essay about legalizing abortion in the philippines

Progress on Abortion Rights in the Philippines

For the first time, the philippine human rights commission recommends that abortion be decriminalized..

For the first time, the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (PCHR) has expressly supported the decriminalization of abortion in the Philippines, marking a historic moment for abortion advocacy in the country. The PCHR made the recommendation in November as part of its Priority Human Rights Legislative Agenda for the 19th Congress of the Philippines. The 19th Congress convened in July 2022 and will be completed in June 2025. 

The PCHR is a constitutionally established national human rights institution mandated to provide recommendations to the Congress for effective promotion of human rights and adherence to international human rights treaty obligations.  

“The PCHR’s call for decriminalization of abortion is truly historic and celebratory and is in line with the global trend towards liberalizing abortion,” said Jihan Jacob, Senior Legal Adviser for Asia at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “This marks the success of advocacy movements in the region, including the Center’s, that has worked for years to realize sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR).” 

“With President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. previously expressing support for certain cases of abortion and his allies gaining control of Congress, we are optimistic that positive change to the country’s abortion law is possible,” added Jacob. The President appointed the Chairperson and Commissioner of the PCHR, which made the recommendation in November. 

The Philippines has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, without any clear exceptions. Two United Nations treaty bodies have recently called on the country to advance sexual and reproductive health rights.  

The Center’s Recent Work in the Philippines

The PCHR’s position on abortion has evolved over the past two decades, from declaring abortion “immoral” to acknowledging the impact of abortion bans on health and human rights to finally recommending decriminalization. The Center’s advocacy efforts contributed to the PCHR’s shift in its position on abortion. ( See the timeline below for details. ) 

Human Rights Bodies Support Abortion Rights and Access  

The right to abortion and the right to bodily autonomy are fundamental human rights. Denying abortion via criminalization violates the fundamental rights to equality and non-discrimination; privacy; the highest attainable standard of health; and freedom from ill-treatment, harmful practices, and gender-based violence.  

The United Nations and other human rights bodies have frequently recommended for the right to abortion and its access and recognized it as an essential health service. Last year, two United Nations treaty bodies called on the Philippines to improve sexual and reproductive rights (SRHR) in the country. Also in 2022, the World Health Organization issued its 2022 Abortion Care Guideline , affirming abortion access as essential to health and human rights and calling for the removal of legal barriers to access.    

The Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN) , co-founded by the Center, released a statement in December calling for the decriminalization of abortion and commending the PCHR for including decriminalization in its 19th Priority Legislative Agenda.  

“With progressive legislation getting more support, now is the time to advance the campaign for access to safe abortion for women and girls in the Philippines without fear of arbitrary punishment,” PINSAN wrote. “Continually denying them of this right gravely violates their fundamental rights as people and citizens.” 

“The Center welcomes PCHR’s progressive stance on abortion which is in adherence with international human rights law principles. While we celebrate this win, we will continue to work closely with our regional partners to transform PCHR’s recommendations into law reform to make decriminalization of abortion a reality for Filipinos,” added Jacob. 

Timeline: The Philippine Commission on Human Rights’ Evolution on Abortion

• 1999: The PCHR viewed abortion as “immoral.” In its position paper on House Bill 6343 entitled “An Act Legalizing Abortion on Specific Cases” introduced by Hon. Roy Padilla Jr., the PCHR registered its opposition to the bill for being “immoral and/or contrary to the moral standards and religious conviction of the Filipino people.” Instead of referring to human rights standards and principles, the PCHR referred to the encyclical Evangelium Vitae by Pope John Paul II. 
• 2016: The PCHR’s opposition to abortion shifted to a call for the review and reexamination of the Filipino abortion laws. In its report for the National Inquiry on Reproductive Health and Rights, the PCHR referred to “the absolute ban on abortion, which has led to unsafe abortions and to stigma in the access and availability of post-abortion care” as one of the legal and policy barriers to fulfilling Filipinos’ reproductive health and rights. In compliance with the Philippines’ human rights obligations, the PCHR recommended for Congress to “review the provisions on abortion, taking into consideration the studies forwarded by the [Center for Reproductive Rights] and EnGendeRights and other women’s organizations and on how the continuing criminalization of abortion affect provision of post-abortion care.” 
• 2022: The PCHR unequivocally articulated its recommendation for the decriminalization of abortion as a priority legislation for the 19th Congress. 

Tags: United Nations , philippine congress , philippine commission on human rights , PCHR , Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network , PINSAN , Philippines abortion laws , Abortion in the Philippines , Philippine Human Rights Commission

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Making Unsafe Abortion History in the Philippines

• Written by Shiphrah Belonguel
• September 28, 2021
• WGNRR/ PINSAN

On September 28, feminist activists around the world mobilize around International Safe Abortion Day. The day originated in Latin America and was known as “Campaña 28 de Septiembre por la Despenalización del Aborto”. In 2011, the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) adapted the campaign into an annual global event with a specific theme or focus each year.

This year, the campaign theme is “Safe Abortion is Essential Healthcare #MakeUnsafeAbortionHistory”.

For safe abortion advocates in the Philippines, September 28 this year marks the first anniversary of the launch of the first-ever proposed bill and parallel campaign to decriminalize abortion in the country. 

The Philippines remains to have one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. Women, physicians, and anyone involved in inducing an abortion may be punished with up to six years of imprisonment. There are no express provisions allowing exceptions. 

Despite the restrictive law, many Filipino women still seek out abortions. Because of the restrictive law, most of them end up having unsafe abortions.

Decriminalizing abortion would remove penalties on women and other marginalized genders for having abortions, as well as medical practitioners who may wish to provide the service. It would also reverse a centuries-old law dating back to Spanish colonial times.

Apart from the fact that both the proposed legislation and the campaign are firsts for the country, the September 28, 2020 launch is also historic in that it happened amid an unprecedented global pandemic.

“The reason why we’re talking about this now… is because of the pandemic,” Philippine Safe Abortion Network (PINSAN) spokesperson Clara Rita Padilla has said.

During the launch, advocates rang the alarm on the rise of unintended pregnancies amid lockdown as a result of barriers to access reproductive health information, services, and commodities as well as a spike in incidences of gender-based violence.

According to advocates, these pandemic-induced conditions would increase unsafe abortions and constitute a public health emergency.

They were right.

Emerging estimates from 2020 project that around 1.26 million abortions were induced in the country.

This presents an increase of more than 100% from previous estimates made in 2012 of around 610,000 induced abortions. Back then, three women were estimated to have died from complications related to unsafe abortion.

“Campaigning on such a grim picture is difficult but necessary,” says Marevic Parcon, Executive Director of the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR). “But we try our best to also present a different picture – one where women and marginalized genders assert their rights to reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.”

Indeed, in the last year, WGNRR and PINSAN organized online discussions, learning sessions, and art workshops to present the current picture of abortion in the Philippines, but as well as to invite people to dream and hope for a better future. They even produced a music album, Pasya ( Choice or Decision in English ), that celebrates “the strength of people standing up to challenges against their rights to bodily autonomy”. 

Still, in a Catholic-majority country with few progressive politicians, advocating for safe abortion remains challenging. But in the year that was, it seemed clear that for these advocates, holding space for one another and for people who have experiences of abortion is creating that future where unsafe abortion is history.

• Categories: Development , Feminism , Gender Based Violence , Girls' Globe News , Health , Maternal and Child Health , Politics , Rights , Society , SRHR
• Tags: Abortion , SRHR , The Philippines

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One response.

Can someone please help me I had done catheter abortion procedure im afraid and I don’t know how to remove this 😭

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Philippines: Lawmakers Threaten Rights Body on Abortion

Commission on Human Rights Backtracks After Calls for Defunding

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(Manila) – Threats by members of the Philippine Congress to defund the national human rights commission have resulted in its weakening of support for abortion rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The lawmakers’ action against the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) not only undermines the commission’s ability to protect reproductive rights in the Philippines but imperils all of the commission’s work to protect human rights.

Members of the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives said during deliberations on the national budget during the week of November 13, 2023, that they would seek to eliminate funding for the commission, which is mandated under the 1987 constitution. One senator said the commission should be given “zero” budget unless it demonstrated a “strong stance” against abortion. On November 15, the commission chairperson, Richard Palpal-latoc, backtracked on the commission’s position in support of abortion rights and declared that the commission was “against abortion, save for extreme circumstances.”

“The Philippines Commission on Human Rights can’t properly function to protect human rights when legislators are threatening its existence,” said Bryony Lau , deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Philippines government, including the human rights commission, has responsibilities to ensure that women and girls can exercise bodily autonomy and access safe abortions as part of their basic human rights.”

The lawmakers opposing funding for the commission cited a September statement by its executive director, Jacqueline de Guia, in support of new legislation to decriminalize abortion , which has long been illegal in the Philippines .

Women’s rights advocates in the Philippines have long fought for the decriminalization of abortion , citing study after study that shows that women in the Philippines are forced to undergo clandestine and unsafe conditions to get an abortion, putting themselves at serious risk. The Roman Catholic Church and Christian groups, as well as conservative lawmakers, have resisted any such initiatives. Congress has not acted on a proposed bill to amend the Revised Penal Code to decriminalize abortion.

Governments as part of their core human rights responsibilities have an obligation to provide women, girls, and other pregnant people with access to safe and legal abortions, Human Rights Watch said. International human rights law and relevant jurisprudence support the conclusion that decisions about abortion belong to a pregnant person alone, without interference or unreasonable restriction by the state or third parties.

As a party to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women , the Philippines is obligated to ensure women’s right to health and bodily autonomy, including making decisions around pregnancy and abortion.

The Philippine Congress has previously tried to slash the commission’s budget. In 2017, at the height of the government’s abusive “war on drugs,” then President Rodrigo Duterte proposed a 1,000 peso budget – US $20 – for the commission because, as one Duterte ally in Congress put it, the commission was “defending criminals.” Although the proposed cut was not adopted, the commission was still depicted as the “enemy” for defending the rights of “drug war” victims and their families.

The Commission on Human Rights, established after the “People Power” uprising that ousted the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was the first national human rights commission in Asia, inspiring similar commissions in other countries. For many years it has been a weak institution, though, unable to fulfill its mandate, partly due to a lack of funding and powers, such as issuing subpoenas, needed for investigations. The commission found a firmer footing and stronger voice under chairperson Leila de Lima, who served from 2008 to 2010. Congress has not acted upon a pending proposal to draft a charter for the commission that would strengthen its mandate.

Spain, among other countries , has sought for years to strengthen the commission. The commission is a key institutional partner of the UN to implement the UN Joint Program on Human Rights.

“The Philippines needs an independent, well-funded national human rights body to address the most egregious rights violations in the country and protect the rights of all Filipinos,” Lau said. “By threatening the CHR’s budget, these lawmakers are trying to render the constitutionally mandated body useless.”

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Abortion — Why Abortion Should Be Legalized

Why Abortion Should Be Legalized

• Categories: Abortion Pro Choice (Abortion) Women's Health

About this sample

Words: 1331 |

Published: Jan 28, 2021

Words: 1331 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, why abortion should be legal.

• Gipson, J. D., Hirz, A. E., & Avila, J. L. (2011). Perceptions and practices of illegal abortion among urban young adults in the Philippines: a qualitative study. Studies in family planning, 42(4), 261-272. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1728-4465.2011.00289.x)
• Finer, L. B., & Hussain, R. (2013). Unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion in the Philippines: context and consequences. (https://www.guttmacher.org/report/unintended-pregnancy-and-unsafe-abortion-philippines-context-and-consequences?ref=vidupdatez.com/image)
• Flavier, J. M., & Chen, C. H. (1980). Induced abortion in rural villages of Cavite, the Philippines: Knowledge, attitudes, and practice. Studies in family planning, 65-71. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1965798)
• Gallen, M. (1979). Abortion choices in the Philippines. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-biosocial-science/article/abs/abortion-choices-in-the-philippines/853B8B71F95FEBDD0D88AB65E8364509 Journal of Biosocial Science, 11(3), 281-288.
• Holgersson, K. (2012). Is There Anybody Out There?: Illegal Abortion, Social Work, Advocacy and Interventions in the Philippines. (https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A574793&dswid=4931)

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When In Manila Search

We asked pinoys “should abortion be legal in the philippines” and the answers might surprise you.

The discussion of abortion has always been a difficult one, with people everywhere around the world being strongly divided on the subject. Recently, the state of Alabama in the USA passed an anti-abortion law that totally bans the procedure—a news that made headlines and resulted to a global discussion on the subject.

With all these recent talks surrounding abortion laws, it got us to thinking: how do Filipinos feel about abortion ? Should it be legal here?

Right now, it isn’t. And as a country with such strong religious (and not to mention conservative) roots, it seems unlikely to happen anytime soon. But we wanted to find out how Pinoys feel on the subject and whether they think it should be legalized here or not. So, we asked our readers a question: “ Should abortion be made legal in the Philippines? ”

ALSO READ:  6 Married Couples Who Met on Dating Apps, Proving You Can Find Love Online

We kept our respondents’ names off this article to protect their identities, but all answers found below are authentic and are real responses submitted to us through our WIM Squad community on Facebook .

DISCLAIMER: The responses below are individual opinions from our community of readers and therefore do NOT necessarily reflect the opinions of WhenInManila.com as a whole.

Here’s what people said.

1. “No, I don’t think abortion should be made legal in the Philippines. If women think they’re practicing their right because “it’s their body”, then who are we to take away the right of the unborn child? Shouldn’t we protect their rights to live, too?

2. “I think abortion should be made legal, especially to those women who are rape victims. Because having a child after a traumatic experience can be detrimental for them for life.”

3. “My body, my choice. Regardless of tradition or religion, every woman must have the right to choose whether to get an abortion or not, should they want or need to. The hypocrisy of forcing women to have children they don’t want is absurd, especially for those who impose these rules and not upholding them after the child is born. Basically: pro-lifers only care about unborn babies. They stop giving a shit after, which begs the question: were they really pro-lifers in the first place or are they just controlling women?”

4. “Abortion as an option. Consider those who are victims of sexual abuse and those who have to terminate the pregnancy due to complications or possible threat to women’s health.”

5. “Yes, I believe it should be legal. People can’t keep using the “put the baby up for adoption” when they won’t acknowledge just how f*d up the system is. People have to understand that abortion is rarely, if ever, done out of spite or hatred of another living being. It’s acknowledging a person’s capability and/or their desire to be pregnant and raise a child.”

6. “Yes, but educate the public on safe sex more than abortion as an option especially for a country where poverty and population are issues.”

7. “Yes, it should be legal. I wouldn’t do it personally, but it should be an option to every women.”

8. “No. Philippines’ religion influence is higher than any other factors. Many contradictions will exist so as hard core debates in any further means of abortion topics etc.”

9. “For special cases, YES. Like for rape victims or health issues. Pero kung ang rason ay dahil gusto lang at hindi handa sa pinagbubuntis , oh com’on! Why did you do it without protection?”

10. “I am pro-choice. While I would never choose an abortion for myself, I do support other women’s right to do so as long as the legalities are clearly defined i.e. no late-term abortions, special provision for cases of rape and incest. Keeping it illegal doesn’t stop it from happening. It only means women are forced to undergo unsafe, fatal procedures.”

Read more responses on the next page!

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Managing Editor of WhenInManila.com. Connect with her on Instagram: @nicvillaluz

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Why decriminalizing abortion is not possible in the Philippines

Before the last national elections, as I was going through the platforms of senatorial and congressional candidates, I noticed that some of them said they will work for the “decriminalization of abortion.”

With the June 24, 2022 landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court on the case of Dobbs v. Jackson, which ruled that there is no such thing as a “constitutional right to abortion,” those intended moves on the part of these now elected lawmakers would seem to be passé. Now, the trend in the United States is to protect the life of the unborn by enacting state laws that will prohibit abortion.

The majority opinion of the US Supreme Court was written by Justice Samuel Alito. It is a masterpiece of philosophical and legal reasoning, and research on the history of the criminal nature of abortion in English and American jurisprudence. We can say that it is common sense which tells us that abortion is the killing of an innocent person who does not even have the capacity to defend himself. In our own language, we call a pregnant woman “nagdadalang-tao” (someone who is carrying within herself another human being). We naturally think she has inside her another person.

Decriminalizing abortion means removing the status of abortion as a crime. Laws have a role to play in the moral education of a society. When the laws remove the criminal status of a crime like abortion, it is teaching society that you may commit abortion and the state will not punish you. Go ahead. You can do it. The act is not banned.

In the context of the Philippines, the decriminalization of abortion is not possible because of our basic law, the Constitution . In Article II Section 12 it says, “[The state] shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.” How else can the state protect the life of the unborn except by banning abortion and imposing penalties on those who take away the life of the unborn? In the same way that Justice Alito repeated several times in his piece that there is no such thing as a right to abortion, it might be worth repeating that it is not possible to decriminalize abortion in the Philippines given our Constitution and given our culture and traditions.

Because abortion is prohibited in the Philippines, it is very difficult to get accurate data on the number of abortions performed in the country. There are only estimates that range from 600,000 to even over a million for the last year. This is not a small number to say the least. This is a real problem for our society. But decriminalizing abortion is not the solution. As the experience of the US shows, decriminalizing it made the problem worse.

Like poverty, abortion is a complex problem that will require a complex and manifold solution. It is above all a moral problem. The Catholic Church has always advocated the moral education of people so that their mores might conform to right reasoning about their sexuality and morality. At the root of the problem about unwanted pregnancies and abortions is difficulty about virtues related to human sexuality. Chastity is the virtue that is at stake here. It is grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted as meaning “don’t do this or that” or “being a killjoy.” Understood well, it means love, affirmation, and happiness in life.

The Church has also fought for the defense of the dignity of each human person. In the case of abortion, she has fought for respecting the dignity of both the mother and the unborn child. What happens in an abortion is that both the mother and the baby are reduced to and manipulated as commodities. Their personhoods are destroyed and eliminated. The existence of the post abortion stress syndrome attests to the destruction of the person of the women who committed abortion. They find it very difficult to live with the thought, “I killed my own baby!”

It might be better for our lawmakers to think about how to help those mothers who are contemplating having an abortion solve their problems and difficulties. They need counseling, financial help, moral support, livelihood, education. They don’t need the decriminalization of abortion.

FR. CECILIO L. MAGSINO [email protected]

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Should abortion for rape victims be legalized in PH?

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This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Many Filipinos condemn women and girls who induce abortion not knowing that some of these women and girls are actually rape or incest victims.  

A Filipino woman or girl is raped every 72 minutes.

In 2014, the Philippine National Police (PNP) recorded 7,409 women who reported they were raped.  The PNP reported that rape accounted for almost 9% of all reported Violence Against Women (VAW) cases from 2004 to 2013. 

Meanwhile, the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey estimated 6% of women ages 15 to 49 reported having ever experienced sexual violence. (READ: Kids aren’t supposed to be for sex )

This is alarming, yet this may just be the tip of the iceberg as these numbers only refer to the rape victims who reported to the police. 

One of the glaring consequences of rape is unwanted pregnancy. Having been sexually abused, Filipino women and girls have resorted to unsafe and clandestine abortions to end their unwanted pregnancies while others have tried to commit suicide. 

A Women’s Crisis Center research showed that 83% of their women rape survivors have induced unsafe abortion.

For many people, rape seems very remote, something they only hear about in the news.  But for us who assist rape victims on a daily basis, it is very much a reality. 

Lawyers, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and police officers who assist rape victims witness the pain that these women suffer.  

Our country cannot deny rape survivors their right to terminate unwanted pregnancies resulting from rape. Our laws must provide rape survivors the right to decide what is good for their health and lives. These women and girls already suffered an extremely traumatic human rights violation. 

It is our duty as a state, regardless of one’s religious beliefs, to provide access to safe and legal abortion to rape survivors. If we don’t, these women and girls may die or be hospitalized due to complications from induced unsafe and clandestine abortion.

It is high time that we face the issue of access to safe and legal abortion as public health and human rights issues where women who are rape victims would have the freedom to access safe and legal abortion and not be denied by the state their right to decide for their health and lives.

Punishing women

Our restrictive criminal law on abortion having been based on the old Spanish Penal Code of 1870, not even religion, has prevented women from inducing unsafe and clandestine abortion.  

The illegality of abortion has not deterred women from terminating their unwanted pregnancies. It has only made it risky for Filipino women and girls. (READ: Isn’t time to legalize abortion in the PH? )

Based on the estimates of the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), more than half of all pregnancies in the Philippines were unintended and about 20% of these unintended pregnancies end up in abortion. 

The reality is that women and girls including married women, many of them Catholics, resort to unsafe and clandestine abortion to terminate their unwanted pregnancies. 

Based on the latest AGI report, there were 610,000 Filipino women who induced abortion in 2012, with 1,000 women dying from complications from unsafe abortion — that’s about 3 women dying each day.

Meanwhile, over 100,000 women were hospitalized due to complications from unsafe and clandestine abortions.

It has been reported in 2012 and 2013 that unsafe abortion was one of the top 3 obstetrics-gynecological cases in 8 out of 9 hospitals managed by the Department of Health (DOH).

The current Philippine law punishing women who induce abortion —without any clear exceptions and religious imposition of one’s beliefs —has been used by doctors to unlawfully deny post-abortion care to women and to threaten women with prosecution. 

Women suffering complications due to spontaneous abortion, abortion due to trauma from intimate partner violence, and even fetal death have also been denied access to post-abortion care and were threatened with criminal prosecution.

Contrary to the Hippocratic oath of doctors, some doctors violate and continue to violate their oath and the doctor-patient confidentiality by denying access to post-abortion care, threatening to report the women to the police — violating the clear provisions of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law to provide access to humane and non-judgmental post-abortion care.  

To save women’s lives and to comply with existing Philippine laws, doctors should provide humane and non-judgmental post-abortion care required under the RH Law. 

They must also stabilize women suffering from serious and emergency cases resulting from complications from unsafe and clandestine abortion required under Republic Act 8344 , and to provide appropriate health services for pregnancy-related complications such as abortion required under the Magna Carta of Women .  

As a matter of public health, doctors should act as medical providers not police officers, otherwise, women will simply not seek medical attention and end up dying for fear of being prosecuted.

Health providers must keep abreast with our laws requiring appropriate post-abortion care and the DOH on the Policy on Prevention and Management of Abortion and its Complications (PMAC), which has been implemented since 2000 and trained public doctors from pilot hospitals to provide post-abortion care. 

DOH also has a program where national government–run hospitals such as Fabella and Bulacan Provincial Hospital manage special units treating abortion complications.

Saving women’s lives 

All of these laws and programs providing post-abortion care save women’s lives.

Contrary to the misconception of doctors, there is no law requiring doctors to report women who induce abortion. Presidential Decree 169 requires medical practitioners who treated serious or less serious physical injuries covered under articles 262 to 265 of the Revised Penal Code to report injury, diagnosis, and treatment.  

But such articles do not refer to abortion.

Other predominantly Catholic countries and former Spanish colonies have liberalized their laws on abortion, with Spain legalizing abortion on request during the first 14 weeks of the pregnancy in 2010.

Other predominantly Catholic countries like Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Costa Rica, and Ireland and former Spanish colonies such as Uruguay and Colombia also allow abortion on certain grounds — leaving the Philippines to contend with its antiquated colonial Spanish law.

Asian countries like China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam all have liberal abortion laws. Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand have also recently liberalized their laws to allow abortion on certain grounds.  

Some people mistakenly believe that the Philippine Constitution prohibits abortion because of the provision on equal protection of the life of the woman and the unborn from conception. On the contrary, other countries with constitutions and laws explicitly protecting the life of the unborn or life from conception allow abortion under certain exceptions such as Ireland, Slovak Republic, Poland, Kenya, Hungary, and Costa Rica.

Take this case in Peru as an example.  In the complaint of LC vs Peru filed with the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee), LC was 13 when a 34-year-old man started sexually abusing her.  

She became pregnant as a result of the rape and — in a state of depression — attempted suicide by jumping from a building, suffering spinal injuries with “a risk of permanent disability.” Despite her serious and deteriorating condition, her doctors refused to perform an operation because she was pregnant and denied her request for therapeutic abortion. LC then miscarried spontaneously.  

In 2009, CEDAW recommended Peru to provide reparation to LC, and to review its laws to establish effective access to therapeutic abortion, to include protocols to ensure health services are available and accessible in public facilities, and to decriminalize abortion when the pregnancy results from rape.

In 2006, CEDAW also recommended for the Philippines to remove its punitive provisions imposed on women who induce abortion and to provide access to quality services for the management of complications arising from unsafe abortions in order to reduce maternal mortality rates.

And in the 2014 CEDAW report on the inquiry on reproductive rights violations in the Philippines, it recommended for the Philippines to amend articles 256 to 259 of the Revised Penal Code to “legalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, threats to the life and/or health of the mother, or serious malformation of the fetus and decriminalize all other cases where women undergo abortion.” (READ: PH accountable for Manila’s reproductive rights violations )

As a state party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Philippines should repeal its laws that punish women and girls who have undergone abortions as a matter of public policy to save women’s lives. – Rappler.com

Clara “Claire” Rita Padilla is the founder and executive director of EnGendeRights, a non-governmental organization championing women’s rights. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila University and has been practicing law for over 21 years, working in the field of gender, gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression.

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