MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine government is to blame for creating a “dire human rights crisis” in the country by withholding access to family planning services and imposing a criminal ban on abortion, pro-choice activists said Monday.
These laws and policies have pushed more than half a million women to turn to clandestine and unsafe ways of terminating their pregnancies—often at the cost of their lives, said Melissa Upreti of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights in a press conference.
“Illegal abortion as a human rights issue is based on facts and reality,” said Upreti, who called on Philippine lawmakers to pass a law that would allow women to seek safe and legal abortions under special circumstances: When the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, fetal impairment or when it puts the mother’s health in danger.
She said the ban on abortion had driven women who wanted to terminate their pregnancies to seek illegal abortions that included “crude and extremely painful methods.” These included intense abdominal massages by traditional midwives, inserting of catheters or other instruments into the uterus, medically unsupervised consumption of the abortifacient drug Cytotec, and ingesting herbs and other concoctions sold by street vendors.
The Revised Penal Code prohibits abortion in all its forms.
According to the center, some 560,000 pregnant Filipino women every year turn to illegal abortions, with 90,000 suffering from complications. About 1,000 die annually.
It added that abortion-related complications were among the top 10 causes for hospitalization of women in the Philippines.
It pointed out that various United Nations committees such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had expressed concern over the government’s blanket prohibition on abortion that has led to the high incidence of maternal deaths due to clandestine abortions.
Many countries in the world allow safe, legal abortions for women under varying circumstances.
The center, along with its local partners, Monday issued its 126-page report “Forsaken Lives,” which tackles the impact of the Philippines’ criminal ban on abortion.
Described as the first study to link the government’s anti-abortion policy to women’s rights, the report was the result of two years of research, with five trips to the Philippines to conduct interviews with survivors of illegal abortions, health care workers, and lawyers. It included visits to government hospitals like Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, the Philippine General Hospital, Tondo General Hospital, Ospital ng Maynila and Bulacan Provincial Hospital.
Upreti, the center’s legal adviser for Asia, said the report aims to initiate a dialogue with the government on its accountability for the “human suffering caused by the ban.”
The report noted that many health care workers usually harassed or abused women seeking medical help after inducing an abortion instead of giving them proper medical attention.
“Our Congress should address this issue by passing a law that expressly allows safe and legal abortion. The Philippine judiciary should rule on the constitutionality of safe abortion when raised in court. Women’s rights advocates and reproductive rights advocates should also demand access to safe and legal abortion to address this public health issue,” said Clara Rita Padilla, executive director of EnGendeRights Inc., in a statement. –Nikko Dizon, Philippine Daily Inquirer
#WearMask #WashHands
#Distancing
#TakePicturesVideos
