Atty. Clara Rita “Claire” Padilla, spokesperson of PINSAN wrote an article to list the reasons why we need to decriminalize abortion:
“The restrictive, colonial, and archaic 1930 Revised Penal Code abortion law has never reduced the number of women inducing abortion. It has only endangered the lives of hundreds of thousands of Filipino women who have made personal decisions to induce abortion for various reasons (economic – 75%; too young, under 25 years old – 46%; health reasons – one-third; rape – 13%) but are unable to access safe abortion services.
No restrictive law nor religious dogma has stopped these Filipino women, especially poor women with at least 3 children, to end their unintended or unwanted pregnancies.”
7 reasons why we need to decriminalize abortion:
- To save women’s lives and prevent disability from unsafe abortion complications
- To reduce maternal deaths related to unintended/unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions during humanitarian crises
- To repeal a discriminatory law against women and eliminate harmful stigma against women
- To provide incest and rape survivors and sexually exploited women the opportunity to discontinue unwanted pregnancies
- To address the social impact of adolescent pregnancies
- To uphold women’s fundamental human rights and confirm that women’s rights prevail over prenatal protection
- To continue the historical fight to uphold women’s rights to equality and non-discrimination and respond to the outstanding clamor to pass the bill into law
Read the full article to know more about why we need to decriminalize abortion.
It’s time to decriminalize abortion
Every minute counts to save the lives and health of Filipino women who are denied their right to basic health care.
We believe it is high time the Philippine government decriminalize our antiquated and restrictive law on abortion, in compliance with its international human rights obligations and women’s right to life, health, equality, equal protection of the law, privacy and bodily autonomy, and against torture.
#SaveWomensLives
#DecriminalizeAbortionNow