The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (Republic Act 10354), also known as the RH law, guarantees universal access to methods on contraception, fertility control, sex education and maternal care. It requires government health centers to provide condoms and birth-control pills for free, as well as for public-health workers to undergo family- planning training.
The RH bill was finally signed into law by President Benigno S. Aquino III in December 2012, after languishing for 15 years in the legislature. The full implementation of the RH law was supposed to have taken place by November 30, 2015, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had certified that the artificial contraceptives to be distributed by the Department of Health are nonabortifacient.
On May 13, 2015, however, the Alliance for the Family Foundation Phils. Inc. (Alfi) petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the sale of contraceptive drugs and devices that have abortifacient attributes.
On June 17, 2015, the SC granted the Alfi petition and issued a TRO stopping the DOH and the FDA from “granting any and all pending applications for registration and/or recertification for reproductive products and supplies, including contraceptive drugs and devices.”
Later, the SC issued another TRO, stopping the two agencies from “procuring, selling, distributing, dispensing or administering, advertising and promoting the hormonal contraceptive implants.”
In his first State of the Nation Address on July 25, 2016, President Duterte promised to implement the RH law to curb population growth and assist the poor in family planning.
Since no less than the President himself wants the full implementation of the RH law, four non-governmental organizations and a legislative committee are now asking the SC to rescind an August 24, 2016, order of its Second Division that would deprive Filipinos of access to contraceptive drugs and devices provided by the government or those available in the market. They also asked the SC to recognize them as interveners in the case.
The petitioners-interveners argued that the assailed order of the SC Second Division “undermines the constitutionally guaranteed right to life and health of Filipinos and impedes on the rights of women embodied in RA 9710, or the Magna Carta for Women, and RA 10354, or the RH law.”
Those asking to be recognized as interveners are the Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc.; Filipino Catholic Voices for Reproductive Health; Philippine NGO Council on Population Health and Welfare; Philippine Center for Population and Development; Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc.; and the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines.
The petitioners are correct in saying that depriving Filipinos of access to government and privately available reproductive-health services and contraceptive options would result to unwanted pregnancies; endanger the lives of mothers; result to untrammeled population growth in the country; and perpetuate poverty in the country.
The SC Second Division order, after all, seems to have “forgotten women, especially mothers, while depriving them of their right to choose when to get pregnant.”
According to the petitioners, the decision will have the effect of depriving Filipinos access to contraceptive drugs and devices because the FDA is bound to hear all oppositions to such products, at present already numbering 77.
“The legal and practical implications of the decision are in direct contravention of the policies set forth in our Constitution and laws, as well as the internationally recognized right to universal access to health-care services, in connection with the right to health, gender equality, women empowerment and responsible parenthood,” they said.
The petitioners warned that “if there is limited access to safe, high-quality health services, women are more vulnerable to a host of reproductive-health complications, which may include death or injury during childbirth, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, of which 1.9 million were recorded in 2008 alone by the Guttmacher Center for Population Research Innovation.
The 1.9 million unwanted pregnancies “resulted mainly in either unplanned births or unsafe abortions, which, along with other factors, indicated how difficult it is for a Filipino woman to meet her fertility desires,” they said. The interveners assert the order also violates Principle 8 of the International Conference on Population and Development Program (ICPDP) of action, which provides that nations should ensure that “reproductive health-care programs should provide the widest range of services without any form of coercion.”
“All couples and individuals have the basic right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children, and to have the information, education and means to do so,” the ICPDP said.
Will the Supreme Court heed their petition? We certainly hope so.
E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com