[OPINION] It’s time for the Philippines to decriminalize

abortion by: Clara Rita Padilla

Most of the women who are hospitalized and die from complications
from unsafe abortion are poor, Roman Catholics, married, with at least 3
children, and have at least a high school education
Last May 25, in a historic referendum, Ireland paved the way to
increase access to abortion. The Irish citizens who voted to repeal the 8th
amendment to the Constitution providing equal protection to the life of the
woman and the unborn have won. This is great news for Irish women and for
women living in restrictive abortion laws.
Finally, the overwhelming vote of 66.4% to repeal the 8th amendment
is in line with women’s right to health. It clearly manifests respect for women’s
right to decide and a significant step to save women’s lives and freedom from
disability that result from denial of access to safe and legal abortion.
Currently, abortion is only allowed in Ireland to save the woman's life.
This restriction led to the death in 2012 of a woman who miscarried and was
denied her request to complete abortion. She was told that there was no risk
to her life, eventually leading to her death due to sepsis.
Irish legislators are immediately proposing to allow abortion for 12
weeks of gestation and thereafter on various grounds.
Predominantly Catholic countries have liberalized their laws on
abortion. In Spain in 2010, Prime Minister Zapatero was at the helm of
legalizing abortion on request during the first 14 weeks of the pregnancy and
thereafter on specific grounds. Countries such as Belgium, France, and Italy
allow abortion upon a woman’s request. Poland allows abortion to protect a
woman’s life and physical health and in cases of rape, incest, and fetal
impairment. Hungary allows abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation. Portugal
allows abortion up to 10 weeks of gestation. Brazil allows it on certain
grounds.
Almost all former Spanish colonies, mostly with predominant Catholic
populations, have liberalized their laws on abortion, allowing abortion on
certain grounds: Argentina, Bahamas, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela. That leaves the
Philippines to contend with its antiquated colonial Spanish law.
Mexico City, a predominantly Catholic city, even provides safe and
legal abortion for free. In 2017, then former head of state of Chile, Michelle
Bachelet, strongly campaigned to relax their abortion law. Only 6 countries
– particularly, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Malta and Dominican
Republic – are left with a total ban on abortion.
Other countries with constitutional protection of the life of the unborn
from conception allow abortion under certain exceptions: Hungary (up to 12
weeks of gestation); Costa Rica, South Africa, Slovak Republic, Poland (risk
to woman's life and health, rape, fetal impairment); and Kenya.
I hope the Philippines will follow this global liberalization on abortion
and soon decriminalize abortion since presently abortion is only recognized
in our country to save the woman's life and for medical necessity based on
a 1961 supreme Court decision.
 In August 2016, a 21-year old Filipino woman who became pregnant
as a result of the rape died a day after her risky childbirth due to
complications resulting from her dwarfism condition. Her mother lamented
that her daughter might still be alive had her daughter been able to access
safe and legal abortion.
While therapeutic abortion is allowed in the Philippines to save the life
of a woman or to prevent disability, there various other reasons why Filipino
women undergo abortion – why they induce abortion:
Economic
Inability to afford the cost of raising a child or an additional child – 75%
of the women
Having enough children or their pregnancy came too soon after their
last birth – more than half of the women
Too young – 46% were women younger than 25
Health risks – nearly one-third of the women
Rape – 13% of the women
Pregnancy not supported by partner or family – one-third of the
women
There is a very high incidence of rape in the Philippines. A Filipino
woman or girl is raped every 58 minutes, and about one in every 9 Filipino
women who induce abortion are rape survivors. Some women and girl-
children who became pregnant resulting from rape were forced to resort to
clandestine and unsafe abortions to end their unwanted pregnancies while
others have tried to commit suicide.
Without access to safe and legal abortion, they end up part of the
statistics of women who die from unsafe abortion complications. These
cases fall under the ambit of therapeutic abortions to save the life and health
of the woman.
Most of the women who are hospitalized and die from complications
from unsafe abortion are poor, Roman Catholics, married, with at least 3
children, and have at least a high school education. Poor women comprise
two-thirds of those who induce abortion, using riskier abortion methods, thus
disproportionately experiencing severe complications. This clearly shows
that lack of access to safe abortion is a social justice issue.
The archaic Spanish colonial law on abortion in our 1930 Revised
Penal Code has not decreased the number of women who induce abortion.
Rather, it has made it dangerous for women who resort to clandestine and
unsafe abortion.
It is urgent to increase access to safe and legal abortion. The problem,
in the past years and until now, is that certain medical health care providers
deny life-saving post-abortion care to women and threaten them with criminal
prosecution whether the women had induced or spontaneous
abortion. Women who suffer complications from induced and spontaneous
abortion are often denied treatment or experience delay and harsh treatment
by health professionals, leading to high maternal mortality and morbidity.
There have also been documented cases where medical health care
providers deny life-saving procedures even in cases of intrauterine fetal
death where therapeutic abortion is needed to save the life of the woman.
Abortion is common in the Philippines with about 70 women inducing
abortion every hour and about 11 women hospitalized every hour from
unsafe abortion complications in 2012. The number of women who have
induced abortion in 2018 would be significantly higher since the number of
women inducing abortion increases proportionally with the growing
Philippine population. About 1,000 women died from unsafe abortion
complications in 2012, translating to about 3 women dying every day.
Unsafe abortion is the 3rd leading cause of maternal death and is a
leading cause of hospitalizations. The Philippines needs to step up its efforts
to increase access to safe and legal abortion to meet its Sustainable
Development Goals commitment to decrease maternal mortality ratio to two-
thirds of 2010 levels.
It is time to make abortion safe and legal in the Philippines.
In August 2006, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW Committee), the United Nations body tasked to
monitor Philippine compliance with the CEDAW Convention, recommended
for the Philippines to “consider reviewing the laws relating to abortion with a
view to removing punitive provisions imposed on women who undergo
abortion and provide them with access to quality services for the
management of complications arising from unsafe abortions."
In May 2015, the CEDAW Committee released its report on its inquiry
on reproductive rights and recommended to the Philippine government that
articles 256 to 259 of the Revised Penal Code be amended to “legalize
abortion in cases of rape, incest, threats to the life and/or health of the
mother, or serious malformation of the foetus and decriminalize all other
cases where women undergo abortion, as well as adopt necessary
procedural rules to guarantee effective access to legal abortion.”
In the 2016 CEDAW Committee Concluding Observations, the
committee recommended for the Philippines to “fully implement, without
delay, all the recommendations issued by the Committee in 2015 in the
report on its inquiry, including on access to modern contraceptives and
legalization of abortion under certain circumstances."
We must all work to eliminate abortion stigma and religious and
personal prejudices against abortion, as abortion is a reality for Filipino
women. Health care providers must set in place institutional safeguards and
protocols to ensure patient confidentiality, privacy, and protection of women's
human rights. Women who suffer complications from unsafe abortion must
be treated humanely and with compassion and should not be threatened with
prosecution. Together, let us save women’s lives and prevent disability
resulting from denial of access to safe and legal abortion. – Rappler.com