MANILA, Philippines – Some 2,600 mothers and 52,000 babies died in the country last year due to lack of sexual and reproductive health knowledge, a leading New York-based policy research group revealed in a study.
The report, titled “Meeting women’s contraceptive need in the Philippines,” said the deaths were triggered by unwanted pregnancies and birth-related illnesses due to lack of information dissemination on reproductive health.
Guttmacher Institute, a policy research organization in the field of sexual and reproductive health in New York, said the low level use of contraceptives among Filipino women had resulted in high levels of unwanted pregnancies in the Philippines.
Guttmacher Institute president Dr. Sharon Camp, who presented the report in a press conference in Quezon City yesterday, stressed that the ability to practice contraception methods is essential in protecting Filipino women’s health and rights.
The report’s highlight is the recording of some 4,600 pregnancy-related deaths among women in the Philippines in 2008, of which 2,600 died due to childbirth complications like abortion. The report also said 52,000 babies died last year before they reached their first birthday.
“Spacing birth for at least two years help babies survive,” the report said.
President of the Forum for Family Planning and Development Benjamin de Leon, who organized the forum, told The STAR that these deaths could have been prevented if the mothers had access to reproductive health care and family planning.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, principal author of the controversial Reproductive Health Bill pending at the House of Representatives, said copies of the study should be distributed to lawmakers to drum up support for the bill’s passage.
He said among the stumbling blocks to the proposed measure is the opposition of the Catholic Church and other groups.
Lagman also clarified that despite strong opposition from the Church, President Arroyo is fully supportive of the bill. –Perseus Echeminada, Philippine Star
July 2025
Nutrition Month
“Give us much more than P50 increase
for proper nutrition!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideosturesVideos
July
3 July – International Day of Cooperatives
3 July – International Plastic Bag Free Day
5 July – World Youth Skills Day
7 July – Global Forgiveness Day
11 July – World Population Day
17 July – World Day for International Justice
28 July – World Nature Conservation Day
30 July – World Day against Trafficking in Persons
Monthly Observances:
Schools Safety Month
Nutrition Month
National Disaster Consciousness Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 2: Cultural Communities Week
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise
Development Week
Week 3: National Science and
Technology Week
National Disability Prevention and
Rehabilitation Week
July 1-7:
National Culture Consciousness Week
July 13-19:
Philippines Business Week
Week ending last Saturday of July:
Arbor Week
Daily Observances:
First Saturday of July:
International Cooperative Day
in the Philippines
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