SPEECH KEY POINTS REFERENCE LEGALIZING ABORTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

Arya (2021)

● The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2020 reportedly stated that the “Philippines
has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates among the ASEAN member-states.” It
documented that more than 500 Filipino adolescent girls are getting pregnant and giving birth
every day.

● According to the Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM), a Philippine

government agency, the number of pregnant children below 15 in the archipelago has doubled
in the past 10 years.

● Despite advances in reproductive health law, many Filipino women experience unintended
pregnancies,because abortion is highly stigmatized in the country, many who seek an abortion,
undergo unsafe procedures.

● Due to early pregnancy young girls fail to finish basic education, lack adequate skills for
remunerative work, and are economically vulnerable. Thus, perpetuating inter-generational
poverty.

● The decriminalization of abortion has a consequence on the health of young mothers and is
further aggravated in the absence of safe/legal laws on abortion.

● Decriminalizing abortion is an important step towards eliminating discrimination against

women and ensuring women’s access to reproductive health services, as abortion is highly
stigmatized.

● Thus with abortion decriminalized, women can easily access facilities for safe abortion and
post-abortion care will not be impeded. This will in turn not only help to prevent maternal
deaths and disability from unsafe abortion complications, But also uphold women’s
reproductive rights that state, women have the right to bodily autonomy, her basic right to life,
heath, and privacy and should not be forced to carry on a pregnancy.

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Center for Reproductive Rights (2020)

● The criminal provisions on abortion do not contain a clear exception allowing abortion,
including to save the life of the pregnant woman or to protect her health.

● Filipino women with life-threatening pregnancies have no choice but to risk their lives, either
through unsafe abortion or through continuation of high-risk pregnancies, because of the lack
of access to safe abortion.

● In 2008 alone, the Philippines’ criminal abortion ban was estimated to result in the deaths of
at least 1,000 women and complications for 90,000 more. Women who undergo abortion for
any reason may be punished by imprisonment for two to six years

● Filipino women who have undergone unsafe abortions for health reasons report that
healthcare workers have not been sympathetic to their situation, but instead continue to abuse
and threaten them.

● The stigma surrounding abortion is perpetuated by the Government of the Philippines’

acquiescence to the demands of the Catholic hierarchy, including the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

● Women are left without a means to control their fertility, exposed to unsafe abortions, and
made vulnerable to abuse in the health system due to the criminal abortion law and the
discriminatory environment in the Philippines.

Foster et al. (2018)

● The discourse around abortion tends to focus on women and generally fails to consider how
being denied an abortion affects the children a pregnant woman already has and those she
may have in the future.

● Restricting access to abortion doesn’t just harm women but their children as well.

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Finer & Hussain (2013)

● Many Filipino women experience unintended pregnancies, and because abortion is highly
stigmatized in the country, many who seek abortion undergo unsafe procedures despite
advances in reproductive health law.

● The Philippine government has made efforts to improve access to contraceptive services,
but abortion is illegal under all circumstances and is thus highly stigmatized. Nonetheless,
abortion is common, but is often performed in unsanitary conditions and using outdated
techniques.

● Unsafe abortion carries significant risks for Filipino women: About 1,000 die each year from
abortion complications, which contributes to the nation’s high maternal mortality ratio. Tens of
thousands of women are hospitalized each year for complications from unsafe abortion.

Rioux (2022)

● Limiting access to safe abortions has many consequences, including increases in poverty,
unemployment, and pregnancy-related deaths.

● Another key area of impact from restricting abortion access is on family well-being and child
development.

World Health Organization (2020)

● Based on 2019 data, 55% of unintended pregnancies among adolescent girls aged 15–19
years end in abortions, which are often unsafe in low- and middle-income countries.

● Adolescent mothers (10-19 y/o) face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis and
systemic infections than 20-24 y/o women. Babies of adolescent mothers face higher risks of
low birth weight, preterm birth and severe neonatal condition.

● Preventing pregnancy among adolescents and pregnancy-related mortality and morbidity are
foundational to achieving positive health outcomes across the life course and imperative for
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to maternal and newborn
health.

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TEDx Talks (2016)

● Pregnancy can not be controlled; it can not be turned on or off whenever you want.

● The idea that pregnancy can be controlled puts women labels like lazy, promiscuous, and
stupid and that we can deny them access to safe abortion because they do not need them in
the first place.

PBS Vitals (2022, July 19)

● 5 Myths about Abortion: (1) Childbirth is safer than abortion, (2) Abortion leads to an
increased risk of breast cancer and infertility, (3) A fetus have a heartbeat and can feel pain
early in a pregnancy, (4) Abortion bans make clear exceptions for medical emergencies, and
(5) Abortion bans only affect those considering abortion

● For every 250,000 abortions, there is one death. For every 250,000 childbirths, 42 women
died. Long-term complications and deaths are far greater when it comes to actual childbirth.

● There was a case in Ireland in 2012 where a patient that was 18 weeks pregnant died since
she became septic. The medical team did not want or was unwilling to intervene because they
are afraid of the legal consequences.

PBS Vitals (2022, August 3)

● When the choice of ending a pregnancy is taken away, it forces someone to increase their
risk of all the things that come along with pregnancy.

● It is unfair to force someone to go through carrying a baby that they know would not survive.

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Medel (2023, January 4)

● I do not favor the idea of abortion remaining criminalized in the Philippines, specifically, the
law does not even include exceptions for those victims of rape/incest or those women who
were not viable for pregnancy or even to raise a child.

● For me, the right to access safe abortion is just a basic human right a woman can have,
which includes their right to their body, and sexual and reproductive health.

● Making it illegal under all circumstances in the Philippines doesn’t make abortion stopped or
prevented by women; rather, it just increases the mode of unsafe abortion and the health risk
of these women who undergo it. That is why, I agree with the statement, “abortion is health
care.”

● For the “Pro-life,” most of the time I could hear them defending the fetus inside the womb,
and opposing the idea of abortion because it is killing someone. But I don’t think it makes
sense because if we just let the fetus be a child and live in this cruel society even though its
mother cannot even provide the basic needs of the child, are we really saving a life? Or are we
just letting the child suffer in this society and making ourselves not responsible for killing it
directly— in this case, making us the real criminal?

● I believe abortion is for the well-being of women and children, but we must ensure that it is
done safely. Though it doesn’t conform to what our society in the Philippines believes, it
doesn’t have to be accepted by all since not everyone will need it anyway. And we must also
accept the fact that it is a woman's right to choose what they think is best for them.