A Position Paper about the Legalization of abortion in the Philippines

By: Marco T. Laqueo

Abortion is all about ending of the pregnancy of a women to avoid giving birth to a child by
removing embryo or fetus before it gives birth. It is a medical procedure and have a two types, the
medical abortion in which a women use pills for a couple of weeks before it became successful and
the other one is the surgical abortion in which women undergo in operation that takes 10-15 minutes.
In addition, according Carmel Crimmins, in the Philippines many Filipino use another way for
abortion in which a midwife gives a massage technique also known as “hilot”.
Many women who committed abortion are the poor, according to Tan (2008), in the
Philippines almost 68% of the population who used abortion are poor because they cannot afford the
cost of living if they give birth to a child. Some of them, choose abortion saying that they are not yet
ready to have a family as their pregnancy is unintended, unplanned, unwanted and mistimed. One of
the most serious reason others why others decide to abort is that they are a victim of rape.
The law about abortion in the Philippines was maintained since the Spanish Colonial of 1870,
the lawyer of EnGenderRights, Atty. Claire Padilla says that there is no exemption even it is not
intended pregnancy or caused by rape. Because of this issue the United Nation advised last 2015 to
revise the said law that will exempt other cases such as rape and many other cases that is harmful to
the pregnant women. Abortion should not be legalize in the Philippines in any cases because it is not
an answer to different pregnancy problem, it is another problem since it is immoral as per teaching
of our religion and dangerous for the women’s life.
Many people say that abortion is not a crime because according to Patsy McCurry, fetus is not
a human being so that if it was abort there is no life ended/killed. But according Moore, Keith L. and
Persaud, the life of a human being start at fertilization so that if the egg cells and sperm cells meet in
the fallopian tube there is already a life form. If you abort this after fertilization it is clearly a form of
murder because they have already a right to live and be protected. Since abortion talks about the life
of human being it is considering as a serious crime according to Pro-Life Philippines Foundation.
Abortion is also a dangerous process for a woman’s life and it is not safe to their health
because in the research conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute, almost
97% who undergo in abortion experience extreme pain and almost 90,000 was hospitalized because
of the abortion complication. David C. Reardon Ph.D. says, that in some cases it can cause emotional
and physical disorder because most of the time the women who undergo abortion affect their
sleeping time that can cause insomnia, it can also cause fatigue, loss of appetite and loss of weight.
Some people says that abortion can help a pregnant woman to have a proper health care that
will make sure the safety of a pregnant. They also added that if there is abortion they can avoid to
deliver a baby with a defect and they can stop the pregnancy of a woman if it is cause by rape. And
through these also they can protect the health condition of a pregnant women. Regarding such issue
that many people says, Aileen Grace Delima suggest after her conducted a study about abortion that
the solution for different problem in pregnancy is not abortion the answer in such problem is having
a sexual orientation in which it will help people to be more aware and knowledgeable enough in such
issue and to prevent also the unwanted pregnancy, just like in the saying “Prevention is better than
cure.” And regarding to the defect of a baby detected even in the uterus, abortion is not the right
answer for that cases because nowadays we are in the modern technology that it seems that nothing
is impossible. Ahmet Alexander Baschat M.D. says that it is absolutely possible to fixed or cure the
damage in the vital organ of a baby in the uterus before birth.
 Based on the information I have gather about legalization of abortion in the Philippines I came
up to a suggestion that we don’t need an abortion to solve different pregnancy problem. Our
government must focus on the other way that will solve the problem regarding this issue, the way
that will not affect the health condition of a women and the baby. Since we are a Christian country
we must consider many things that will not contradict to our belief. The way that I think that the best
way to such problem is to educate more the people especially teenager to have sexual orientation
and preparing the people in using modern contraceptives. I also think that Reproductive Health Law
will give a great help for this issue.
We see that abortion is all about ending of the life of an innocent human being. It also can
cause different health complication in the woman and it can put the life of a person in risk that may
lead into death. I therefore conclude, that abortion should not be legalize in the Philippines. We must
consider many things such as the doctrine of a Christian since we are a Christian country and we
must also consider the health of or people and their lives. Our government must find another safer
way that will help regarding that issue not the way that put other person in harm to solve this
problem.

References

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