Reproductive Health

INSTEAD of my column, I have reproduced below “The Catholic Vote, Anyone?,” an essay written by Ramon D. Echica, PhD. The opinions expressed in this essay assume great significance to me because he is Dean of Studies of San Carlos Major Seminary in Cebu. In other words, he is a priest. He received his doctorate…

THE PHILIPPINES has some of the best population ratios, Fitch Ratings said, in contrast to advanced economies facing the prospect of reduced labor forces. “In advanced economies, the elderly are expected to make up a rapidly rising proportion of their populations over the next 30 to 40 years,” the debt watcher said in a report…

A controversial birth control law came into effect in the Philippines Thursday after more than a decade of bitter opposition from the Catholic church, in an historic move welcomed by many women.

Dear PAO, I recently found out that I have a condition, which requires the removal of both of my ovaries. My doctor advised me to take several weeks off from my job to recuperate.

MANILA, Philippines – The controversial Reproductive Health Law is set to take effect this week after President Benigno Aquino III signed the measure last Dec. 21.

The Philippine population will grow by 85 percent in the next six decades, according to a forecast of a United Kingdom-based international accounting and finance firm.

(CNN) — Lawmakers on Monday approved legislation calling for government-funded contraception and sex education classes in the Philippines, a first in the heavily Catholic nation.

With the deadline drawing near, the Philippines remains far from achieving the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) of reducing maternal mortality rate and achieving universal access to reproductive health. “We have not made any headway in reducing maternal mortality in the Philippines,” admitted former Health secretary Esperanza Cabral during the Secretary’s Cup on Maternal…

Many countries have ratified ILO conventions on maternity protection, but pregnant women still face workplace discrimination. Marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25), the ILO publishes guidelines on how to implement maternity protection policies.

Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) – Let’s talk about sex. “Do we talk about sex? How many of us are openly talking about it,” Dame Carole Kidu, a member of the High Level Task Force for International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), asked members of parliament and civil society organisations from 13 Asian countries in…

MANILA, Philippines — Mobile phones will scale up the initiatives to monitor maternal and child health care in eight poor municipalities in the Philippines, an official from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said.

FAMILY PLANNING makes good business sense, both for employees and employers. The Reproductive Health (RH) bill is pro-poor, pro-women, and pro-growth. If I were to prepare a national budget for 65, instead of 95, million Filipinos, I would have a budget surplus rather than a budget deficit, with a larger share of the budget going…

GENEVA – Around 222 million women in developing countries have an unmet need for voluntary family planning, a United Nations report said Wednesday. Making voluntary family planning available to everyone would reduce maternal and newborn health care costs by 11.3 billion US dollars annually, according to the “State of World Population 2012” report released by…

NEW YORK – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Wednesday called family planning a human right, and emphasized the economic benefits family planning can have for the greater society.

Vice President Jejomar Binay pushed for improved women’s health services and expressed dismay over the lack of health workers and health facilities in rural areas. “In the more remote areas of the country, there are not enough health workers to fulfill their noble duty.

MANILA, Philippines – The reproductive health bill will only be given “second priority” now that the Senate is aiming to pass both the proposed 2013 national budget and sin tax reform bill before the year ends. “Both the budget and the sin tax are priority all over other legislation,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told…

MANILA, Philippines – Health Secretary Enrique Ona has underscored the vital role played by the private sector in helping the government provide reproductive health (RH) services, saying that six million Filipino women have unmet needs for modern family planning (FP) services, either for spacing or limiting their children.

MANILA, Philippines – Three medical advances are now raising the hope that there will be a cure in the future for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) which has infected 34.2 million people across the globe, an official of the Department of Health (DOH) said.

A proposed new version of the Reproductive Health bill was introduced at the House of Representatives last week in an effort to fast track the passage of the measure. Below is a copy of this proposed version, with additional words bold-faced and deleted portions placed inside braces.

MANILA, Philippines – The compromise reproductive health (RH) bill that the House leadership presented last Wednesday “is not a watered-down version,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, a principal author of the measure, said yesterday.

A “watered-down” reproductive health (RH) bill would be acceptable to some of its supporters as long as it achieves its purpose of swaying opponents and ambivalent lawmakers into backing the controversial measure, according to a representative.

THE Philippines is now the certified world record holder for the “largest prenatal class in multiple venues.” The event so crowned by the London-based Guinness World Records was the March 10, 2012, “Buntis Day” organized by the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (POGS), with support from local governments, the Department of Health (DOH) and Biofemme,…

CHICAGO (AP) — Shots that protect against cervical cancer do not make girls promiscuous, according to the first study to compare medical records for vaccinated and unvaccinated girls.

Of great significance is the recent statement of US State Secretary Hillary Clinton during the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population Development categorically declaring that the “centerpiece” of the US Foreign policy is “Global Health Initiative.” She said that $63 billion will be spent by the US “to prevent pregnancies and to improve…

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, October 10 (PIA) – Teenage pregnancy has increased by 65 per cent over a 10-year period from 2000-2010 despite the decline in teen marriages. The issue will be highlighted during the observance of the International Day of the Girl Child on Thursday October 11. Lead organizations are the United Nations Population Fund…

(Updated 1:45 p.m.) In a rare and caustic breach of intercollegiate collegiality, the University of Santo Tomas’ student publication, The Varsitarian, attacked in an editorial two other elite Catholic universities, Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle, for their professors’ support of the Reproductive Health bill, and for the tolerance of their administrators towards their…

MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III is squaring off against his country’s powerful Catholic church in a bid to give people free access to the means to limit the size of their families. The predominately Catholic country has one of Asia’s fastest-growing populations together with significant levels of chronic poverty. While neighbors have accelerated…

MANILA – The Philippines is likely to meet the Millennium Development Goal on reducing the number of children dying before reaching age of five by 2015, the National Statistics Office said on Monday.

MANILA, Philippines – Only six percent of those who engage in sex use condoms as a form of contraception, which is one of the reasons why cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in the country continue to rise, according to Health Secretary Enrique Ona.

MANILA, Philippines—While lawmakers continue to debate whether to pass the reproductive health bill, the Department of Health (DOH) has been granted P537 million for the purchase of condoms and other contraceptives in its budget for next year.