Reproductive health is critical theme for Filipino feminists on Int’l Women’s Day

By Nora O. Gamolo

As thousands of Filipino women marched under searing 32 degrees heat to commemorate 100 years of the International Women’s Day, the controversial Reproductive Health bill was calendared to be tackled in the Congress plenary.

While it is being railroaded by congressmen close to the Catholic Church, and even the Palace flip-flopped on urging its passage, the bill has found advocates even from male congressmen.

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raymond ‘Mong’ Palatino has urged President Aquino and other lawmakers “to be feminists” by prioritizing the rights and welfare of women in government policies.

“The rhetoric of social change and progress that we often hear from President Aquino and my fellow lawmakers would remain empty if they don’t advance and protect women’s rights and welfare. Amidst the celebration of women’s day and the growing call for the passage of a comprehensive RH bill, I urge my fellow government officials to be feminists,” Palatino said.

Palatino said that despite the touted progress on the condition of Filipino women over the years the government still has yet to release the majority of them from the clutches of poverty and other forms of exploitation.

Based on a data from the National Statistics Office (NSO), the current female population of the country is roughly 47 million, almost half of the total population of 94 million.

More than half of that 47 million Filipino women struggle to survive on P86 a day based on the assumed international standard for moderate poverty.

It is also estimated that at least 11 women globally die every day due to pregnancy and childbirth-related issues.

“Being a true feminist today means dedicating oneself to the painstaking challenge to ensure that women live humanely through democratized access to social and economic resources,” Palatino said.

Palatino said that concrete measures to alleviate the conditions of women should include providing them with decent work through national industrialization and a stable economy; implementing genuine agrarian reform to cater to the plight of peasants many of whom are women; repealing the Visiting Forces Agreement and other unjust agreements which subject women and the nation to violence and foreign domination; democratizing access to quality basic and tertiary education to empower women with relevant life-skills; providing proper universal health care.

“The Aquino administration should commit itself to these difficult yet necessary reforms. Otherwise, it will only prove itself guilty of just seductively espousing all those talk on change in order maintain the status quo," Palatino said.

"These concrete measures also make it clear that the people's overall struggle for genuine social change can only succeed if it has as one of the main element complete devotion to women emancipation," Palatino said.

Meanwhile, as the RH Bill is being calendared to be discussed in the plenary session, its advocates, especially the women, tell ultraconservative bishops: Respect our right to life.

Amid extreme disappointment over the March 1 suspension of the House of Representatives session, when the much awaited plenary debate for the highly debated reproductive health bill was set to be delivered, a group of women advocates pushing for the passage of House Bill 4244 or the “Responsible Parenthood (RP), Reproductive Health (RH) and Population Development Act of 2011” calls on bishops to respect women’s right to life.

The non-government organization Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP) is concerned that Catholic bishops have been issuing statements on many issues, but hardly anything on stopping maternal deaths.

Elizabeth Angsioco, DSWP National Chairperson said, “we are seriously disturbed that Bishops are never concerned about arresting maternal deaths. They say they are against the re-imposition of the death penalty, but seem not to care about the on-going massacre of poor Filipino women.”

Angsioco explained that the deprivation of life-saving reproductive health services is like a death sentence hanging over the head of poor women.

“Our group (DSWP) alone have lost quite a number of poor women and almost lost many more, due to lack of access to reproductive health services,” she stressed.

“It is lamentable that for every woman lost, a family is orphaned. Children become motherless. The country loses productive citizens,” Angsioco continued.

Angsioco’s group has earlier expressed dismay over the reported barangay ordinance about the protection of the ‘unborn child’ in Barangay Ayala-Alabang, known for its wealthy residents who also count people in government.

The barangay council in this village of the rich and the famous passed Barangay Ordinance no. 1 on January 3, 2011 entitled, “An Ordinance Providing for the Safety and Protection of the Unborn Child within theTerritorial Jurisdiction of Barangay Ayala-Alabang; Fixing Penalties for its Violations, and for other Purposes.”

The ordinance seeks, among others, to penalize any natural or juridical person to advertise by billboards, brochures, leaflets, flyers or similar means or any manner of form, sell, offer for free or endorse, promote, prescribe or distribute abortifacients.

Abortifacients as defined in the ordinance is any device, medicine, substance or practice which may damage, injure, interfere with the natural development, endanger or cause the expulsion or death of an unborn child. It includes intrauterine devices (IUDs) and hormonal contraceptives.

“First and foremost, there is carelessness if not outright deception on the part of the council,” stressed Angsioco.

“The ordinance is not only unconstitutional and a violation of resident’s rights to health, information, education, privacy, and to found a family according to their own convictions; it also misuses and misquotes the Constitution,” Angsioco said.

When the ordinance quoted the Constitution on the equal protection for mother and unborn, it inserted the word ‘child’ after unborn which is nowhere in the actual Constitutional provision, explains Angsioco.

Inserting the word ‘child’ gives the wrong impression that the Constitution actually equates the unborn with a child, and can mislead people. “Is this intentional?”, Angsioco asks.

“The ordinance is coercive as it forces residents to adhere to wrong view that contraceptives are abortifacients and are dangerous to women’s health,” she added

The World Health Organization (WHO) includes contraceptives in its List of Essential Medicines which attests to its safety and efficacy, she stressed, and thus, “the Ayala-Alabang barangay council cannot be more authoritative than WHO on this matter. Fact is, even the country’s Bureau of Food and Drugs Administration (BFAD) recognizes the safety and efficacy of contraceptives with its approval to making contraceptives available,” she added.

“This ordinance is anti-women,” laments Angsioco, “it restricts women, both those with means to purchase and those who cannot afford to buy. Whereas before, only poor women are without access, this ordinance curtails rights of even those with means.”

The Ayala-Alabang experience underscores the need for a national RH law. If the bill was passed earlier, there cannot be an ordinance such as this one. The RH bill should be passed now, (and) it will repeal this ordinance,” Angsioco ended.

She said, “even from a purely utilitarian point of view, this means less human resource for the nation and more financial assistance needed for the orphaned family. The nation loses if we do nothing and allow the death of 11 mothers every day, due to pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications.”

Angsioco stressed bishops should know there are senseless deaths because almost all could have been prevented if services contain in the RH bill are adequately provided for, and “The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ (CBCP) stubborn rejection of the RH bill is a major reason why women die.”

An effective Family Planning (FP) program can dramatically reduce maternal deaths by 32%. This is because FP prevents mistimed, too early, too frequent, and too late pregnancies, and high risk pregnancies that have high probability of having complications, Angsioco said.

She lamented, however, that “an effective FP program in the country is yet to be realized pending the passage of the Reproductive Policy and Reproductive Health bill.”

A study by the Guttmacher Institute has shown that an effective FP program is cost-effective. For every peso spent on FP, the state can save from three to one hundred pesos in addressing pregnancy and childbirth-related problems.

As RH advances to plenary debate, DSWP members call on the bishops to care for women and fully respect women’s right to life.

“If bishops are truly against the death penalty, they should be with us in working for the immediate passage of the RH bill into law,” ended Angsioco.