Filipino parliament votes to improve access to contraception

After more than a decade of wrangling, the Filipino parliament has moved a step closer to approving a bill that would provide free access to contraception to poor people.

By a vote of 113 for and 104 against, with three abstentions, the House of Representatives passed the bill, which as well as providing free contraception would make sex education available to children and teenagers.

The bill would also require the Department of Health to improve obstetric care. It says that for every 500 000 people there should be at least one hospital with comprehensive emergency obstetric care and four hospitals or other health facilities with basic emergency obstetric care.

Protests were held in Manila on the night of the vote, as many clergy in this staunchly Catholic country believe that the bill would lead to a spread in promiscuity and a weakening of moral values.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa, south of Manila, who sat through the six hour vote, as saying that the proceedings showed that “our legislators are not with the people … We will continue to pray, to promote life.”1

The bill, whose full name is the Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act 2011, does not legalise abortion, which it says is “punishable by law,” but states that all women needing care for complications resulting from an abortion “shall be treated and counselled in a humane, non-judgmental, and compassionate manner.”

It also says that the bill is not about reducing population growth but about the “promotion of reproductive health and sustainable human development.”

The Philippines has one of the highest birth rates in Asia, at 25 babies per 1000 people a year, World Health Organization statistics show. In Indonesia the figure is 18 per 1000 and in Japan it is eight per 1000. The Philippines also has a high maternal mortality ratio, at 162 deaths for every 100 000 live births, whereas in Japan it is five per 100 000. WHO figures show that 37% of all pregnancies every year are unintended, resulting in women having a third more children than they desire. A third are born less than two years apart.

“Let us have children by choice, not by chance,” said Edcel Lagman, the legislator who launched the bill. He was speaking after voting in the early hours of 13 December after a long debate in parliament watched by supporters and those who are against the proposed changes.

President Benigno Aquino, who acknowledged that the bill was “divisive,” said that passing it was a matter of urgency. This means that the third and final vote can take place immediately. Aquino would like the bill to be passed before Congress breaks for Christmas on 21 December.