herself
She lived in the poor community of Barangay Tonsuya, Letre, Malabon
She was only eighteen when she got married
and after just a few years had nine children
Because she had no money, she delivered her tenth child at home
helped by a traditional birth attendant
Her youngest was delivered alive
but Olivia bled profusely afterwards
Abigail, her thirteen-year old eldest child, was feeding her then
In between sobs, Abigail said that Olivia stopped eating
spilled her drink, and shortly bade her farewell with the words:
“Abigail, take care of all your siblings.”
Olivia died on May 2, 2009. She was only 37 years old.
Abigail and her two other siblings dropped out of school
The three youngest children, including the baby
are due to be given up for adoption
How many stories of Olivias must we tell you before you believe?
How many more Olivias need to die before you sympathize?
Today, we have brought eleven candles...
...to symbolize the eleven women who have died or will die today
By lighting each candle
we remember and honor the life each woman had
which in unique ways...
...provided love and light to her children
...to her partner
...to her friends
...to her siblings
...to her parents
...to her community
...to her factory
...and most probably
...even to her church.
By letting each of the eleven candles stand in front of your office
we commit to memory the painful words you used
to trivialize the deaths of mothers
We commit to memory
the extreme actions that you took against the RH bill
and the reckless delay of a law
that could have saved a majority of these mothers
More than four thousand women die every year
from maternal complications
deaths that could be prevented by RH education and services
The thousand or so of us who are here today
will lie down in the street
to show you a fraction of the scale of this tragedy
the lives lost, the children left behind
the hopes and relationships cut short
the contributions to society that have ceased.
We will leave your office
in the same peaceful manner that we came
We only leave behind the eleven candles with their dying flames
May the memories of the eleven women...
who died today touch your hearts and minds.