First, let me extend a very warm welcome to the many new Filipino readers that have discovered this blog in the past 24 hours. My husband is from Australia, so I do get down to that part of the world on occasion and I hope to visit your beautiful country at some point in the future.
It is great to have you here, although the circumstances of our meeting are, to say the least, unusual.
It seems one of your esteemed Senators, Tito Sotto, plagiarized a blog post I wrote on February 23, 2011 entitled How The Pill Can Harm Your Future Child’s Health, lifting entire sections of the article basically word for word that was delivered in a speech to the Senate Floor regarding the possible passage of the highly controversial Reproductive Health Bill.
What’s worse, Senator Sotto is denying the charge of plagiarism, saying in an interview with ABS-CBN:
“Why would I quote the blogger? I was quoting Natasha McBride.”
Nice touch Senator. Â You almost had me convinced you were a nice guy with the tears and all.
Many of your citizens have emailed me assuring me that was a put on, and I’m starting to think they are right.
A thief is a thief, Mr. Senator. Â Denying it doesn’t get you off the hook; it just makes you a lying thief.
On the bright side, I am thrilled that your lapse of moral judgment has brought much-needed attention to the fact that the birth control pill can have devastating consequences to a woman’s long term health and possibly those of her children and even grandchildren.  Gut dysbiosis is a serious condition that has multi-generational consequences that women need to be educated about and completely aware of before making the very personal decision to use them.
It was indeed brave of you to take this controversial position. Â Kudos to you for that.
By the way, I am truly sorry for the loss of your son.
As the mother of two sons myself, I can only imagine the pain and devastation you have felt from such an experience.
While this has been a highly charged and hopefully enlightening experience for all involved, it’s time now to set the drama aside and get back to fighting the good fight by continuing to educate people about how their food and pharma choices affect not only themselves but also those they dearly love.
And although my attorney will likely try to persuade me otherwise, for now I’m moving on as I’ve got work to do.
Women of the Philippines: I am terribly sorry my blog was used and twisted against you. You deserve the choice to use The Pill if you want or need to based on your particular circumstances. While I want you to know that this choice has health consequences as does the decision to use any pharmaceutical drug, I in no way would ever condone taking this choice away from you! Â Mabuhay!
i got so curious about your blog because of this not so good senator who plagiarized your work. he’s indeed a thief in robe. i support your advocacy which is to empower people by making them informed. kudos to you.
great i discovered your blog because of the plagiarism controversy. i’m pro women and pro-choice. i have four sis and i adore you complete for addressing Filipinas to reclaim their right to choose and to decide what to do with their vaginas and ovaries and what pills to shallow. i’m a catholic and i’m informed that aside from shallowing pills, or using IUDs, etc., CATHOLICS WEAR CONDOM TOO, unlike many catholic priests who refuse to wear condom and in the process sire kids. i personally find nothing controversial in rh bill. what is important for me is the women are educated, informed and given the liberty to choose based on their conscience. i find it perplexing and appalling that in the rh bill debates in the philippines, men, and senators at that, engage lady senators in screaming bouts. for the love of Christ, let the women decide what to do with their wombs and how best to protect it. power to women to legislate. you’ll be welcomed in Manila. Mabuhay!
Some people should realize that this is not about RH Bill anymore and about PLAGIARISM that was done by no less than AN ELECTED PHILIPPINE SENATOR.
I guess there would be no chest beating and chants of “proud to be Pinoy” this time around should international media gets a wind of this issue.
Let the Filipinos be reminded that the Distinguished Senator from the Philippines IS A PRODUCT IF THE DYSFUNCTIONAL MESS THEY HAVE THAT’S CALLED PHILIPPINE POLITICS.
It’s all about name recall, how good you can sing or dance during campaigns this side of Babylon. Ask a common botante (voter) bystander of what his chosen candidates political stances are in timely issues and he may answer you he has no idea or he believes his chosen “manoks” (picks) are good because he happened to see him on TV commercials and local show guesting.
For those who defend him or asking for giving the Senator some slack because he a fellow Filipino. Mga BUGOK KAYO (explicit content). That’s the very reason why in the Philippines NO GETS ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANYTHING THEY DO WRONG.
People should realize that their politicians are their REPRESENTATIVES to the world and they should EMBODY THE IDEALS AND WHAT IS GOOD OF BEING FILIPINOS. If that bozo senator makes a booboo damay lahat ng Pilipino sa kahihiyan (all Filipinos get a share of the shame).
Proud to be Pinoy? You should be, your countrymen elected a plagiarist.
apologies should have been “NO ONE GETS ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANYTHING THEY DO WRONG”
As a blogger, I feel so bad about the issue of plagiarism. Senator Sotto admitted that he does not write his own speech. As a Filipino, I feel so sorry for those who are not aware that quoting sentences or even phrases from the internet journal is already called Plagiarism.
Tito Sotto made a mistake..a mistake that will take him to his grave. his dreams will never be quite..i am expecting his to have another privilege speech and publicly apologize. I personally did not think that his speech writer wrote that..it could be his son. His speech was a typical school homework kind of job…I am also against the RH Bill because of several reasons.
1. The monopoly of these contraceptives and others. The Filipinos will get third class items. You know hoe much product development is working now-a-days..Technology is ticking every second. The Govt. will favors companies to supply the needs of these RH Bill. 2. a new door for corruption..just like the pork barrel in which it was embedded in the yearly Philippine budget. 3. It deprive life to start…and for a wife or husband bound by duty to protect its Offspring, born and unborn to do this act is wrong, unhealthy for the family..i am talking about Spiritual, mental maturity and Moral Health …a fiber needed as a leader of the family, this will create a Father or Mother that is less than an inspiration to there children…
What people show know that Sotto said his wife used Diane contraceptive pills that led to the death of their son. That was in 1975, counting 9 months pregnancy so pills could have been used 1974 and before that.
Here’s the clincher, in every source about Diane, the said pills were marketed FIRST in Europe in 1978.
It was introduced into Asia in 1985!
LOL. Lakas lang talaga ng tawa ko dito.
Tito Sotto’s Camp Admits Using Sarah Pope’s Blog according to news today. I wanna hear sotto say a public apologo to ms. pope since this is the big issue now in the philippines and to all bloggers out there. Now we learn something from this issue.
and the battle of words begins…. how exciting! you should all be in the senate to show that even the common people are aware of the pros & cons… your points here are more legitimate..
Dear Sarah,
The very group of people who contacted you to report on Senator Sotto’s plagiarism, and who have used you for their own political ends, are now calling your source, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a quack, and a practitioner of pseudoscience. This is an indirect affront to your own advocacy. In effect, they are also calling you a quack.
Your new-found allies are heralding you as an advocate of women’s choice, but have conveniently left out your message that pills can have devastating health consequences (which is also Sotto’s advocacy). Isn’t that ironic? These people have also failed to inform you that there is no ban on birth control pills in the Philippines. Pills and other contraceptives are legal commodities in the Philippines and can be obtained from government clinics by those who need them for free. The health department has a yearly budget for this.
In fact the Philippines has a Magna Carta for Women passed way back in 2009 (http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2009/ra_9710_2009.html), which already guarantees comprehensive medical care for women:
Section 17. Women’s Right to Health. – (a) Comprehensive Health Services. – The State shall, at all times, provide for a comprehensive, culture-sensitive, and gender-responsive health services and programs covering all stages of a woman’s life cycle and which addresses the major causes of women’s mortality and morbidity: Provided, That in the provision for comprehensive health services, due respect shall be accorded to women’s religious convictions, the rights of the spouses to found a family in accordance with their religious convictions, and the demands of responsible parenthood, and the right of women to protection from hazardous drugs, devices, interventions, and substances.
Access to the following services shall be ensured:
(1) Maternal care to include pre- and post-natal services to address pregnancy and infant health and nutrition;
(2) Promotion of breastfeeding;
(3) Responsible, ethical, legal, safe, and effective methods of family planning;
(4) Family and State collaboration in youth sexuality education and health services without prejudice to the primary right and duty of parents to educate their children;
(5) Prevention and management of reproductive tract infections, including sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and AIDS;
(6) Prevention and management of reproductive tract cancers like breast and cervical cancers, and other gynecological conditions and disorders;
(7) Prevention of abortion and management of pregnancy-related complications
As you will notice, these things can be done without a “reproductive health” law. There are principled differences between those who want an RH legal framework and those who don’t. This is not about banning contraceptives.
I hope you publish this for the sake of fairness.
Check this google search for what Sotto’s enemies have written about Dr. Natasha.
http://www.google.com.ph/search?q=sarah+pope+a+quack&sugexp=chrome,mod=2&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=Sotto%27s+Pseudoscientific+Source:+Who+is+Natasha+Campbell-McBride&oq=Sotto%27s+Pseudoscientific+Source:+Who+is+Natasha+Campbell-McBride&gs_l=serp.3…140329.140329.0.141410.1.1.0.0.0.0.139.139.0j1.1.0…0.0…1c.NJmWghB7ixQ&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=fb36e64f92920838&biw=1600&bih=799