The battle for reproductive rights in the Philippines has had more than its share of ups and downs. Unfortunately, the right of Filipino couples to control their fertility has recently been dealt a huge blow.
Three years ago reproductive health advocates rejoiced in the fact that after nearly two decades of struggle, the Reproductive Health Bill was finally passed into law. Almost immediately, the law was held hostage by a stop order from the Supreme Court as they reviewed the constitutionality of the law. Two years ago they ruled the law constitutional, and allowed it to proceed. In late 2015, the Supreme Court once again issued a stop order as they reviewed whether or not the hormonal implant, Implanon, is an abortifacient (this after the Food and Drug Administration had already said it is not).
Then, earlier this week, news broke that the Department of Health’s 2016 budget does not include any allocation for the procurement of family planning commodities such as birth control pills, injectables, IUDs or condoms.
This means that the right of Filipinos, particularly poor Filipinos, to access free contraceptives from government health centers will be denied. Even women and couples who are in the 4Ps program will not be able to access free contraceptives.
This action by the Senate, executed during a bicameral meeting in late 2015, directly contravenes the RH Law. As a friend lamented on Facebook, “leave it to our politicians to break the law themselves.”
This omission in the budget won’t change anything for middle to upper income Filipinos but will directly affect the millions of Filipinos with low income or living in poverty who rely on free contraceptives from health centers in order to control their fertility. As Health Secretary Dr. Janette Garin, noted in an interview, this has serious repercussions for poor families, including the inability to support the education of older children because of unplanned new babies that families cannot afford.
Most seriously, the inability of women to control their fertility will lead to an increase of the number of women who die of preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. It will also most certainly lead to a rise in (illegal) abortions.
The lack of contraceptives will also have repercussions on malnutrition and other morbidity rates of the country. Women with unplanned pregnancies usually have not been taking prenatal vitamins and often do not access prenatal care, leading to negative birth outcomes.
Dr. Garin noted that the DOH will be dependent once again on donors for funds for contraceptives. Based on my experience fundraising for Roots of Health, this will be a bigger problem now than in years past. With the passage of the RH Law, most RH donors checked the Philippines off their list of concerns, and are now funneling support to countries with greater RH needs. The irony of course is that the Law has not been properly implemented and it will be largely ineffectual in 2016.
The lack of budget will also put a huge strain on Roots of Health’s operations. We currently meet the contraceptive needs of about 1,200 underserved women in Puerto Princesa. When the thousands of women who normally get their contraceptives from government health centers find that they are unable to, many will come to us. We want to support all the women we can, but our resources are also limited.
The fact that a few politicians are sabotaging the law is something that we should fight. We must raise this issue into the national debate ahead of the May elections, and hold politicians accountable. They must restore and allocate funding to the RH Law. Women and children’s lives depend on it.