Economic Arguments on the Reproductive Health Bill Pro-RH Bill The RH bill controls population growth, lessening the

e costs required for the government to deliver quality basic government and social services, facilities, infrastructures, etc. The government is able to spend less but yield more to the needs of the population. With decreased population rate, the gross domestic product per capita increases since there are less and less people who would partake the overall revenue of the country. The RH bills allow smaller families, especially those who produce children in between longer intervals, to invest more on basic amenities and social services. For instance, smaller families can now allocate a greater amount of money on their childrens education, nutrition, health, etc., eventually allowing for the growth of human capital. RH bill may indirectly regulate labor force in the long term. Hence, industries will be saved from the risk of lower returns and inefficiency due to excessive labor input (Law of diminishing returns).

Anti-RH Bill The RH bill may further aggravate the trend of decreasing population growth rate in the country. With a prospective decline in population growth, it will be more difficult especially for a non-industrial, developing economy to strengthen, or even maintain, economic growth. Lower demand or purchasing power for goods and services may sufficiently lower the revenues of domestic industries. The per capita GDP is an aggregate measure of economic productivity and does not therefore reflect the distribution of revenues within the population. Thus, a greater per capita GDP brought about by decreased population rate will not always necessarily mean efficient wealth distribution among the poor. The bill may also be detrimental to the productivity of the workforce. As the productive members of the population (i.e., youth, middle class) decrease in number in the long run, all that would be left are the elderly, who are unproductive. As the elderly population increases, adding to that the decreasing government revenues brought about by decreased workforce productivity, it would become more difficult for the government to finance the pension of the elderly population. Moreover, the decrease in productive workforce endangers division of labor in industries, making goods and services more expensive and less available for the consumers. Population control may not be applicable in farming areas, such as the Philippines, where more children implies stronger agricultural workforce, which in turn translates to greater yield and economic productivity.

Since the RH bill provides for the free delivery of healthcare services to those who voluntary submit to family planning and birth control measures but couldnt afford. This could do well, but for a population whose majority is poor, it can only do so much; it will somehow enslave government funds, eventually demanding more from the taxpayers who will then shoulder the burden. It is also detrimental to the productivity or worth of healthcare professionals because the government will have to sacrifice the value of their outputs to subsidize the poor.