Women’s advocate wants arbortion legalized

A LEADER of women and reproductive health rights advocate group on Monday urged the government to legalize abortion in certain instances when it is warranted.

“Filipinos should address the issue of access to safe and legal abortion in the country,” said Clara Rita Padilla, executive director of EnGender Rights.

A lawyer, she has also supported the sex education in schools, filing a motion for intervention before a Quezon City court in favor of the program.

Padilla said lack of access to safe and legal abortion was a grave public health issue, citing the report of New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights entitled, “Forsaken Lives: The Harmful Impact of the Philippine Criminal Abortion Ban”, released yesterday at Annabel’s restaurant.

Among others, the report urged Congress to pass a law expressly allowing safe and legal abortion when the life and health (physical and mental) of the woman are in jeopardy, when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, and in cases of fetal impairment.

Padilla said over half of all pregnancies are unintended and one-third of these unintended pregnancies end in abortion. Due to the illegality of abortion,

Filipino women induce abortion clandestinely through unsafe methods.

The report said statistics showed that yearly about half a million Filipino women—because of various reasons including rape and dire socio-economic reasons—induce abortion with about 1000 women dying and 90,000 being hospitalized due to complications from unsafe abortion.

“This means that the illegality of abortion does not stop abortion but only makes it dangerous for the health and lives of Filipino women,” said Padilla.

The move to allow abortion is expected to provoke a strong resistance from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, which has vigorously opposed even just the use of artificial birth control methods.

But the report called on the Church to “demonstrate respect for the nation’s constitution, which recognizes religious freedom and the right of individuals to establish their family in accordance with their own religious beliefs and conscience.”

Based on experience in other countries, Padilla said legalization here would not necessarily lead to indiscriminate 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,” she said.

Padilla noted that legal restriction on abortion here is out-dated, having been lifted directly from the old Spanish Penal Code of 1870. However, she pointed out that in 1985, Spain—also a predominantly Catholic country like the Philippines—allowed abortion on certain grounds.

“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.”

She noted that other predominantly Catholic countries allow abortion including 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),” Padilla said.

She said as early as 2006, the United Nation’s Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) urged the Philippine government to “consider reviewing the laws relating to abortion” to reduce maternal mortality rate.

The reports said according to the World Health Organization, the Philippines has one of the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western Pacific Region, at 230 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to regional average of 82. –Roy Pelovello, Manila Standard Today