Pinays denied RH services—UN

An international human rights group denounced the Philippine government for denying the full range of reproductive health services for thousands of Filipino women, including universal and affordable modern contraceptives.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (U.N. CEDAW) said the Philippines is in a “human rights crisis” where tens of thousands of Filipino women are victimized every year, at least a thousand of them die from unsafe, often crude, procedures.

“The Philippine government was directly responsible for the crisis and for violating the rights of these women by failing to address the effects of the abortion ban,” according to the UN CEDAW.

“Criminalization of abortion has not prevented abortion in the Philippines, but it has made it extremely unsafe,” it said.

Nancy Northup, the center’s president, said in a statement that Manila “has created a dire human rights crisis” with hundreds of thousands of women resorting to unsafe abortion “to protect their health, their families and their livelihood. Yet, the government sits idly by, refusing to tackle the issue or reform the policies that exacerbate it.”

The group specifically criticizes the government for failing to prioritize women’s human rights over religious ideology and cultural stereotypes, which has led to widespread discrimination against women and hindered access to sexual and reproductive health information and services.

It also expressed concern about current funding restrictions on modern contraceptives in Manila City and called for the decriminalization of abortion in cases of rape, incest, when the health or life of the woman is at risk, and in cases of severe fetal impairments.

“Religious ideology and gender stereotypes should play no role in whether a woman can get the reproductive health care and information she needs,” she said.

“For decades, the Filipino government has denied millions of women the ability to control their fertility, health, and lives, and this report makes clear that this is a gross violation of women’s fundamental human rights.”

“The Filipino government must immediately work to enforce policies that guarantee women’s access to reproductive health services and recognize their right to safe and legal abortion.”

Despite passing the Reproductive Health Law in 2012, the Filipino government’s long-standing hostility towards modern contraception contributed to an estimated 610,000 illegal abortions in 2012, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

In November 2012, designated members from U.N. CEDAW traveled to the Philippines to conduct the inquiry after the Center for Reproductive Rights and other NGOs raised concerns over the human rights violations women in the country were facing mainly due to Executive Order 003, which effectively banned women’s access to modern contraceptives in Manila City. –Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard Today