6.

To reduce abortion rates

Increased access to information and services on modern contraceptive methods will reduce the
number of unwanted pregnancies, eliminate the need for abortion, and prevent maternal
deaths. It is unfortunate though that the proposed law that could reduce the number of
abortions is being opposed by fundamentalist groups.

In the Philippines, there are half a million women who induce abortion procedures every year,
79,000 women who are admitted to hospitals for complications from unsafe abortion and there
are 800 women dying from unsafe abortion.

One-third of unintended pregnancies end in abortion and twelve percent of maternal deaths are
due to unsafe abortion. The latest Philippine statistics on abortion also show the following
profile of women who induce abortion: nine in ten women are married or in a consensual union;
more than half have at least three children; two-thirds are poor; nearly 90% are Catholic.

The Philippine legal restriction on abortion, one of the vestiges of Spanish colonization in the
Philippines, was lifted directly from the old Spanish Penal Code of 1870. Recognizing the high
rates of deaths of women undergoing clandestine and unsafe abortion procedures due to its
illegality, the Spanish government reconsidered its restrictive law and has allowed abortion on
certain grounds in 1985, over 25 years now. Last February 24, 2010, Spain approved a new law
on abortion that further eases restrictions by allowing the procedure without restrictions up to
14 weeks and gives 16- and 17-year olds the right to have abortions without parental consent.
The law is the latest of a series of bold social reforms undertaken by Socialist Prime Minister Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who first took office in 2004. Spain has also legalized gay marriage and
made it easier for Spaniards to divorce under Zapatero’s administration.

Spain has liberalized its laws to allow abortion on broad grounds and yet we are left to contend
with our old colonial laws. Other predominantly Catholic countries that allow abortion are
Belgium, France, Italy, Poland, and Hungary (whose constitution protects life from conception
but permits abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation). Recent abortion liberalizations occurred in
Colombia, Mexico City (legalized abortion in the first trimester without restriction in April 2007)
and Portugal (allows abortion up to 10 weeks of pregnancy).
Recognizing that the criminalization of abortion does not lessen the number of women inducing
abortion but only makes it dangerous for women who undergo clandestine and unsafe abortion,
in 2006, the CEDAW Committee urged the Philippine government to “consider reviewing the
laws relating to abortion with a view to removing punitive provisions imposed on women who
undergo abortion and provide them with access to quality services for the management of
complications arising from unsafe abortions and to reduce women’s maternal mortality rates in
line with the Committee’s general recommendation 24 on women and health and the Beijing
Platform for Action.

The Philippine law on abortion does not even allow express exceptions based on rape, risks to
the life and health of the woman and fetal impairment. Philippine law on abortion must be
liberalized to allow it on demand. This change can happen through a specific law removing the
penalties for the woman inducing abortion and the safe abortion providers assisting her.

Making abortion safe and legal will save the lives of about 800 Filipino women representing the
number of women who die every year from unsafe abortion. The legalization of abortion does
not increase the number of women inducing abortion instead it has led to a decrease in number
of women dying from unsafe abortion. Where abortion is legal, like in Canada and Turkey,
abortion rates did not increase while the Netherlands, with its liberal abortion law and widely
accessible contraceptives and free abortion services, has one of the lowest abortion rates in the
world. Deaths due to abortion fell 85 percent after legalization in the US.

7. To give rape victims a better chance to heal from their ordeal

Giving rape victims access to emergency contraception (EC) like levonorgestrel can help them
prevent unwanted pregnancies. The availability of Postinor, a brandname for levonorgestrel, has
been prey to religious fundamentalist attack. Then Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez, Jr.
issued a Position Paper in 1999 allowing its dispensation to rape victims through the hospital-
based DOH network of Women and Children Protection Units (WCPU). Subsequently, however,
Postinor was delisted by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) and, despite requests for its re-
registration, it has not been allowed to be registered again by the BFAD.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines EC as a method of preventing pregnancy.

According to WHO, EC does not interrupt pregnancy, therefore, it is not considered a method of
abortion. Over 140 countries worldwide have registered EC pills such as Postinor and the like
including 31 predominantly Catholic countries such as Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil,
Burundi, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Hungary,
Ireland, Italy, Lesotho, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Poland,
Portugal, Rwanda, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela, Almost all of the ten
ASEAN countries including Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam have registered levonorgestrel.

8. To prevent early pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases especially among adolescents

The Comprehensive Reproductive Health Care Bill (RH bill) recommends that the government
provide mandatory reproductive health education starting at Grade 5. According to our
obligations under CEDAW, “teenage pregnancies…present a significant obstacle to girls’
educational opportunities and economic empowerment.” It is the government’s duty to “give
priority attention to the situation of adolescents and that it provide sex education, targeted at
girls and boys, with special attention to the prevention of early pregnancies and sexually
transmitted diseases.

The CRC Committee recommended the urgent adoption of the RH Bill, to “ensure access to
reproductive health counse[ling] and provide all adolescents with accurate and objective
information and culturally sensitive services in order to prevent teenage pregnancies, including
by providing wide access to a broad variety of contraceptives without any restrictions and
improving knowledge and conscience on family planning,” and to “strengthen formal and
informal sex education, for girls and boys, focusing on the prevention of early pregnancies, STIs
and family planning,” among other things.

Many adolescents are sexually active and are not practicing any contraceptive method. In 2008,
there were 47 births for every 1000 women aged 15-19.28 According to the Young Adult Fertility
and Sexuality Study 3 (YAFS 3), by age 18, 10 % of young women would have been pregnant and
by age 20, 25% would have already been pregnant. Twenty-six percent of women age 15-24 have
already began child-bearing.

The knowledge of many adolescents on reproductive tract infections (RTIs), sexually transmitted
Infections (STIs), and HIV/AIDS is at a superficial level. Adolescents should know the risks of early
sex such as the different RTIs and the possibility of acquiring STIs and HIV/AIDS through
unprotected and unsafe sex.

Risks of transmission during intimate sexual contact include infections to the Human Papilloma
Virus (HPV) which causes most cervical cancers. At their young age, adolescents are prone to HIV
infections to HPV.

Pregnancies of adolescent girls aged 18 years and below are considered high risk pregnancies.
Complications due to high blood and maternal mortality are high for adolescent girls giving birth.
They also tend to disregard basic pre-natal and post-natal care thereby putting themselves at risk
and adding to occurrence of infant mortality.

The social impact of early childbirth for adolescent girls includes disruption of schooling and the
resulting lack of career options due to low educational attainment and lack of necessary job
skills. Lack of career options in turn result in lack of financial capability.

Philippine law already requires schools to teach HIV and AIDS under the 1998 Philippine AIDS
Prevention Act (RA 8504). The ordinances in the provinces of Aurora, Ifugao, Mt. Province, Sultan
Kudarat, Sulu and Olongapo City all require adolescent reproductive health (ARH) education in
schools. These laws manifest the need to uphold ARH education