SOCIETY & CULTURE

Final Examination

1. What is your opinion on Marriage with Expiration in the

Philippines?
First of all, I do not agree in this statement. I think Marriage with
expiration in the Philippines is not suitable to implement here in the
Philippines for the reason that when talking of marriage of Filipinos
it’s been the practice that it has no limitation at all. So, before the
couple will set for a marriage, it takes time to decide surely if you
want to be married. Consequently, it is normally with full respect
with the church and partly to God Almighty. Lastly, may I say that
there is no need to past a bill for that? Also, it does not help our
country to be more productive and progressive.
2. Who is more responsible in educating the youth on sex
education, the school or the family? Why?
On my opinion, its better that the school is more responsible in
educating the youth on sex education. The reason behind is that
school is the educator of the youth in order to understand well what
sex education really is. There is a possible that there is a quick
learning and ideas that the youth will be in calculated with. There is
a greater impact of lessons that the youth would be gain. What
important is that the family and school are the most important in
order to help the youth to be more aware on sex education.
3. Would a single parent and their children be considered a
family? How?
For me, a single parent and their children will be considered a
family for the reason that there is existence of love and affection
prevail. The single parent may also support financially the children if
the parent has a stable job.
 4. CONSEQUENCES OF PREMARITAL SEX

Adolescent sexuality and Child Bearing: Facts and figures

In January 2004, an expanded Partnership for Safe Motherhood and

Newborn Health was established with the aim of promoting the
health of women and newborns, especially the most vulnerable.
Expanding the scope of the global Safe Motherhood Initiative and
building on the work of the Safe Motherhood Inter-Agency Group,
the Partnership aims to strengthen maternal and newborn health
efforts at the global, regional, and national levels, in the context of
equity, poverty reduction, and human rights.

The Partnership is a result of a consultative process, initiated in 2002,

among a diverse group of international development agencies and
organizations to promote greater attention to, and resources for, safe
motherhood and newborn health.

Focusing on the areas of advocacy/information-sharing, technical

advancement, and country-level support and partnership, the
Partnership undertakes the following activities:

Implementing an advocacy/media strategy to refocus global

attention to improving the health of women and newborns in
developing countries;

Stimulating national-level commitment to make safe

motherhood/newborn health a priority within national development
plans and aid requests;

Promoting effective interventions, including educating mothers

about cord blood banking, to improve the application of technical
knowledge and research findings.
Safe Motherhood

Every minute of every day, somewhere in the world and most often in
a developing country, a woman dies from complications related to
pregnancy or childbirth. That is 515,000 women, at a minimum, dying
every year. Nearly all maternal deaths (99 percent) occur in the
developing world--making maternal mortality the health statistic with
the largest disparity between developed and developing countries.

For every woman who dies, 30 to 50 women suffer injury, infection, or

disease. Pregnancy-related complications are among the leading
causes of death and disability for women age 15-49 in developing
countries.

When a mother dies, children lose their primary caregiver,

communities are denied her paid and unpaid labor, and countries
forego her contributions to economic and social development. A
woman's death is more than a personal tragedy--it represents an
enormous cost to her nation, her community, and her family. Any
social and economic investment that has been made in her life is lost.
Her family loses her love, her nurturing, and her productivity inside
and outside the home.

More than a decade of research has shown that small and affordable
measures can significantly reduce the health risks that women face
when they become pregnant. Most maternal deaths could be
prevented if women had access to appropriate health care during
pregnancy, childbirth, and immediately afterwards.

Safe motherhood means ensuring that all women receive the care they
need to be safe and healthy throughout pregnancy and childbirth.

Newborn Health and Survival

Each year, approximately 4 million newborn infants die during the first
month of life, and an additional 4 million are stillborn- most of these
deaths are due to infection, asphyxia and birth injuries, and
complications of premature birth. Low birth weight contributes to
newborn death in about 40-80% of cases. Nearly all of these newborn
deaths occur in developing countries, and most of these deaths can be
prevented if good-quality is available.

Newborn health and survival are closely linked to the health of the
mother before and during pregnancy, as well as during labour,
childbirth, and the postpartum period. Key interventions for improving
newborn health include: ensuring a skilled attendant at every birth;
tetanus toxoid immunization; and immediate and exclusive
breastfeeding.

Visit our friends at Domestic Violence Services if you are having a

domestic violence problems and bhia to learn more about women's
health issues.

Pregnancy and Birth

"In a woman man is conceived, from a woman he is born, with a

woman he is betrothed and married, With a woman he contracts
friendship. Why denounce her, the one from whom even kings are
born? From a woman a woman is born, none may exist without a
woman." Guru Granth Sahib

'It is through woman that order is maintained. Then why call her
inferior from whom all great ones are born.

Planning ahead
 • Pregnancy Planner & Ovulation Calendar

Pregnancy Calendar & Timeline

If you're pregnant then use the pregnancy calendar to plan the next 40
weeks of your pregnancy. See fetal growth, your prenatal
appointments with your doctor. All these on an easy to print calendar
format.

• Life begins at conception and our destiny is pre-ordained

• Naming your Child, Search through Sikh Names and their
Meanings

Fun Stuff

Amazing is the transition from birth, development into adulthood and

the ability to sustain and give birth to a new life. Incredible, isn't it?
Read about another mother's experience.

• Humor: What if men got pregnant!

• Pregnancy related books and Videos

Educational

• Maternal Mortality (click on the

image on the right)
• Only one sixth of all pregnancies
actually make it past the first
eight weeks
• Africa and Asia have the highest maternal-death rates
The Life Cycle

Union and Separation: Our destiny is pre-ordained with an element of

choice, implicated also by past and present karm. Shortly after
conception, the embryo forms. Life begins with the five elements and
the intricate body parts and organs are formed. Then infused with the
soul, the vulnerable life is nourished and protected from the harmful
elements all the while the unborn meditates. In the heat of the womb,
life thrives and upside down indeed (the final position of the fetus in
the last few weeks of labor and delivery). In the womb the creation
survives by meditating upon the creators name, with every breath.
Finally one is born and eventually forgets ones origin and becomes
engrossed with the material world. After leaving the womb, one
interacts and attaches with the conscious world and forgets God.
Growing up is certainly not easy, especially when reincarnation and
transmigration hovers just around the corner unless one partakes in
naam simran (meditate upon the name of the primal lord).
Forgiveness and salvation are hence an option for all via naam simran.

Changing times present new challenges, nevertheless the basic

principles of Sikhism help us through the tough times.
Unintended pregnancies

Reference:
http://www.sikhwomen.com/Sexuality/PremaritalSex/index.htm
Date Retrieved: March 15, 2010

5. CASES OF ABORTION IN THE PHILIPPINES THAT RESULTED

TO DEATH

Thirteen young women, including a pregnant 16-year-old, rescued

from an alleged abortion clinic in San Andres Bukid (The Manila Times,
July 2002). Two suspected abortionists, an 82-year-old woman, and her
18-year-old granddaughter, arrested by NBI agents in Caloocan City
(The Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 28, 2008). A 70-year-old alleged
abortionist entrapped by NBI operatives in her house in Bacolod City
(The Manila Times, February 4, 2007). Another alleged abortionist in
Pagsanjan, Laguna, arrested after a police operative posed as a client
in need of
her services (The Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 12, 2007).

Some stories land in the pages of newspapers; some even make

headlines. Some crop up in debates, forums, and opinion essays as
case studies offered in support of or against abortion. And some are
simply stories you know. The college student impregnated then
abandoned by her boyfriend. The single woman in hot pursuit of a
career and far from interested in settling down. The exhausted mother
of ten living under a
bridge, facing the prospect of bringing another life into a world of
poverty and hunger.

All of these women will make a choice. And according to The Incidence
of Induced Abortion in the Philippines: Current Level and Recent Trends
(2005), a study conducted by Fatima Juarez, Josefina Cabigon,
Susheela Singh, and Rubina Hussain for the Guttmacher Institute, while
some stories end well, others—approximately 473,000 out of 3.1
million pregnancies, or 27 out of every 1,000 pregnancies occurring
each year in the country by 20001—end in blood, pain, physical and
psychological trauma, a prison sentence, and in some cases, death.

Abortion vs. miscarriage

The word upon which all of these stories hinge is choice. Unfortunately,
choice has become just another of the catchwords being tossed about
in the debate over House Bill 5043, or the Reproductive Health and
Population Development Act of 2008, right up there with /pro-life, safe
motherhood, family-friendly, and culture of death,/ the last term being
the apocalyptic outcome envisioned by some conservative religious
groups should the bill be passed. HB 5043 will pave the way toward
legalizing abortion, these groups say, adding that all the artificial
contraceptives mentioned in the bill are abortifacients.

At this point, some clarification is necessary, beginning with the

definition of abortion. “The word abortion has been misused,
misinterpreted, and maligned,” says Dr. Lourdes B. Capito, chair of the
UP-PGH Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The medical
definition of abortion, such as that used by MedicineNet.Com, is simply
the termination of a pregnancy through “the premature exit of the
products of conception

There are two major types of abortions. Spontaneous abortion,

otherwise known as a miscarriage, occurs due to abnormalities in the
development of the fetus, and is clearly beyond the woman’s control.
Induced abortion, which is the type of abortion that has the religious
groups up in arms, takes place “when a procedure is done to end a
pregnancy.”

There’s a move now, especially in Europe, to promote the use of the

word ‘miscarriage’ as the politically correct term to refer to
spontaneous abortions, although ‘miscarriage’ does not sound very
medical,” Capito adds. “‘Abortion,’ which people automatically take to
mean induced abortion, has become such a bad word.”

Contraceptives vs. abortifacients

To clarify further, medical science has ruled that contraceptives are

not abortifacients. Capito stresses that “artificial contraceptives make
the environment in the uterus and fallopian tubes unfavorable for the
sperm and the egg cell to meet, so no fertilization takes place. Either
that, or the woman is kept from ovulating.”

Dr. Lourdes B. Capito

“That life begins at fertilization is also stated in the ethics manual of

the Philippine Obstetrics-Gynecology Society (POGS),” continues
Capito. There are various ways to prevent fertilization and pregnancy
from happening. These include abstinence from sex; the fertility
awareness or natural family planning method; the withdrawal method;
barrier methods that use physical or chemical barriers to stop sperm
from entering the uterus (e.g., condom, spermicide, diaphragm);
hormonal methods using manufactured forms of estrogen and/or
progesterone to prevent ovulation, thicken the cervical mucus to
prevent the entrance of sperm, and thin the lining of the uterus to
reduce likelihood of implantation

“Artificial contraception does not mean abortion. Studies have shown

that these [contraceptives] are not abortifacients,” emphasizes Dr.
Josefina V. Cabigon of the UP Population Institute. Some time ago,
Cabigon adds, in response to a claim to the contrary made by certain
religious groups, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a
statement to confirm that the pill is not an abortifacient. The WHO has
also released guidelines on contraceptive use, and has included
artificial contraceptives among its list of essential medicines for
reproductive health.
“There is some conflict regarding what constitutes life,” says Dr.
Carolyn I. Sobritchea, former director of the UP Center for Women’s
Studies. “Still, some religious factions have stretched the meaning of
abortion.

The law vs. numbers

The law is uncompromising toward abortion. Article 2, Section 12 of the

Constitution upholds the right of the unborn to the protection of the
State, and Article 256 of the Revised Penal Code criminalizes abortion,
giving the Philippines the distinction of having one of the most
stringent anti-abortion laws in the world.2 Moreover, nearly 90 percent
of Filipinos are Catholics; thus, the prevailing attitude is distinctly pro-
life. With these legal and moral walls rigidly in place and the women
themselves understandably reluctant to talk about their experiences,
carrying out research on abortion can be difficult. Nevertheless, stories
leak out and somehow a picture emerges. According to a 2005 study
/The Incidence of Induced Abortion in the Philippines,/ 91 percent of
women who have abortions are or have been married or with a
partner, 57 percent have three or more children, 87 percent are
Catholic, 71 percent are high-school educated, and 68 percent are
poor. Abortion is also equally rampant in the rural areas.

The root cause of abortion? Unintended pregnancy. The Guttmacher

Institute publication titled Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion
in the Philippines: Causes and Consequences (2006) by Singh, Juarez,
Cabigon, Hussain, Haley Ball and Jennifer Nadeau, states that six in 10
Filipino women ages 15-49 have experienced an unintended
pregnancy. In 2003, the average Filipino woman wanted 2.5 children
but had 3.5. The study also notes that roughly two-thirds of Filipino
women are poor, which, when paired with the difficulty in managing
the number and spacing the births of children, can only result in a bad
situation. “Despite the common perception that abortion occurs
primarily among women who wish to conceal the ‘dishonor’ of a
nonmarital pregnancy, women’s…reasons for having attempted to end
an unintended pregnancy show that this is not the case,” the paper
goes on. “The most common reason is an inability to afford the
economic cost of raising a child, a reason cited by 72 percent of
Filipino women who have attempted to have an abortion.”

Pro-choice vs. no-choice

The reality is this: a Filipino woman dealing with a pregnancy she

doesn’t want considers, and at times, actually turns to induced
abortion, despite all the blood, gore, guilt, fear, risk, and subterfuge
associated with it. “Well-off women can go to doctors in Hong Kong,”
says Cabigon. Methods used in a hospital or health center include
medication with mifepristone or RU-486, dilation and curettage (D&C),
or manual vacuum
aspiration (MVA). But for the many who cannot afford doctor’s fees and
trips abroad, obtaining an abortion from a doctor, nurse, or trained
midwife is not an option. They have no choice but procedures that are
crude and dangerous.
A stroll along the streets of Quiapo will offer a glimpse into the choices
available to poor women: clandestine abortion clinics manned by
hilots. These hilots offer herbal concoctions that can be drunk or
inserted into the vagina; misoprostol or Cytotec tablets (which Capito
says are likely
fake), ingested and inserted into the vagina in order to induce bleeding
and uterine contractions; and for pregnancies past the first trimester,
deep abdominal massage or the insertion of a catheter or other objects
into the cervix.

Life vs. death

The effects are always grave, no matter how the abortion is done.
According to the Guttmacher Institute paper, “more than eight in 10
women who succeed in ending their pregnancy report a health
complication due to their final abortion attempt…46 percent of women
who succeed in having an abortion experience severe complications
(defined as severe bleeding, severe pain, moderate or severe fever, or
any injury); 35 percent experience a lesser complication, including mild
to moderate bleeding or pain or mild fever. Morbidity due to unsafe
abortion is not limited to those who succeed in having an abortion;
some four in 10 women whose abortion attempt fails
also experience complications.”

“No induced abortion is safe, especially induced abortion through

instrumentation,” Capito points out. “First, you have the risk of
infection. These abortions are not done by legitimate doctors, nor are
they done using sterile procedures. Second, there is the risk of
perforating the uterus. When the pregnancy is advanced, the blood
vessels are larger and the uterine walls are thinner, so there is greater
risk of tearing the uterus. We get a number of such post-abortion
patients here [at the PGH], and some of them arrive already in septic
shock. A number of them
die.”

Morality vs. reality

The stories that leak out are pieces of a bigger story whose central
conflict involves a prevailing unmet need and a powerful moral force.
“The proliferation of these clandestine abortion clinics tells you that
there really is a demand for contraception,” says Sobritchea. “Women
will not go to these lengths if they had access to their choice of
contraception. The problem is religious groups are opposing
contraception on the grounds
that it promotes promiscuity.”

“It’s difficult to argue with these groups because they’re coming from a
moral standpoint, and morality is relative,” Cabigon adds. “But there
are realities these groups just don’t understand.”

Surveys show that most Filipinos want to practice family planning and
believe in the need for a law legalizing the distribution of
contraceptives3. It is hard not to draw correlations between
overpopulation—88.57 million by 2007, according to the National
Statistics Office—and
widespread poverty.

Sobritchea recalls the experience of NGOs and the women of Barangay

Baseco, a depressed, densely populated compound attached to the
seawall of Manila port, during the time of Manila City Mayor Jose
Atienza Jr. and his EO No. 003, which pushed for natural family
planning as the
city’s only family planning method.

“Atienza had every clinic distributing contraceptives removed, and the

number of unwanted pregnancies shot up. These women live in
shanties on stilts, which are almost perpetually flooded—you find
yourself unable to sleep at night after seeing how these people live.
The PGH had a difficult time handling the number of pregnancies, and
the women had to go to clinics in Quezon City.”

Urban poor women are not the only ones paying the price for
government’s caving in to the Catholic Church’s pressure regarding
contraceptives, Sobritchea continues. Sex workers—both male and
female—are also at risk, not only from unwanted pregnancies that end
up in abortions, but also from the threats of HIV and other sexually
transmitted infections (STIs). Similarly, female overseas workers are
put in a kind of double jeopardy. “These women who go abroad
suddenly find themselves outside the gaze of our traditional,
conservative society. There are no restrictions, so they feel free to
explore their sexuality.” Stories abound of Filipino women hooking up
with Filipino seafarers, of two or three women sharing one boyfriend,
same-sex relationships, and part-time prostitution. “Many of these
women don’t know how to protect
themselves. So they end up going home to have clandestine abortions,
or contracting STIs or HIV.”
In the rural areas, where people have even less access to family
planning information and maternal health care, the stories are the
same, says Cabigon. The husbands are fishermen who spend two
weeks to one month on their fishing boats at sea. When they come
back to their wives…well, human nature asserts itself. The women end
up pregnant, and since they would rather buy food for their families
than spend
what little they have on contraceptives, they end up having abortions.”

Another reality is that whenever these men indulge in drinking

sessions—a favorite pastime—they come back home to their wives
drunk and
feeling frisky. “What can the woman do when she isn’t empowered to
act on her own? She ends up pregnant again.”

Natural vs. compatible

Natural family planning, the only fertility management method allowed

by the Church, can be an effective method if certain conditions are
met. “As long as a woman’s menses are regular, which allows her to
compute when her fertile period is, the natural family planning method
is effective,” says Capito. These methods require a careful recording of
a woman’s menstrual cycles, and for the Billings method, checking the
cervical mucus. “However, this also requires the husband’s
cooperation,” Capito adds. “If your husband presses you to have sex
and you
happen to be fertile, what can you do?”
College-educated women are more likely to use the natural family
planning method, as shown in the 2003 National Demographic and
Health
Survey. “They know how the method works,” says Cabigon. “They are
empowered enough to tell their husbands when sex is not advisable.
They
have maids, so they have time to chart their cycles every morning.”
The woman in the rural areas wakes up, cooks for her family then she
goes
out to the fields and works all day. When will she have time to do her
charting?”

There is also the risk of infection if the woman checks her cervical
mucus with unsanitary hands. “The natural family planning method is
not
compatible with the lives of the poor,” says Sobritchea, who adds that
the pill, with its 99 percent effectivity rate, or better yet the IUD, with
its
five to ten-year period of effectivity, might be more appropriate
options for the urban and rural poor.

Ignorance vs. information

For many Filipino women, the choices are limited: they either deny
their sexuality or risk getting pregnant. When they do get pregnant,
they
either see the unexpected pregnancy through, committing the rest of
their lives to the consequences of the unforeseen, or get an abortion,
risking death. Is it any surprise that, according to the Guttmacher
Institute paper, although nearly all Filipino women want children, they
spend
most of their reproductive years (between the ages of 20 and 45)
wanting to postpone or avoid pregnancy?

But choice arises from knowledge, and for the most part, Filipinos are
either uninformed or misinformed about sex and sexuality.
“Disseminate
information by passing the Reproductive Health Act,” Capito says
bluntly. “It’s not forcing the women to embrace contraception; it is
informing
them of the variety of options available to them. This is patient
education. We want women to be able to make a fully-informed
choice.”

Sobritchea, who is pushing for a bill on the right to information, says

the foolproof way to prevent clandestine abortions is to educate
Filipino
women about sexuality and contraception. “Respect the individual’s
right to know. Inform them about all the options suitable to their health
needs, context, and economic status. There cannot be one formula for
everyone. We have the right to information, and all the information the
people need to protect themselves and promote their own well-being
should be laid out in the open.”

Reference
http://www.up.edu.ph/upforum.php?i=210&
Date Retrieved: March 15,
 6. Reflect the poem:
A man’s Poem
I saw her, I liked
her,
I loved her,
I wanted her.
I asked her;
She said no.
I married her;
After sixty years,
I still have her.

The poem emphasize that every man to love is endless and intimate.
True love does not change. To love is to sacrifice. You will do
everything to make your someone happy. There is no such thing that
anyone will do for one love.

The proposal of a women’s partylist group to prescribe expiration dates

on marriage contracts has
drawn mixed reactions from lawmakers, with at least one senator
saying the proposal is a good
starting point for discussing current social issues.

“It’s a reflection of what is happening in our society,” Sen. Alan Peter

Cayetano said in the
vernacular, apparently referring to the growing clamor from women for
more rights and social
freedoms.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr. for his part said
he finds the idea floated by
the 1-Ako Babaeng Astig Aasenso (1-ABAA) as funny.

The group’s main advocacy is “to help women become economically

empowered by helping them
become entrepreneurs, giving them better employment, providing
sources of livelihood, access to
capital, and other ways to make women financially independent.”

“It’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in my life. Ibig sabihin trial lang ang
marriage? (Does it mean
marriage is just a trial?),” Pimentel said of the group’s novel proposal.

The issue of a marriage contract with expiration will certainly go

against the majority belief that
marriage is a sacred union, Pimentel added.

Aside from the Philippines being a predominantly Christian country,

Pimentel pointed out that the
Philippine Constitution also recognizes the family as the basic unit of
society.

“It will go against the Constitutional provision that family is the basic
foundation of society. Certainly
the proposal will also go against majority beliefs,” Pimentel said.

Even in a country which exercises democracy, women still experience

inequality, Cayetano said,
although he agreed with Pimentel’s view that the family is the basic
unit of society.
Cayetano, in an interview, said he sees the proposal as a good starting
point for discussing social
issues, but the senator said he doubts whether efforts to introduce
such measure in
Congresswould succeed since many lawmakers are still conservative.

“Kung divorce nga hindi mapag-usapan, iyon pa kaya,” Cayetano said.

The proponents said a 10-year expiration on marriages would give

couples the opportunity to review their relationship, and decide
whether to continue or not with the union.
Source: HANNAH L. TORREGOZA, mb.com.ph

Republic of the Philippines

MARINDUQUE STATE COLLEGE

Tanza, Boac, Marinduque

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES

 SOCIETY & CULTURE

Final Examination

Submitted by:

REDEN P. MANIQUEZ

BS INFO.TECH 3B

Submitted to:

MS. ALMA TERESA DEL MUNDO

March 17, 2010