Mom With 22 Kids Says Rh Law Came Too Late

[Call me bubba]

MANILA, Philippines - A historic birth control law that took effect in the Philippines Thursday after years of opposition from the Catholic Church came too late for Rosalie Cabenan, a housewife who has given birth 22 times.

Frail, with a leathery face streaked with wrinkles, 48-year-old Cabenan suffers from untreated gall stones and constant fatigue because her body has never had the time to properly recover from her successive pregnancies.

"We only wanted three children. But they kept coming and coming," Cabenan told AFP this week at her ramshackle home in Baseco, a massive slum in Manila where more than 60,000 people compete for space.

"I was always pregnant and there was no time to take care of myself because I had to keep working to help my husband feed the children. I have tried everything, a stevedore (dock worker), a laundry woman, fish monger and a vegetable seller."

Cabenan had her first child when she was just 14.

When she nearly died giving birth to her youngest, who is now six, she finally abandoned the demands of the Catholic Church to not use contraceptives.

A devout Catholic who still goes to mass twice a week, Cabenan nevertheless regrets following the church dogma so strictly and said she welcomed the Responsible Parenthood Law that officially took effect on Thursday.

"I tell women now, please do not be like me. I have too many children, and sometimes I do not know what to do and just cry, especially when they fight," she said.

The law requires government health centres to hand out free condoms and birth control pills, benefiting tens of millions of the country's poor who would not otherwise be able to afford or have access to them.

It also mandates that sex education be taught in schools and public health workers receive family planning training, while post-abortion medical care has been made legal for the first time.

Proponents say the law will slow the country's rapid population growth, cut widespread poverty and reduce the number of mothers dying at child birth.

"This is a triumph for poor women and girls who would otherwise have no access to these things," the United Nations Population Fund's country representative, Ugochi Daniels, told AFP.

While the plight of Cabenan is extreme, it is common in the Philippines to see very large families, particularly among the poor masses.

One of Cabenan's neighbours has given birth to 16 children.

The Philippines has one of the highest birth rates in the world -- 3.1 for every woman -- and the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the Asia-Pacific, according to the medical charity group Merlin.

The Catholic Church, which counts 80 percent of the country's 100 million people as its followers, had for more than a decade successfully lobbied and intimidated politicians into blocking pro-birth control acts in parliament.

However President Benigno Aquino, a bachelor who is one of the most popular leaders in the country's history, used his political capital to defy the church and help steer the Reproductive Health Act through parliament last year.

The church has continued to resist, warning pro-life politicians they will be targetted in mid-term elections this year and backing various groups' legal challenges to the law.

Asked to comment on the plight of Cabenan, one of the groups that filed a petition with Supreme Court to strike down the law

said her 22 children should be a cause for celebration and not regret. :kidding:

"Children are never a liability. In fact, in the provinces, the more children you have, the more it is considered a gift," Serve Life spokesman Anthony Lanicao told AFP.

He also said couples with so many unwanted children were "partly at fault" because they should have checked their sexual urges.

For Cabenan, however, church leaders are partly to blame.

"They tell you to go forth and multiply, but now when you ask for help, they just pass you by," she said.

She said nobody taught her proper family planning methods and there was no easy access to free contraceptives in Baseco.

Cabenan met her husband, Danilo, when she was in high school, and he, a struggling teenage docker in Manila's tough port area.

She soon dropped out of school to be with Danilo, now 50, in a union that quickly resulted in successive births that dashed her ambition of one day becoming a teacher.

"It is very difficult to have many children... many times we sleep without eating," she said.

Cabenan also mixes up her children's names and birthdays.

But she said the most difficult and painful part was failing to provide basic medical care to her children.

Of the 22, five died young due to diarrhea,

a treatable disease that constantly plagues the slums, because they had no money to buy medicines or take them to hospital.

six of the surviving 17 children are males, while the rest are females.

Six of the eldest are either married or have children out of wedlock -- and nearly all of them squeeze in a house cobbled together from bricks, drift wood and tarpaulin that is the size of a small garage.

Cabenan said most of her children were delivered at home by midwives, although one was born on a bus and another by a roadside with the help of passers by.

Her husband has no permanent job and finds construction work anywhere he can.

Only three of the children are studying. None of the older ones were able to finish high school.

"If we had this law in the past, maybe we would have had a better life today," she said.

http://philnews.com/...news_0116aa.htm

I would have given this topic another title

althou the TITLE as it is .is very effective,

I post this . as a news story- (i will keep out any personal comments til others post)

1.so that others who dont live here currently can understand some of the issues that plague/effect the poor

2.by understanding what this woman and others like her,

( yes there are others out there just like her) we can have a better understanding of the "place" (country)we call home & of our extended families.

Edited January 17, 2013 by Pittman apartments Sgn

[stevewool]

i wonder if i am part filipino, being as i have 12 brothers and sisters

[Guest Brian Mc]

she should have gone to the u.k family credit would have been very nice thankyou very much lol

[Dave Hounddriver]

You'd think that after the first dozen she would figure out what's causing it. Churches don't (opposite of kill) people. People (opposite of kill) people. Hey, the slogan works for the NRA.

[Mike S]

You'd think that after the first dozen she would figure out what's causing it. Churches don't (opposite of kill) people. People (opposite of kill) people. Hey, the slogan works for the NRA.

Yup you are correct ..... the church just tells them not to use birth control ..... ...... are you em-plying that the church had a hand in in perhaps more immaculate conceptions or something more sinister ...... :mocking: :mocking: :hystery: :hystery: ....... :cheersty:

[Bruce]

Wow... to bad she is in the Philippines. Here in the US she would be tapped (no pun intended) to make a jewelry commercial where her husband is on cam saying he finds his wife just as desirable today at 50 as he did when she was 14..... LOL

[JJReyes]

Wow... to bad she is in the Philippines. Here in the US she would be tapped (no pun intended) to make a jewelry commercial where her husband is on cam saying he finds his wife just as desirable today at 50 as he did when she was 14..... LOL

There is a show on cable television called, "19 Kids and Counting." The show follows Michelle and Bob Duggar as they deal with the challenges of raising a wonderful family with 19 children. Of course, if it wasn't because of the show's popularity, they would all be poor and living on welfare checks.

In the propaganda war over the RH bill, the Catholic Church should hire this woman and her children for a duplicate version of the always so happy Duggar family as they travel around the country meeting other large families. The Duggars are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints. So there is some parallel.

Edited January 17, 2013 by JJReyes

[Call me bubba]

In the propaganda war over the RH bill, the Catholic Church should hire this woman and her children for a duplicate version of the always so happy Duggar family as they travel around the country meeting other large families.

have not seen the show that your referring about,

THE Idea of having a "show" about this womans "happiness" is :th_thbestpost:

sure it may OFFEND SOME ONE, and the resulting Controversy may Save someones life or at least they will consider that what is "bad" may actually be "good"

here is part of article from another news source.basically same story as listed above w/1 slight difference

the last line

,makes 1 to think....

................................................................................

For Cabenan, however, Church leaders are partly to blame.

“They tell you to go forth and multiply, but now when you ask for help, they just pass you by,” she said

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/342453/rh-law-takes-effect-too-late-for-mother-of-22

Edited January 17, 2013 by Pittman apartments Sgn

[MikeB]

For Cabenan, however, church leaders are partly to blame. "They tell you to go forth and multiply, but now when you ask for help, they just pass you by," she said.

The biblical quote is "be fruitful and multiply"; made many centuries ago when there were far less people on earth. When I read what this woman had said I thought, no way; they cannot be preaching that. Then I read this:

http://www.sunstar.c...e-rh-law-263938

[JJReyes]

Times change. I am from a family with eight children. My father had a cousin with 14 children. She was tiny, less than 5 feet tall and less than 100 pounds. Luckily her husband was a sea captain or else there would have been even more children.

In my generation, my brother had 10 kids. Citibank wanted to transfer him to their New York corporate office without first asking how many children. Since the position is senior management, that's first class tickets for everyone once a year, private schools, apartment, etc. The relocation would cost the bank over $1 million a year. They changed his assignment to Indonesia with a 5 kids limit and one maid to help his wife.

I was considered as the family member whom God forgot to bless because my wife and I had only two children. Today, the attitudes have changed because of the high cost of raising and educating children. Still, one of my nephews has eight children, but the family are members of Opus Dei, a right wing ultra-conservative Catholic group. Birth control is out of the question for them.

Edited January 21, 2013 by JJReyes