To quote Andrea Bian, "More than anything, a person's right to abortion is a person's right to

their own body." The decision to carry and raise a kid is not a simple endeavor; if one wants to
do it successfully, it needs much effort, tenacity, and resolve. Mothers frequently endure
restless nights as they shoulder the burden of effectively parenting the next generation's
members. Being a mother is a noble endeavor, but there is an issue in the Philippines with the
growing number of women who are forced to bear children against their will. Abortion should be
made legal in the Philippines to safeguard women's privacy rights, save lives, prevent disability
from unsafe abortion complications, and save the lives of adolescent girls from dying due to lack
of access to safe abortion.

Nobody should compel a woman to carry a pregnancy to term. We must respect a woman's
freedom to make her own decisions, her right to bodily autonomy, and her fundamental rights to
life, health, and privacy. As Clara Rita A. Padilla points out in her article To Decriminalize
Abortion, "Hundreds of thousands of Filipino women make personal decisions to induce abortion
for various reasons (economic-75%; too young, under 25 years old-46%; health reasons- one-
third; rape-one out of every nine women who induce abortion) but are unable to access safe
abortion services. Almost 50% of women who induce abortion are under 25 years old. These
women can be anyone's daughter, sister, or young mother. Some of these women are also rape
survivors. This shows why legalizing abortion is necessary to protect women's autonomy in
regard to making decisions about conception, delivery, and parenthood.

No woman should experience disability or death as a result of unsafe abortion complications. If

safe abortion and post-abortion treatment were available, deaths from unsafe abortion
complications may be avoided. According to Clara Padilla, “In 2012 alone, 610,000 Filipino
women induced abortion, over 100,000 women were hospitalized, and 1000 women died due to
unsafe abortion complications. Based on statistics, the number of induced abortions increase
proportionately with the increasing Philippine population. Each year, complications from unsafe
abortion are one of the five leading causes of maternal death— between 4.7% – 13.2%—and a
leading cause of hospitalization in the Philippines.9 The high number of women dying yearly
from complications from unsafe abortion surpasses even the number of people who die from
dengue. This is unacceptable. No person should die from complications from unsafe abortion or
dengue”. This shows how urgently the Philippines needs to decriminalize abortion; otherwise, by
keeping outdated colonial punitive abortion laws, we are all accountable for the high number of
women who die every day as a result of complications from unsafe abortions.

Teenage females are in danger of unsafe abortions and childbirth without the help of trained
birth attendants. Adolescent females have a higher risk of passing away or becoming disabled
when they are forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Clara Rita Padilla, an executive director of
EnGendeRights states that Pregnancies and childbirth of adolescent girls aged less than 18
years and those whose height is less than 4’9” are considered high-risk pregnancies leading to
high levels of maternal mortality and morbidity. One research found adolescent girls have two
times the risk of dying at childbirth with a much higher risk for 15-year-old and below adolescent
girls while the infants of adolescent girls had three times the risk of dying. I firmly believe that
abortion should be made legal in order to protect the fundamental rights of women and girls and
to prevent them from high risks. The Philippines has decided against legalizing abortion for a
multitude of reasons, including our culture, traditions, and convictions that abortion is murder
because life begins at conception. Everyone has the right to survive, according to a different
viewpoint, regardless of where they were born. But modern society shouldn't solely draw its
inspiration from the Bible. Regardless of your identification or area of residence, you have the
ability to make these choices without fear of intimidation, violence, or prejudice. You own it.
Learn about your legal rights.

Given that women's lives and health are at risk, it is past time for the Philippine government to
decriminalize abortion. If this colonial draconian abortion regulation is kept in place, women will
continue to die and become disabled due to complications from unsafe abortions, spontaneous
abortions, and other related medical disorders. Make your voice known in the fight to save
women's lives by supporting the decriminalization of abortion. Together, let's fight for women's
rights to equality, bodily autonomy, privacy, and equal protection of the law. Let's put an end to
discrimination against women.