"Scrap House Bill 5458" by Clara Rita A. Padilla, J.D.

The Committee on Revision of Laws is hearing House Bill 5458 expanding the coverage of the Revised Penal Code provision on abortion. It would do well for the committee members to face the realities of Filipino women’s experiences to enable them to comprehend the grave consequences of such a bill and to recognize the bill’s blatant violation of women’s rights to health and life and its total disregard for international law.

Half of all pregnancies of Filipino women are unintended. About 200 Filipino women die from maternal-related causes out of every 100,000 live births (UNFA, 2005 State of the World Population). Nine in 10 women who induce abortion are married or in a consensual union; more than half have at least 3 children; roughly two-thirds are poor; and nearly 90% are Catholic. About 27 out of every 1000 Filipino women induce abortion; 8 in 10 women who succeed in ending their pregnancy due to unsafe abortion have health complications; one in every 200 women are hospitalized for abortion-related complications; 800 women die every year (or two women die every day) due to complications resulting from unsafe abortion (Singh S et al., Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion in the Philippines: Causes and Consequences, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2006, at 4).

The law criminalizing abortion does not eliminate abortions; it only makes it dangerous for women who undergo clandestine and unsafe abortion. The August 25, 2006 United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Concluding Comments on the Philippines recognize the relation of the illegality of abortion and maternal deaths related to abortion, hence, it recommended that the Philippine government “consider reviewing the laws relating to abortion with a view to removing punitive provisions imposed on women who have abortions and provide them with access to quality services for the management of complications arising from unsafe abortions and to reduce women’s maternal mortality rates.”

As a legally binding treaty that the Philippines ratified, the Philippines is obligated to uphold the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Hungary permits abortion despite its constitutional protection of life from conception. The Catholic religion as practiced by our colonizer Spain allows abortion on grounds of rape and fetal impairment. Catholics in predominantly Catholic Belgium, France, and Italy are able to choose to terminate their pregnancies safely upon a woman’s request. Colombia recently liberalized its law to allow abortion in cases where the woman’s life or health is in danger, the pregnancy is the result of rape, and/or when the fetus has malformation incompatible with life outside the uterus.

Access to the full range of contraceptive methods including emergency contraceptive pills is effective to prevent unintended pregnancy and abortion. Making abortion safe and legal has proven to save women’s lives in Romania and the United States.

By removing the punitive provisions imposed on women who induce abortion and those assisting them the Committee on Revision of Laws can actually prevent Filipino women from dying and suffering from complications due to unsafe abortion.