President Duterte yesterday expressed his support to the use of contraceptives anew to prevent unwanted pregnancies and said abortion is still off the table.
According to Duterte, he is one of the proponents of family planning but he hates the idea of abortion as he considers it as a form of murder.
“So it becomes an incongruity na patayin mo ‘yung bata sa loob (killing through contraception) to prevent pregnancy so there is no life at all. But if you kill a living thing there inside, I agree with you with the conclusion it’s gonna be murder,” he said in an ambush interview in Baguio City.
Duterte said abortion is against the law to begin with so he can’t grasp the state of mind of those who push for it.
He added that since sex is an instinct that cannot be prevented, it is better to use contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies than following the calendar method.
“Alam mo iyang instinct, ‘yang sex. The need. Instinct iyan hindi mo mapigilan (Sex is an instinct you cannot stop).
You cannot postpone your libido [for] next week. Think about it,” he said.
Duterte said it’s better to be prevent pregnancies which are unwanted than let a kid suffer the “agony and suffering that he has to undergo in this life.”
“Naawa ako sa tao na lumabas siya, walang gatas (I feel bad for those who were born but there’s no milk to feed him).
So the brains have to start malfunction. No nutrients, walang mabuting pagkain (no good food), underfed and malnourished,” he said.
He added that God gave people the instinct to “propagate the race” but along with it, he also gave people sexual urge, which Duterte deemed problematic since one cannot just hide his sexual urge.
Duterte also expressed his support to giving condoms even to students.
The Department of Health (DoH) has planned to distribute condoms in schools to curb the rising number of HIV-AIDS cases in the country. However, this was opposed by many groups and individuals which includes Education Secretary Leonor Briones. (Argyll Cyrus B. Geducos)