DOH urges SC: Lift TRO on contraceptives

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to lift the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued last year stopping the DOH from distributing contraceptive implants.

According to former health secretary Esperanza Cabral, the TRO may increase induced abortion and maternal deaths in the country.

“It’s frustrating. The SC held the Reproductive Health Law constitutional, but it stopped the DOH from implementing it because of the TRO,” Cabral, head of the DOH national implementation team for the RH Law, said.

The high court issued a TRO in June 2015 prohibiting the DOH from “procuring, selling, distributing, dispensing or administering, advertising and promoting the hormonal contraceptive Implanon and Implanon NXT.”

The contraceptive implant can prevent pregnancies up to three years.

The SC also stopped the Food and Drug Administration from granting pending applications for reproductive products, including contraceptives.

“Millions of women have been deprived of their rights to access RH services and determine for themselves whether they want to use artificial methods of contraception,” Cabral said.

“If the SC will not lift the TRO, induced abortion and maternal deaths will increase because women don’t have access to contraceptives,” she added.

Outgoing Health Secretary Janette Garin said some local government officials have slowed down in implementing the RH law following the issuance of the TRO.

Garin said the government’s supply of contraceptives would last only until 2017.