Women farmers most affected by lack of maternal health care

MANILA, Philippines – Women farmers and fisherfolk are the worst hit in terms of lack of maternal health care and infant mortality and should be given a chance for a better future through a reproductive health (RH) law, a female party-list lawmaker said yesterday.

AAMBIS-OWA party-list Rep. Sharon Garin reiterated her firm support for the RH bill “in unity with the multitude of Filipino women farmers and fishers who are doubly marginalized as they belong to the three poorest basic sectors in the country.”

Garin is a member of the so-called “Soul Sisters for RH” composed of female lawmakers strongly lobbying for the passage of House Bill 4244 or the RH bill.

Other Soul Sisters include Representatives Kimi Cojuangco, Bernadette Herrera-Dy, Sandy Ocampo, Emmeline Aglipay, Josephine Lacson-Noel and Abigail Faye Ferriol.

She said her resolve to support the RH bill grows stronger every time she visits the countryside and sees for herself the unfortunate plight of women in agriculture who she said are trapped in destitution, unaware of their reproductive rights and without access to reproductive health care service.

“Our women farmers and fishers belong to the three poorest basic sectors of our society. Firstly, they belong to the women sector, which has the largest number of poor population at around 12 million with a poverty incidence of 30 percent. Secondly, they are either farmers or fisherfolk, both having the highest poverty incidence at 49 percent and 44 percent, respectively,” Garin said.

She said many mothers in farming and fishing communities in the country do not undergo safe pregnancies and deliveries because of lack of information, unavailability of necessary health services, and limited financial resources.

“I go around farming and fishing communities and attest to the palpable need for a national policy on reproductive health care primarily for the poor. One time, I met a 38-year-old mother pregnant with her ninth child. I asked her if she knows about family planning. She just gave me a blank stare and shook her head,” Garin said.

“Another time, I met a woman farmer who relayed to me that she gave birth in a tricycle on her way to the health center in another town because they have no ready access to midwives and other health workers in their area. These are but some of the lamentable situations that poor rural women have to contend with,” she said.

She said as a representative of small and marginalized farmers, it is incumbent upon her to take the cudgels for all women and their families, especially those in the agricultural sector, to assert their basic right to adequate reproductive health services with emphasis on availability, accessibility and affordability.

“Rich women can access and afford reproductive health services any time and any place. If they need contraceptives, they can just go to the drugstore and buy as much as they can. They decide when they can and will have children. Simply put, they have power over their reproductive health. But poor women do not have such power, because they do not have information on or access to reproductive health services,” Garin said.

“This is where the state should get involved. Give them the right to choose if they want to avail of reproductive health care or not; give them the access should they go for it; give them even just a shot at living a quality life,” she said.

She said it is ironic that families that cannot afford to have many children are those that do have more children. And this normally results to malnourished and neglected children; children doing hard labor in the farms; and even children being sent off to live with other families, she said.

Garin said that if the government informs families about responsible parenthood, it will empower the poorest parents on how to have quality life for their families and, essentially, it will also uphold women’s and children’s rights. –Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star)