A year-old Supreme Court restraining order on contraceptive implants remains in place – the latest legal hurdle in the implementation of the Reproductive Health law. But the order does not cover other aspects of the law. So reproductive health advocates welcome President Duterte’s promise, made in his first State of the Nation Address, to fully implement the RH Law.
The announcement was among the points in the SONA that received hearty applause. Benigno Aquino III, during his presidency, had used his sustained popularity to get Congress to finally pass the RH law in 2012 after over a decade of thorough public debates. During much of that period, the Philippines saw pregnancies among girls aged 15 to 19 going up – the only country in the Asia-Pacific that has seen teenage pregnancies rise in the past two decades, according to the United Nations Population Fund.
RH advocates have long pointed out that reproductive health is a right that must be universally enjoyed by women. Without state assistance, however, the right is enjoyed mainly by those with the financial means and sufficient education. An estimated seven million Filipino women living below the poverty line are deprived of the right to space their childbirths and plan their family size.
This sorry situation of poor women is what President Duterte has promised to change. Full implementation of the RH Law should include the provision of sufficient funding. The administration has yet to submit its proposed national appropriation for 2017. This should include enough funds to compensate for the P1 billion that was slashed last year from the RH program – sneakily, according to several lawmakers – by two senators, one of them a self-styled pro-life champion who is now a staunch supporter of Duterte’s plan to restore capital punishment.
This time, in an administration led by a President who openly disdains hypocrites, the government can be expected to put its money where its mouth is. And a program meant to benefit millions of poor women can finally be fully implemented.