RH LAW, 10 YEARS ON
Maternal deaths rise amid pandemic,
contraceptive use still low —Lagman
By LLANESCA T. PANTI, GMA Integrated News
Published December 14, 2022 7:07pm
The passage of the RH Law "brought to light the plight of women, the importance of family planning and responsible parenthood, the
dangers of unplanned pregnancies, and the sad reality of maternal and infant mortality in the country," Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said.
The number of maternal deaths in the
country increased due to the hampered
delivery of reproductive health services
amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the
contraceptive prevalence rate is still far
from ideal, 10 years since the
Reproductive Health (RH) Law was
passed, veteran lawmaker and one of
the bill's authors Edcel Lagman said
Wednesday.
Lagman was referring to the
Responsible Parenthood and
Reproductive Health Act of 2012,
which provides for free reproductive
health services to communities,
including contraceptives.
Lagman noted that while the RH law
provided an enabling environment for
women and couples to freely determine
whether, when or how often to have
children en route to a considerably safe
motherhood, healthier infants,
prosperous communities and genuine
human development, the
implementation of the law remains a
challenge, especially amid the COVID-
19 pandemic.
“The RH law has contributed in no
small measure to decreasing maternal
mortality from 162 deaths per 100,000
live births
before the law was enacted in 2012 to
121 in 2017 or five years
after the law was enacted.  But we
cannot, however, gloss over the fact
that there was a slight increase in
maternal deaths after the steady gains
of the years immediately following the
enactment of the RH law,” Lagman
said during his keynote address  during
a forum commemorating the 10th year
anniversary of the passage of the RH
law.
“In the most recent draft of the 2022
Population and Development Situation
Analysis, our maternal mortality rate
rose to 129.2 in 2020 and 131.1 in
2022. These [figures] illustrate in bold
relief the consequences of the
disruption and slowdown in much
needed reproductive health services
because of the Covid-19 pandemic,”
Lagman added.
But even without factoring the
COVID-19 pandemic, Lagman said
that the government has been passive
in terms of providing funds and data
collection in relation to implementation
of the RH law.
“Extra effort must be given and
additional funding must be allocated to
preventing maternal deaths,” Lagman
said.
“The non-collection of the Philippine
Statistics Office since
2011 of data related to maternal
mortality compounds this problem
even more. Accurate data is crucial in
healthcare delivery and with correct
information the government can
allocate funds more precisely and
expect better results,” he added.
Lagman also cited that the while
country’s contraceptive prevalence rate
rose from 50.7% in 2008 to 55.1% in
2013 (after the RH law was passed)
and 58.3% by this year, such increases
are not enough given that the use of
modern methods of family planning
only increased from 34% in 2007 to
37.6% in 2013 to 40.4% in 2017 and
41.8% in 2022.
“Much is still to be desired in the
increase in contraceptive prevalence
rate. Incidentally, it is really curious
that our population growth rate has
gone down to 1.9% or even lower than
replacement levels but our
contraceptive prevalence rate has not
taken off at a similar rate. What
accounts for the variance?” Lagman
said.
“Some say it due to unreported
abortions which may have increased. I
urge the concerned government
agencies to validate this alarming
explanation,” Lagman added.
GMA News Online has sought
comment from the Department of
Health and will publish its reply as
soon as it becomes available.
Last month, the Commission on
Population and Development
(POPCOM) lamented the low
contraceptive usage among Filipino
men, saying that according DOH data,
only about 400,000 Filipino men
currently use condoms.
POPCOM OIC Executive Director
Lolito Tacardon said that Filipino men
should share the responsibility and
involvement in “maternal care,
children's health, and nutrition.”
If men openly embrace contraceptive
responsibility, he said, it would help
ease “the burden of family planning
and RPRH” on women.
POPCOM also urged men to consider
non-scalpel vasectomy (NSV), said to
be 99.8-percent effective.
“From a male standpoint, resorting to
family planning does not take away
anything biologically. Absolutely none
of the methods—neither condoms nor
NSV—affect virility, libido, and sexual
drive,” Tacardon said.
Thriving
Lagman, however, said that the RH
law has made strides in the last decade
despite tough challenges.
“The 13 years that it took to pass the
RH law ensured that for more than a
decade women’s rights and welfare
were incessantly covered by the media
and were front and center in many
discussions and debates from
classrooms and boardrooms to local
sari-sari stores and high-end dinner
parties. It brought to light the plight of
women, the importance of family
planning and responsible parenthood,
the dangers of unplanned pregnancies,
and the sad reality of maternal and
infant mortality in the country, among
others,” Lagman said.
“In the last decade, the RH law has
helped millions of Filipino women
avoid pregnancy when they do not
want or are not ready to be pregnant.
When women are able to plan their
pregnancies and space their children,
they promote and protect their own
health in the process. This in turn leads
to not only crucial health rewards but
also substantial economic and social
benefits for women, their children,
their communities, and society,” he
added. — BM, GMA Integrated
News

MY OPINION ON THE TOPIC: RH Law

I approve most of what Rep. Lagman has said, I share
the belief that the RH Law is a valuable asset to the Filipino
People, and that through more support from the government,
the implementation of the RH Law will become more
effective and its impact becoming more visible. Furthermore, I
agree that the government investigate the imbalance between
our minimizing population growth and contraceptive use.
Finally, I settle that the decade following the RH law has
opened up many positive likelihoods for our society and
believe that it’s our responsibility to explore these possibilities
as much as we can.
-Xander Vinz T. Calvo Grade 10-Phoenix