‘Last big push’ for the Reproductive Health Bill

The phrase “last big push” graphically denotes a woman’s pushing a baby out of her womb. It is, too, the apt title of a forum held in Cebu City pushing for the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill that is pending in the Senate and the House. The initiative was organized by the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP) and the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc. (PLCPD) with over 100 leaders of the academe, people’s organizations, barangay officials, students and youth in attendance.

PLCPD Executive Director Ramon San Pascual and DSWP national chair Elisabeth Angsioco and lawyer Romeo Cabarde, convenor for Mindanao Youth Task Force on RH, spoke about the urgency of having the bill passed at the forum.

Pushing for the passage of an RH law has been the sponsoring legislators’ task, convinced that they are that its approval in both Houses and its signing by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo must be made by June 4, before the end of the 14th Congress. Rep. Edcel C. Lagman gave up his chairmanship of the powerful House appropriations committee to devote his time to promoting RH Bill 5043 of which he is the principal author. Senator Rodolfo Biazon, author of the Senate version (SB 3122) has been speaking about RH before co-legislators, and civic and women’s organizations.

Speaking of women’s organizations, the candlelight ceremonies held the other night in Quezon City and other urban centers highlighted women’s urging for the passage of the bill.

Pushing for RH legislation is The Forum for Family Planning and Development, Inc. led by its president, Ben de Leon. It has dialogues with media representatives particularly about Social Weather Station surveys showing favorable responses in Manila and Paranaque towards having an RH law. The UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) has convened meetings with RH champions, pushing for the meeting of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which want to see a decrease in maternal mortality rates by 2015. Forums include that held by Bulong Pulungan sa Sofitel, which recently had Ramon San Pascual and Dr. Junice Melgar of LIKHAAN, a women’s group, as speakers.

The international community has voiced its support for the bill. Alistair MacDonald, head of the Delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines, opined that it is essential for the Philippine government to be more supportive of citizens’ needs in relation to reproductive health and devote more resources to making effective reproductive health services accessible to all. He said at a UNFPA-sponsored meeting of RH Champions: “(The provision) of effective and accessible RH services is a responsibility of the State . . . because all 90 million people of the Philippines hope to have a future outside poverty, a future where eight million Filipinos do not have to emigrate to seek the employment opportunities that their own country cannot offer them.”

Congressman Lagman, ever hopeful of the bill’s passage said at the UNFPA meeting, however, that at the time of the meeting, two developments in the House would affect the passage of the measure – the “unbelievable” focus on Charter change, and the entry of more party list representatives. The lack of quorum in House sessions as well as other distractive topics can certainly put aside discussion of the bill, and prevent voting on its passage.

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Although the RH bill sponsors would cite the possibility of the bill’s approval, anti-bill legislators and those who are still not sure of voting for it, look at the measure as anti-women and anti-poor. Church and conservative groups claim the bill seeks legalization of abortion, and encourages promiscuity through sex education in school.

A reproductive health act, according to Lagman, promotes information on and access to both natural and modern family planning methods which are medically safe and legally permissible. They assure an enabling environment where women and couples have the freedom of informed choice on the mode of family planning they want to adopt based on their needs, personal convictions and religious beliefs. It calls for reproductive health education in an age-appropriate manner, with core subjects including responsible parenthood, family planning methods, proscription and hazards of abortion, reproductive health and sexual rights, abstinence before marriage, and responsible sexuality.

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Hopes are high that the President will sign the bill after its passage in Congress.

UNFPA statistics show that every year almost 500,000 lives are lost around the world due to maternity-related causes, and that 99 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries, and almost all of them are preventable.

In the Philippines, 3.1 million pregnancies occur every year, half of them unintended, one-third (473,000) end in abortions. Eleven mothers die of pregnancy-related causes every day, most of them preventable. Among the leading direct causes of maternal deaths are post-partum hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, abortion-related complications and obstructive labor.

Only 21.6 percent of all Filipino women of reproductive age group are using the modern method of contraception, 68.4 percent are not currently using any method, and 9.9 percent are using the traditional method. Approximately 85 percent of those not using any method become pregnant within the year. Those using traditional methods have extremely high rates of unintended pregnancy per year.

Reproductive health, states UNFPA, is a universal human right, and RH programs and services could comprehensively provide life-saving interventions to save the lives of mothers, newborn and children, address infertility problems of childless couples, manage reproductive tract infections and malignancies, and provide access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning and prevent abortion.

Young children born less than 18 months apart are 2.44 times more likely to die than those born three or more years apart. Around 25 to 40 percent of maternal deaths (and 30 times more on maternal morbidities) could be eliminated if unplanned and unwanted pregnancies were prevented through family planning and child deaths by 30 percent with appropriate spacing.

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Family planning methods are safe, they are tested and certified by the World Health Organization before they are adapted and promoted all over the world. They are not abortifacients. Modern contraceptive use can potentially reduce abortions by almost 89 percent.

The RH bills pending in Congress explicitly state that they are not espousing abortion.

They emphasize that couples must decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children to ensure planned and happy families.

This columnist is helping make that “last big push.” –Domini M. Torrevillas, Philippine Star