Read PINSAN’s statement urging Congress to pass the proposed bill to decriminalize abortion and why this bill will save hundreds of thousands of Filipino women from deaths and complications resulting from the lack of safe abortion in the Philippines.
The bill aims to save hundreds of thousands of Filipino women from deaths and complications resulting from the lack of safe abortion in the Philippines.
MANILA, Philippines — Women dying from the lack of access to safe abortion is a public health emergency we should all care about.
Unfortunately, this fact has been buried under decades-worth of misinformation.
Every year on September 28, the world celebrates “International Safe Abortion Day” to remind us of women’s right to access safe and legal abortion.
While governments around the world have almost unanimously removed abortion restrictions in their respective countries, the Philippines has not followed suit and remains to contend with its restrictive abortion law.
In the Philippines, our restrictive abortion law has not stopped women from inducing abortions but has only forced women to seek out unsafe methods to end their pregnancies.
These women are at risk of dying when they induce abortion unsafely in the following ways: 1) relying on persons lacking the necessary skills, 2) being in an environment not confirming to minimal medical standards, 3) using tablets without access to proper information or to trained health providers, 4) inserting foreign objects.
Because of our country’s restrictive abortion law, around 610,000 Filipino women were estimated to have induced abortions in 2012 alone— with at least three women dying each day and 100,000 others hospitalized due to complications.
All these can be prevented if women could openly access safe medical abortion, without stigma or discrimination. How can this be done? By decriminalizing abortion.
Decriminalizing abortion
In an effort to save women’s lives, the Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN) is proposing a bill to decriminalize abortion in the Philippines. Atty Clara Rita Padilla initiated the drafting of the bill — “Act Decriminalizing Induced Abortion to Save the Lives of Women, Girls, and Persons of Diverse Gender Identities, Amending Article 256-259 of the Revised Penal Code.”
PINSAN is urging members of the Congress to heed the calls of women’s rights advocates — including women rights organizations, public health advocates, members of the academe, and young people — to decriminalize abortion to save women’s lives.
This bill when passed into law will provide access to safe abortion and avert maternal deaths resulting from unsafe abortion complications.
“The restrictive, colonial, and antiquated 1930 Revised Penal Code abortion law never reduced the number of women inducing abortion,” said Padilla. “It has only endangered the lives of hundreds of thousands of Filipino women who are forced to undergo unsafe abortion.”
“Prosecution of women who induce abortion and those assisting them is not the answer,” Padilla explained. “Deaths and disabilities resulting from unsafe abortion complications are preventable with access to safe abortion and post-abortion care.”
“Decriminalizing abortion will save the lives of women who can be anyone’s daughter, partner, mother, sister, niece, or granddaughter,” added Padilla. “It would also help reduce maternal deaths related to unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions during humanitarian crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Ending the stigma
The stigma around abortion has limited people’s access to accurate information on the topic. This leads to discrimination against women who seek or have already sought basic healthcare for abortion care, emergency abortion care, and post-abortion care.
Misconceptions about abortion mostly occur when it is made into a religious moral issue.
“Access to safe abortion is a medical issue, not a religious moral issue,” stressed Padilla.
“We must respect a woman’s personal decision-making, her right to bodily autonomy, life, health, privacy, equality and non-discrimination, equal protection of the law, and right against cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment,” Padilla continued.
The bill seeks to eliminate this stigma by helping Filipinos better understand the imperative need for access to safe abortion.
Treaty monitoring bodies also recognize access to abortion as a human right. “Our government must comply with its international human rights obligation to decriminalize abortion as a means for women to have access to safe abortion, emergency abortion care, and post-abortion care,” Padilla shared.
Save women’s lives by supporting this bill to decriminalize abortion.
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Join the conversation, use the following hashtags:
#SaveWomensLives
#DecriminalizeAbortionNow
For more information, visit PINSAN at https://pinsan.ph/. You may also learn more from decriminalizeabortion.ph and savewomenslives.ph