CHR looking into mandatory pregnancy test at Baguio college

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights launched an investigation into the policy of an educational institution in Baguio City mandating female students to undergo pregnancy tests.

In a statement, CHR expressed alarm on the now-viral memorandum of the Pines City Colleges, which stated that all female students of the colleges of Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy must be tested for pregnancy.

If they are found to be pregnant, the female students would not be allowed to enroll in Clinical Dentistry or any subject that would “endanger both mother and children.”

CHR stressed that dismissal on the basis of pregnancy is clearly prohibited under the Magna Carta of Women.

Section 13 of the law states that “no school shall turn out or refuse admission to a female student solely on the account of her having contracted pregnancy outside of marriage during her term in school.”

“Women and girls should not be denied exercise and full enjoyment of basic rights, they should not suffer negative consequences in educational and work spaces, simply because they are pregnant,” CHR said.

Akbayan party-list, for its part, called the policy of Pines City Colleges a “witch-hunt” against women who get pregnant.

Women’s party-list Gabriela earlier called out the school and said that its policy perpetuates a “stigma that pregnancy is socially unacceptable.”

‘Policy protective of students’

Despite the barrage of criticisms, Pines City Colleges defended its policy on mandatory pregnancy tests.

“Pines City Colleges abides by its policy of pregnancy tests for female students who are enrolling in any subject that would endanger both mother and child. It is a policy agreed to by our students upon their enrolment in this institution,” the school said in a statement.

It, moreover, said the policy—deemed “discriminatory” to female students—is “protective of our students while they are in our care and are deployed to internship programs in hospitals and to clinical practice.”