sexandsensibilities.com

If we truly love our mothers,  let us prevent their dying in pregnancy and childbirth 

Statement of the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) on Mothers’ Day 2012 

On Sunday, the whole world celebrates Mothers’ Day in appreciation of the myriad contributions of mothers to families and society. Sadly, some 4,000 families belonging to the poorest and most disadvantaged, will be motherless this year, as thousands like them were the previous years. This sad reality is a testament to the lack of serious attention – beyond the rhetoric – given to government programs and social arrangements that would assure mothers’  surviving the critical act of giving life.

There is no mystery about the fact that pregnancy and childbirth – while not diseases – pose peril to some women, roughly 15% of the annual 3 million or so pregnancies every year. The Filipino adage about a pregnant woman having “one foot in the grave” is intuitively true.

Medical studies confirm that life-threatening complications can come unbidden especially during childbirth; potentially fatal complications like hemorrhage, hypertension, severe infection and obstruction. These frightening complications, however, are mostly treatable by simple medical interventions like intravenous fluids and medicines, blood transfusion and surgery.

So how come Filipino mothers continue to die at worrisome levels?

A comparison between the Philippine approaches and successful approaches in neighboring Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia reveal the following critical differences: the lack of adequate and adequately-trained midwives; the lack of adequate and adequately staffed and furnished emergency hospitals that function 24 hours for 7 days; the lack of a strong Family Planning program to reduce unintended pregnancy; and the lack of adequate public financing support for the poor.

All of these gaps require an orchestrated response, especially involving the DOH, local governments, PhilHealth, and private and public health professionals. It is a response that had been engendered in the Reproductive Health Bills which have been stalled in Congress for the past 11 years.

How do we love our mothers?

Indeed many, many ways. A first gift is the gift of life, programs to insure she has the means that will protect her before, during and after the delicate time of pregnancy and childbirth.

        

With black and purple ribbons tied in their arms during a press conference today, authors and supporters call on Congress to pave the way for the passage of the decade long pending Reproductive Health (RH) bill and make it see the light of day.

Ramon San Pascual, Executive Director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc. (PLCPD), expressed the collective dismay of various groups who strongly believe that enacting a comprehensive law on RH bill will give poor women access to much needed RH education and services and eventually will help elevate their health, economic and social status.

“The RH bill, which has been filed and re-filed since the 10^th Congress never got the chance to reach the voting period and see the light of day for our women,” said San Pascual. “RH supporters have witnessed how leaders of Congress succumbed to the whims of some bishops and Catholic leaders, thus continuing the delay of the bill,” he added.

San Pascual laments that RH continues to take a back seat particularly now that the President wants to pay primary attention to impeachment.   For a while Speaker Belmonte and Majority Floor Leader wanted to close the debate on RH bill this March, the month of women.   But the President thinks it’s better to do it in May since closing the debate before the Lenten season may antagonize the Bishops.

The RH bill has been debated for so long, all possible rational questions have been asked and repeatedly answered, there is no need to finish the long list of interpellators that never show up during their turn, he explained.  “Clearly, the anti-RH main strategy is to delay the process until we ran out of time, until election period sets in again,” he said.

According to San Pascual, the lives of women, particularly of poor women are endangered.  Recent Department of Health (DOH) report revealed that 50 mothers have died in a month and that is only in Manila. Yesterday, news of abandoned new-born babies in Quezon City and Davao came out in the media. Citing a report from UNICEF, lack of services and information about adolescent RH are fuelling the rise of teen pregnancies and hurting child survival rates, San Pascual asks, “what could be more glaring than that?  Clearly, we have a problem in reproductive health concerns of mothers, young people, among poor couples particularly.”

Congress has to pass the RH bill now, under this administration, before it becomes too late and that we end up deeply buried in problems related to health, economic and social status of women, he ended.

 For clarifications please contact, Vigie Benosa-Llorin at mobile no. 0918-2936786.       

This is a press release from the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc.

        

This article was originally published in Rappler. 

by Ana P.  Santos

MANILA, Philippines – “I want to be a scientist…” says Laura Jane Duran. Like most 15-year-olds, Duran dreams about what she would like to be when she grows up.

But Duran had to stop schooling when she got pregnant last year. Now, she lives with her husband, Jason, and his family in a shanty in Baseco, Tondo, Manila.

“I don’t know if I can still go back to school,” she says.

According to the National Demographic and Health Survey of 2008, in the Philippines, 10% of girls like Duran who are between the ages of 15-19, become pregnant with their first child.

Teen pregnancy rate is 53 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15-19, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says in its 2011 annual report.

The Philippines has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies among its neighbors and is well above the Asia Pacific average of 34 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15-19.

Little or no knowledge

Prior to getting pregnant, Duran says she did not know anything about birth control.

Today, when it comes to birth spacing and family planning options, she defers to her husband. “He said I should just go on the pill,” she says.

When asked which birth control method she preferred, she was surprised by the question and the option it offered her. She had to think for a moment before answering, “I want to get injectables because they said that it’s easy and will last for months.”

It may not be easy for Duran and her husband to get injectables though.

In the city of Manila, they are not available for free and with Jason’s inconsistent employment as a laborer, injectables, which cost an average of P100 or more, would not be affordable to the couple.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a US-based reproductive health research organization, contraceptive use has hardly increased in the Philippines over the past decade.

And as a result, women are having, on average, about one more child than they would like.

According to the 2010 Guttmacher report, “Facts on Barriers to Contraceptive Use in the Philippines,”  the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was the largest contributor to Philippine public contraceptive services for several decades.

In a bid for contraceptive self-reliance, USAID began to phase out support in 2004 and ended in 2008. The withdrawal of all of USAID’s contraceptive support has forced women to buy contraceptives at local pharmacies and bear the cost themselves.

The higher cost is equated with reduced or zero access, especially among young women like Duran.

No national legislation

In the absence of a national law to standardize and create universal access to reproductive health care services and appropriate budgets, local government units have drafted and implemented their own local policies.

In Manila, where Duran lives, an executive order banning contraceptives in the city of Manila was passed in 2000 by then Mayor Lito Atienza.

Atienza is also the former president of Pro-Life Philippines, a non-profit organization that promotes the exclusive use of natural birth control methods such as the rhythm method for family planning purposes.

The ordinance has long been a sore spot between the city of Manila and women’s and human rights groups who filed but lost a civil case versus Atienza. In addition, they have held dialogues with the Manila City Health Office and Lim, who succeeded Atienza.

Last November 2011, there seemed to be a reprieve when the Manila City Health Office signed EO 30 entitled, “Further Strengthening Family Planning Services,” a copy of which was obtained by Rappler (see ordinance below).

It clearly says that birth control choices are left up to the couple, as responsible parents.

Reading from the ordinance, Dr Rolinda Gante, chief of reproductive health of the Manila City Health Department, says, “Family planning [FP] is left to be the choice of the couple and our doctors are allowed to counsel and give advice on all FP methods.”

“But we will not be able to give patients supplies [condoms, pills] because the City will not use its funds to procure these,” Gante explains.

However, the city will be open to receiving donations from the Department of Health (DOH) and other NGOs.

This, says Gante, is already an improvement from the previous administration.

“At least now we can accept donations. Under Atienza, everything [regarding modern contraception] was forbidden,” she says.

Support without funds

The ordinance has not satisified women’s rights groups.

“The repeal of Atienza’s EO 003 was the hope and the expectation. We were hoping for funding, for support and collaboration with the city government,” says Dr Junice Melgar, executive order of Likhaan Women’s Health.

“The cudgels of providing for RH services will again fall on the NGOs when it should also be the responsibility of the local government to fund these initiatives. How can you say you support something, but are not willing to fund it?” asks Melgar.

Gante admits that while the ordinance is already more lenient, it does pose limitations.

“Even if we will allow counseling on modern contraception and can give out condoms and pills—provided that they were not bought using city funds—currently, we don’t have supplies. There have been no donations yet,” says Gante.

Services like vasectomies and tubal ligation will also be difficult for Manila residents to avail of. According to Gante, the doctors who were trained to perform vasectomy are all set to retire. No new doctors were trained during the 9-year term of Atienza (1998-2007).

The same is true for tubal ligations. The procedure requires mini-labs as a sterile location. These mini-labs were closed during Atienza’s administration.

Other health services that Manila offers its constituents are for free, says Gante.

“We offer free hospitalization and birthing services in all 6 of our district hospitals. We offer free medicine at all of our health centers. The price of pills and condoms is minimal compared to that,” she explains.

Better than nothing

“It’s a start,” says Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Etta Rosales, who sees the new ordinance as positive.

“This new ordinance shows that Mayor Lim allowed the rectification of EO 003. From here, we can introduce rights-based approaches to primary health care and RH,” Rosales says.

“Once they [Manila City government] see that these services are beneficial to their constituents, then they may become more receptive to other RH programs,” says Rosales.

During dialogues between CHR, a reproductive rights and health organization based in the University of the Philippines in Manila, women’s groups and the Manila City Health officials and Lim, CHR and ReproCen submitted proposed amendments to the prohibitive EO 003.

Admitting that the new executive order is not exactly what they had proposed during their discussions, Beth Pangalangan of ReproCen says, “It has fallen short of our expectations, but it’s better than nothing.”

But Pangalangan is quick to point out that the new ordinance doesn’t mean that the civil case of Lourdes Osil, et al. vs Mayor of Manila, is now all but forgotten.

Pursue the case

On the contrary, the civil case filed by 20 respondents in 2008 contesting the constitutionality of EO 003 will still be pursued, albeit in another court. 

“The rights of our litigants were still violated. We have exhausted all domestic remedies,” says Pangalangan, referring to the appeal filed before the Supreme Court, which was dismissed in 2008.

“We will file the motion at CEDAW [Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women] International Tribunal. While there is no retribution to be expected, there will be a lot of international pressure on our government to see EO 003 as a clear violation of the international treaties that the Philippines is a signatory of.”

“We hope this action will also stress the importance of the RH Bill. If passed into law, it would provide for national legislation that would override inconsistencies in implementation of RH and family planning ordinances at the municipality level,” Pangalangan says.

Addressing inconsistencies in RH policies just might spell the difference between Laura Jane Duran and her neighbor, Rosalie Cabinyan, who, similar to Duran, had her first child at 16.

Cabinyan ended up having 22 children, when she wanted only 3. -Rappler.com

        

A group of organizations led by women advocates working with grassroots communities all over the country is turning over more than a 100,000 signatures endorsing the immediate passage of the much delayed Reproductive Health (RH) bill to President Aquino during the RH leaders’ dialogue with P-Noy.  The original copies will also be turned over to RH authors Representatives Teddy Baguilat and Kimi Cojuangco and Susan Yap.

The turning over of signatures gathered by various organizations from different parts of the country and from the Democratic Socialist Women of thePhilippines’ (DSWP) online petition will form part of the culminating activity of the event dubbed “Occupy for RH goes to Malacanang.”

“RH Occupy goes to Malacanang” themed “P-Noy, Walisin ang Hadlang sa Matuwid na Daan, RH Bill Pagbotohan Na!” will be joined by more than 2,000 participants from the DSWP and Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) wearing purple and white carrying banners and various RH insignia.

The event will kick off with a march from FEU, Morayta. Participants will also be singing Christmas carols and making appropriate noise to call the attention of the public as they march their way to Mendiola.

Furthermore, RH leaders are set to have Multi-sectoral RH Advocates Dialogue with P-Noy from 10:30 to 11:30 AM.

WHAT:

RH Occupy goes to Malacañang

“P-Noy Walisin ang Hadlang sa Matuwid na Daan, RH Bill Pagbotohan na!”

WHEN:

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

9:00 AM to 12:00 NN

DETAILS:

The group will gather in front of the FEU Morayta from 8:30 AM.  Participants will then march to Mendiola while singing Christmas carols to attract public attention.

Participants will hold program in Mendiola until 12:00 NN while the more than 75 leaders will have a dialogue with and turn over of signatures to P-Noy at the Mabini Hall in Malacanang from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM.  After which, RH leaders will report the results of the dialogue to the Mendiola rally and hand-over the signatures to HOR RH authors.

For more information please contact Ms. Rhoda Avila at Mobile No. 0917-8855782.  

        

Sunday, Dec. 11, 530-10pm @ Occupy for RH Camp (SB Park, Batasan)

PreOccupied with Sex: a Night of Sexy Conversations, Games, and Music with

* Margarita Holmes,
* Ana Santos, &
* Carlos Celdran

ADMISSION IS FREE!

Also featuring:
* GeekFight with Paolo Jose Cruz

and musical performances by
* Tao Aves and
* Nar Cabico!

Bring food and drinks to share.
You’re welcome to spend the night! (Bring your own tent/sleeping bag.)

Learn more at RHbill.org

        

Hundreds of Reproductive Health advocates and legislators marched to the South Wing of Congress this afternoon to mark the first day of the Occupy for RH movement.

Carrying purple placards and chanting, “RH Delay, 11 deaths every day” and “RH Bill, sampung taon na, sobra na, tama na. (RH Bill: 10 years of waiting, enough is enough.”), protestors led by legislators Kaka Bag-ao, Walden Bello and Antonio Tinio tied purple ribbons on the gate of Congress and hoisted purple banners.

Inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, which now has a global following, Judy Miranda, Secretary General of Partido ng Mangagagwa, read from a prepared statement:

“As we mark 10 years since the first Reproductive Health Bill was written, we stand outside the gates of Congress frustrated that our voices have not been heard. For 10 long years, the Bill has suffered countless delays at the hands of the elected legislators who listen more to the bullying of the Catholic bishops than the cries of the poor.

We, as one people, have gathered outside these gates demanding an immediate vote on this life-saving Bill, and call on our Senators and members of Congress to listen to our collective voices rather than the whispers of the powerful few.”

“Starting today, tomorrow and until whenever, we will live here and camp out here until the RH bill is voted on and passed. It has been 10 years since the first RH Bill was introduced and it is still being discussed. There is nothing more to discuss.” added Bag-ao.

More than a decade

The Reproductive Health Bill, in its earliest version was known as the Population and Development Bill. It was first filed 16 years ago.  In succeeding Congresses, this was changed to the current version known as the Reproductive Health Bill. This 15^th Congress marks the decade since the bill has been discussed.

“We just keep on going back to old issues, asking the same questions which have all been asked and answered already. What we have seen the last three months are just delaying tactics.” said Akbayan Representative Bello, referring to anti-RH lawmakers like Juan Ponce Enrile who dragged interpellations with questions about when life begins and Vicente Sotto III who challenged the statistics that state that 11 mothers die everyday due to pregnancy-related deaths.

“RH is about rights. We are talking about rights; the right of every man and woman to plan their families. RH is about the rights of the youth to have access to information about RH.  It is the obligation of the State to provide these services to the general population. We are ready to see this fight through,” said Representative Luz Ilagan.

Recent surveys done by the Social Weather Station (SWS) show that 70% of the population favor the RH bill and think that Filipino families should be given the right to plan and space their families.

Urgent Needs Call for Desperate Measures

The past Arroyo Administration, acquiescing to Church pressure, supported only natural family planning methods.

During her 9-year presidency, social indicators for the Philippines made little or no improvement.

US-based reproductive health think tank, Guttmacher Institute revealed in their 2009 study  “Unmet Need for Contraception in the Philippines” that Filipino women are having more children than they want, especially among poor women.

A study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2010, estimates that 12.8 million children under the age of 15 are living in poverty.

“It is important that we get the RH Bill voted on and passed before the year ends and Congress breaks for Christmas break. Once we resume sessions again next year, legislators will start preparing the next election year,” said Elizabeth Angsioco, chairperson of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines.

“Yes, these are desperate measures. These are desperate times. We need this bill to be passed and we need it now.  We are going to stand by here until it does,” Dr. Junice  Melgar, executive director of Likhaan and Coordinator of the Steering Committee of the Occupy for RH Movement.

Other activities at the Occupy for RH Camp include teaching sessions. Upcoming activities include a Historical Walk of the RH Bill by Carlos Celdran and a talk on sexuality by Dr. Margie Holmes.

For information and daily schedule on Occupy for RH Activities may be found on http://rhbill.org/occupy.

        

It has been ten years since the first RH Bill, and after countless debates and delays we are no closer to a vote. The democratic process has stalled at the hands of time-wasting legislators and bullying bishops.

With mounting frustration we remind our public servants that for every day they delay the vote, Filipino families around the country lose their mothers. The time for delay is over. The time for a vote is now.

Starting tomorrow, November 21, RH Advocates from various organizations will occupy the park across the South Wing Gate of Congress, and launch a massive and sustained campaign to remind our Senators and Members of Congress of the urgency to vote on the Reproductive Health Bill before the year ends.

Pro-RH lawmakers, celebrities, artists, government officials, civil society and non-government groups, business, academe, youth, religious and non-religious sectors will show their support at this mass action, and advocates will camp out in front of the South Wing Gate for as long as it takes for their voices to be heard.

We urge you to join us, tomorrow and onwards, and lend your voice to a movement that will save Filipino lives. Various activities will be held at the camp and at the South Wing Gate, such as a noise barrage, cultural and solidarity nights, pickets, creative and symbolic protests, actions that will make our legislators listen.

For ten years we have been ignored, the cries of the People drowned out by the powerful few. But no more. Together we will stand, together we will shout, and together we will Occupy for RH till our legislators vote for RH now.

Here’s how you can support the movement:

• Visit the camp. Come to SB Bayan Park, right across the South Wing Gate of the House of Representatives. What any movement needs more than anything are people willing to give their time to the cause, if only to show up where it matters, when it matters, and the fight for the RH Bill matters now more than ever.
• Join the activities outside the South Wing Gate. Creative and forceful protests will be held to get the attention of our Legislators. Bring a flashy placard, stand with us, and let your voice be heard.
• Donate your time and other resources at camp. There will be fun activities for participants of all ages, teach-ins conducted by participating orgs, and community meals, and a booth to accept your donations in kind. The spirit of volunteerism is key in movements such as this, and one more helping hand is a step closer to a vote.
• Spread the word. Social media has the power to change countries if used for the benefit of issues that matter, and in recent times no issue has mattered more to the common Filipina than the RH Bill. Spread links and articles about the Occupy for RH movement in Facebook and Twitter, use the official Occupy for RH twibbon, and share videos and news reports of the camp with your friends and family. Go viral, and put the RH Bill in the minds of every Filipino.
• Call up your elected officials. If your elected Senator or member of Congress is for the Bill, give them a call or send them a letter of support. If they are against the Bill, let them know where you stand, and where more than 70% of their constituents stand – for the RH Bill and its immediate passage.
• Get your org involved. Below is a list of organizations that have expressed their support for the Occupy for RH movement. If your org is not in the list, call up your representative and let them know you would like to help. We especially encourage the youth and university organizations to participate in this movement, as this landmark Bill affects their futures most of all.
• If your org would like to coordinate with the Occupy for RH movement, contact Joy Salgado of Likhaan at 0915-4079894 and joys@likhaan.org, or Ellen San Gabriel also of Likhaan at 0916-6025203

A heartfelt thanks to the following organizations who support the Occupy for RH movement, and we look forward to seeing you there!

• AYNLA Int’l
• Akbayan
• American Chamber Foundation (AMCHAM)
• Amnesty International-Pilipinas!
• Bagong Henerasyon Foundation, Inc. (BHFI)
• C4RH
• Can’t Live in the Closet (CLIC)
• Creative Collective Center Inc. (CCCI)
• Damayang ng Maralitang Pilipinong Api (DAMPA)
• Demographic Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (DRDF)
• Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP)
• DKT Philippines
• EnGendeRights
• Family Planning Organization of the Phil. Inc. (FPOP)
• FDC
• Filipino Freethinkers
• Friendly Care Foundation, Inc
• Health Action Information Network (HAIN)
• Institute for Social Studies and Action (ISSA)
• Integrated Maternal Child Care Services and Development, Inc. (IMCCSDI)
• KAKAMMPI
• Kababaihan Laban sa Karahasan (KALAKASAN)
• Kaisa Ka!
• KPML Nat’l
• Leadership Development Program for Mobilizing Reproductive Health (LDM Philippines)
• Likhaan
• Makalaya
• Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM)
• Partido Manggagawa
• Philippine Federation for Natural Family Planning (PFNFP)
• Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development, Foundation
• Philippine NGO Council on Population, Health and Welfare, Inc., (PNGOC)
• Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)
• Pinagsamang Lakas ng Kababaihan at Kabataan (PILAKK)
• PKKK
• Population Services Pilipinas, Inc. (PSPI)
• ReachOut Foundation International
• Remedios AIDS Foundation (RAF)
• Reproductive Health, Rights and Ethics Center for Studies and Training (REPROCEN)
• RH AGENDA
• Sarilaya
• Save the Children Federation Inc. (SCF)
• Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (SALIGAN)
• Sex and Sensibilities
• The Forum for Family Planning
• Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP)
• UCWS
• Women’s Health Care Foundation (WHCF)
• Women Health Philippines (WHP)
• Women’s Media Circle (WoMedia)
• Women’s Legal Education, Advocacy and Defense Foundation, Inc. (WomenLEAD)
• Zone One Tondo Org. (ZOTO)

        

A group of women advocates pushing for the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill is challenging the leadership of the House of Representatives (HOR) to put the bill to a vote before Congress goes on another break this December.

According to Elizabeth Angsioco, National Chairperson of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP), a group doing daily mass mobilizations at the HOR South Entrance gate, news saying that voting on the RH bill might take place in June 2012 means that HOR leadership is reneging on its word that the bill will be voted on before the year ends.

Angsioco pointed out that HOR leadership has repeatedly made public statements saying that the HOR will vote on the RH bill before its Christmas break.  “There is no point to further delay the vote because after the more than 10 years of debates, all arguments have been exhaustively discussed and no new ones are emerging,” Angsioco laments.  “In fact, questions have been repetitive with some lawmakers even raising issues unfit for discussion in the halls of Congress,” she said.

She emphasized that for every day that Congress postpones voting, more and more mothers die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications and results in more orphaned families.  “We do not understand how our lawmakers, tasked to address our people’s needs, can close their eyes on this very real problem. In their hands lies the solution to stop mothers’ deaths.  It is as if mothers are unimportant to them,” Angsioco further said.

RH advocates are dismayed that HOR leadership seems to listen more to the few oppositors instead of giving weight to what the majority of the Filipino people wants – a comprehensive and pro-poor RH law.

Angsioco challenged the HOR leaders to implement its rules so the bill can be voted on immediately. “With political will, the so-called 20 interpellators can finish if repetitive questions will not be allowed and if they keep to their one-hour per interpellator rule,” she added.

To anti-RH lawmakers, Angsioco has this to say, “If they really have the numbers as they claim, then they should join us in calling for the vote now. There really is no reason for them not to.”

According to Angsioco, advocates are beginning to lose patience, “We are ready to do whatever it takes to pressure the HOR to take the vote this December. Yesterday, more than 500 of us braved the strong rains and continued our mass action to show Congress that we mean business. We will not stop and mass actions will be bigger until they listen to us. What we want is for Congress to fulfill its responsibility  – vote on the RH bill now,” she ended.xxx

        

By ANA SANTOS

After affluent Alabang, local politicians shut down access of women in poor communities to contraceptives

Balanga, Bataan — Maricel Sakdalan, 27, is nervous. Soft-spoken and shy, she shuffles uncomfortably in her seat, visibly anxious. She doesn’t know if she’s pregnant or not.

She and her husband already have three children and with his measly earnings, they cannot afford another one.

“My husband is a fisherman and does not have a steady income. Sometimes he can earn as much as P500 a day. On a bad day, [he earns] only P100, and on a really bad day, nothing. And me, I am just a housewife.”

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For her contraception needs, Maricel would go to the local health clinic in Balanga, Bataan for a hormonal injection that would prevent her from getting pregnant for at least three months.

But Maricel has not been able to get a shot since August. She was told that the local health clinic could no longer administer injectables since an ordinance was passed banning all forms of modern contraception in seven barangays in Bataan, including her own.

Desperate, Maricel went to the local drugstore to buy birth control pills or condoms, but found none for sale. Commercial drug stores have also been banned from selling them.

Banning contraceptives

In March of this year, Barangay Ordinance No. 3, which banned the sale of modern forms of contraception, was passed in seven barangays in Bataan: Puerto Rivas Itaas, Puerto Rivas Ibaba, Puerto Rivas Lote, Tortugas, Cupang Proper, Cupang West and Tanato.

The ordinance which was written in Filipino is entitled “Protection of the Life and Safety of the Unborn”.

Newsbreak was able to secure a copy of the Tortugas ordinance, which explicitly defines abortifacients as any device, medication or substance that harms, puts in harm’s way or causes the death of an unborn child. The ordinance further lists IUDs and hormonal contraception like birth control pills as abortifacients.

It also states that condoms promote promiscuity among the youth and infidelity among married couples.

Persons engaged in the promotion, sale, prescription, advertisement of these forms of contraception are going to be fined between P200-P400 for a first offense and a maximum of P1,000 for their third offense.

If a commercial establishment violates any of the provisions, the president or chief executive officer will be made to pay the fine. In addition, their barangay permit to operate will be revoked.

Furthermore, it states that barangay budgets will be spent only on promoting natural family planning methods among those who are married or those who are planning to get married.

‘Nothing to give’

Dominga Manalang, a health worker who has worked in Balanga since the 1970s, says that because of the ban, they have had to curtail their services.

“It was our standard practice to reach out to the women in the community with four or more children and proactively educate them about family planning options,” explains Manalang.

“There are many women asking us for contraceptives, but we have nothing to give them. We have always taught all forms of family planning and left it up to the women to decide what method is right for them,” she adds.

But many women would chose modern forms of contraception because “periodic abstinence is not advisable for some women who don’t see their husbands regularly or whose husbands will not take no for an answer when it comes to sex.”

Manalang says that even without the ban, contraceptive supplies have been erratic. The ban has only further exacerbated the problem.

And it is women like Maricel who pay the price.

According to Maricel, she and her husband had originally wanted to have only two children. “But I would sometimes go to the clinic when it’s time for my injection only to be told there is no supply. I think that’s why I got pregnant with the youngest who is three years old.”

Now, there are no supplies at all, and as Maricel found out, no supplies even to be bought.

Unmet need

According to the National Statistical Coordination Board, poor families are larger than non-poor families by more than one member. On the average, 21 out of every 100 poor families had at least 7 members in 2003 compared to only 6 among the non-poor.

Poor women end up having more children than they want or afford. In contrast, their wealthier counterparts are able to achieve their fertility goals.

A study entitled, “Unmet Need for Contraception in the Philippines” done by US-based reproductive health think tank, Guttmacher Institute found that Filipino women are having more children than they want, especially among poor women.

Guttmacher works to advance sexual and reproductive health through research and policy analysis. In the case of the Philippines, Guttmacher states that in 2008, an estimated 1.3 million pregnancies were unintended and these occurred among women who were not using any contraceptive method at all.

The most commonly used methods of contraception were the pill and female sterilization, accounting for more than two-thirds of all contraceptive use in the Philippines. Natural family planning methods were least used.

Aggressive misinformation

Adoracion dela Pena is a Bataan-based field officer of Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP), a national federation of grassroots community women’s organizations working towards the passage of the RH Bill and the advancement of women’s rights.

Dela Pena shared with Newsbreak the results of a series of interviews with barangay officers (kagawad). Dela Pena found that barangay officers from the seven barangays were asked by the city government to attend a seminar about reproductive health. During the seminar, they were shown videos of babies being aborted, and were told that this is a result of contraception like hormonal birth control pills and IUDs.

They were made to understand that if they are against abortion, they should sign the ordinance. Then they were told about the barangay’s plans to pass an ordinance to prevent this from happening.

DSWP Field Officer Dory dela Pena conducts (2nd from left) during an outreach talk in Bataan

Barangay Puerto Rivas official Angol Diaz was one of the barangay officials interviewed by dela Pena. Diaz said that he just signed the ordinance without really understanding what it was about because he was told that it was an urgent bill that needed to be passed.

In an interview withNewsbreak, barangay official Wilfredo Reyes admitted that he had not even read the entire ordinance but still signed it, not being fully aware of its implications.

Balanga Mayor Joet Garcia was not available for comment on the issue, but Mayor Joel Payumo of Dinalupihan of a neighboring municipality who supported the passage of the barangay ordinance, told Newsbreak in a telephone interview: “Our religious beliefs were factored in drafting this ordinance. That was more important. It is the responsibility of parents to plan for their families. Local government funds are best spent and kept elsewhere [rather than family planning]. Anyway, they are free to buy their choice of contraceptives from other places, and can easily do so. Just not in our part of Bataan.”

The Alabang experience

The ordinance is very similar to one that was passed in the affluent community of Ayala Alabang at the beginning of the year.

In that case, condoms could not be purchased without a prescription. Residents led by former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral, Lea Salonga and Senator Pia Cayetano mobilized protests, calling it an infraction of their right to choice and a clear invasion of their privacy.

The ordinance was eventually overturned. But it may not be as simple for Bataan.

Elizabeth Angsioco, chair of the DSWP, explains: “The communities in Bataan are small fishing communities. These are simple people who are scared to question this. Plus, it is the city government itself pushing for its implementation, which has far reaching consequences. They can, for example, impose such things withdrawing your business license if you sell condoms.”

“This really highlights the importance of the Reproductive Health Bill. Without national legislation, RH policies will remain to be based on the personal beliefs and whims of those in power rather than the good of their constituents.”

And unlike Alabang, there has been no such uproar in Bataan simply because the residents are scared. “In the absence of a critical mass who are willing to stand up to this ordinance, the issue has not been getting enough attention,” says Angsioco.

And women like Maricel will continue to anxiously wait, their fear about an feeding and raising another child not getting the attention it deserves.

Editor’s Note: The author is founder of sexandsensibilities.com. This is part of a research project with Newsbreak.