MANILA, Philippines – Advocates of Republic Act 10354 or the Reproductive Health Law pressed yesterday for the resolution of their petitions to lift the temporary restraining order (TRO) that they said has deprived Filipino families of government-issued contraceptives.
In a forum yesterday, former presidential assistant for social development Benjamin de Leon stressed that the magistrates of the Supreme Court (SC) “are not scientists” to decide if the contraceptives that the government would provide were abortifacients.
“The Supreme Court justices are not scientists… Medical evidence do not lie to the SC,” De Leon said.
He said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should determine if the contraceptives were safe to use.
He, however, said that the government procured the contraceptives prior to the TRO on the recommendation of respected health agencies.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations have recommended that these [contraceptives] have been used by women because they were safe,” he said.
The high court issued a TRO in June last year prohibiting the Department of Health (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 FDA from granting pending applications for reproductive products, including contraceptives.
Meanwhile, Luz Chua of the Catholics for Reproductive Health Movement said with the implementation of the TRO for more than a year now, people “are being denied of practicing family planning by not giving them the contraceptives that they want.”
“If there are no RH-related supplies and services available, what is the use of the RH Law?” Chua asked.
She said the provision of contraceptives could help lower the rate of population growth in the country – currently 1.9 percent from the previous 2.1 percent – and increase the rate of contraceptive preference.
“If contraceptives preference rate is too low, unplanned, unwanted pregnancies would increase,” Chua said.
De Leon also urged Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, whom he described as RH advocates, “to remind President Duterte that there is a need for him to know this problem and decide what he should do.”
“[President Duterte] is the strongest advocate of the RH and the Magna Carta for Women since he called in his State of the Nation Address for their full implementation,” De Leon said.
Meanwhile, Buhay party-list representative and pro-life advocate Lito Atienza said the SC issued a TRO because a provision of that law has been violated according to the interpretation of the justices.
“Using contraceptives not approved by the FDA is a gross violation of the law,” Atienza stressed.
He said Implanon, the contraceptive implant that the DOH procured, could be an abortifacient.
Section 9 of the RH Law says: “The National Drug Formulary shall include hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine devices, injectables, and other safe, legal, non-abortifacient, and effective family planning products and supplies.